My printer just ruined 60 business cards. I am making my annoyed face.

HotD:

Wasted little trees.
What am I to do with these?
Someone tell me please.

I'm going down to visit Prana in California at the end of August while her husband is out of town on business. Stop humming inappropriate theme music, it's not that kind of visit.

I'm so freaking excited. We plan on doing all sorts of silly girlfriend hanging out type stuff, like visit strip clubs and try and find alien crash sites in the desert.

My worry is not spending a week or so with Prana, oh no, not that. It's the flight down there. As much as I love traveling, flying always makes me a little nervous. It's the whole knowing only a thin sheet of metal is between you and certain death thing.

I'm hoping I can pick up a new client in between then and now to get up some extra money to take with me. Anyone want a layout for their blog done? I'm extremely reasonable and I'll only stalk you a little bit.

HotD:

Want a postycard?
Give me your address, okay?
I won't stalk, promise.

9 bucks left until we hit $300 in the Blogathon!! Our goal is $1500, but I would love to hit $300. So, if you can please donate even a dollar to help us reach our goal.

The uneven number is driving us bonkers. Thanks.

I've decided that the whole Jury Duty thing is a scam. Possibly to lure me to the court house to arrest me or detain me for something that I solemnly swear I didn't do. There were no witnesses, I made sure of tha...wait, why is it a scam you ask? Because it's been nothing but wonky since the beginning.

Usually you don't get a summons notice in the mail until 30 or more days before the date they need you (at least here anyway, my last one I got in March for a date in May, the one before I got it in the middle of September for November). This time I received it two weeks and two days before the date saying I needed to show up.

This (if you're someone like me...read: lazy) gives you very little time to defer it if you want. Which is what I did. Now don't go all I'm unamerican-it's-your-duty-as-a-citizen
I-can't-be-with-someone-who-won't-go-to-jury-duty on me (wait, that was a 7th Heaven episode, sorry), I absolutely can not serve. Just doesn't work for me. Owning your own business = owner away on jury duty all clients leave and owner goes bankrupt and ends up homeless. See? Now unless the State of Oregon wishes to pay my rent and placate all my clients while they make me treck downtown for who knows how long, then they're just going to have to leave Juror No. 218 alone.

Anyway, so I get it with a tad over two weeks notice, I defer it, I have someone stick it in the mailbox for me. Yes, that was my mistake. It didn't get put in the mailbox until yesterday (that really is what I get, you know. Damn you laziness!) and it didn't even get put in the mailbox. My mailboxes are like any other complexes. A fantastic line of tiny silver boxes all stacked in a row. At the top of each stack of boxes is a slot reading 'Outgoing Mail'.

On every one but mine on the top of my stack o' boxes it reads 'Do Not Put Mail Here'. Guess which box the return card got put in? C'mon...guess.

Yeah. That's right. So now my return card is sitting in the 'Do Not Put Mail Here, Moron' box, and can't be removed until the mailman comes today with the key to unlock it, because they don't keep that key on the premises. I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy to not only have me serve (or at least have me arrested via bench warrant) but teach me to never again ask someone to mail something for me.

So, if the card doesn't get there in time, they won't have time to process it, and my deferment will be denied. Then my only hope is to show up and hope they let me go after the first day. Or, you know, pay my bills for me.

I'm hot, it's made me cranky. I'll try not to be cranky in my post though.

Updates....updates,

Laura is doing fine, she's probably going to be home today or tomorrow. Hopefully today, because I know she's sick of the hospital.

Lane is fine, she hasn't fainted since Tuesday but she came pretty close yesterday walking through the ICU. Hospitals really overwhelm her. When we were sitting in the ICU/CCU waiting room someone went by pushing a person on a gurney, and Lane looked like she'd been smacked. Poor Lanie. She's sleeping right now. She crashed at my house last night.

I'm alive. I've had a bunch of stuff going on lately and it's frazzled me. The heat has got it so sleep is pretty much non-existent. I'm tired. Normally when I'm tired I'm goofy, but combined with the fact that my house gets up to about 120-10,000 degrees in the afternoon makes me all sorts of just blah. I am, as they say, no fun at all.

Oh well, I probably wasn't very much fun to begin with anyway.

HotD:

Today is Thursday.
How did it get to be so?
It was just Monday.

So my 100,000+ degree Tuesday started off with a bang. Since my cell phone is currently incommunicado (Sprint loves to turn me off when I go over my 300 daytime minutes, I think it's a hint that I talk too much), I was greeted about 7:45 with a knock on my door. Now, I was expecting a knock because the clients tower (nicknamed "The Surgenator", for killing not one but TWO of my surge protectors yesterday. No, I did not charge my clients for it, because it didn't even cross my mind to until I started writing this post) was supposed to be picked up and taken back to their business before they opened at 10. So I was waiting around for The Surgenator to get it's ugly grey self out of my dining room, so it didn't surprise me when someone knocked at my door, what did surprise me was the reason why they were knocking.

So it's Robin, and she tells me Laura was just taken away in an ambulance to the hospital, they think she's had a heart attack. So, I am all kinds of worried, rush around and find my shoes (I can never find them when I need them) and it's off to the hospital. During off of this, I load up The Surgenator in the car and drag him along with me. I figure eventually I can get to the shop before 10 and make sure they get it back on time.

When you rush out the door at 8 in the morning, you hit 8 in the morning traffic. Which really isn't something you want to deal with when someone you love has been whisked away because of a potentially fatal reason. So we're sitting in traffic, and I'm counting all the cars that are swapping lanes and turning corners without using their turn signals, and wishing I was a cop so I could ticket them all. I think I should make a cop uniform, and make fake tickets, and ticket them anyhow. Of course, then I'd go to jail, but it would be fun for a while.

So we make it to the hospital, and eventually we find the desk you're supposed to be at (four floors, two elevators and a skywalk later) and try and locate Ms. Laura. She's in ER, they tell us. So we walk outside and around the hospital (there is no inside through way to the ER, which is odd to me) and get to the ER, and the very nice lady tells us she's been taken into surgery (.....) and will be admitted to the ICU later, but we can go up to ICU and ask them if they know when.

In defense of her, she was a very nice lady, which was shocking. The hospital here is terrible, last time I was in the ER I was asked, by a doctor mind you, while I was in horrific pain and vomiting all over their waiting room, what did I want them to do about it? You'd be proud of me though, my answer was "I don't know, weren't you the one who went to medical school?". As good as it felt to be crappy, I paid for it, they collapsed two of my veins later.

So we go up to the ICU (three floors up. Have I ever told you, my dear figments, that I hate elevators with a passion that is unparalleled? Work of the devil, they are) and give them a call from the waiting area, and they tell us it could be anywhere from 30 minutes to three hours.

So, we call them back and leave our number, because we have to go home and let people know what's going on.

So we get home, make phone calls, take my sister to a job interview, I eventually get The Surgenator back to it's owners (who can keep him) and was only a little over 30 minutes late, pick up people, go back to the hospital and we're told that we can go up and visit Laura.

So we head up. Robin, Darthee (my great aunt), Lanie (my sister) and I, and we go in and see her. She's doing fine, they did an angioplasty and she should be able to come home within the next two days.

We're standing there talking to Laura and her nurse, and Lane is standing next to me, and all of a sudden Lane topples over on me, and shoves me almost into Robin, and I turn to see if she's ok, and she's fainted! So I grab on to her, and ask her if she's ok and her eyes are rolling back into her head and she's white as a piece of paper and she's toppling over on to the floor and we get her into a chair, and she looks like she's about ready to yuke so I ask her if she wants to go outside.

So I take her out (and talk a nurse into getting her a glass of water) and we sit there for about ten minutes and finally she looks over at me and goes "How'd we get out here?". Yeah. So I go and explain to her that she decided to faint, and she turns bright red, the poor thing, and feels mortified about it. Fainting in public is bad enough, but fainting in a hospital has to be awful. At least there is people there who can help, I guess.

So now, I'm home. Lane is fine, she had a second job interview (She got a 'we'll call you' which can mean anything. I hope she got it, it's in a retirement home), Laura is doing fine she was taking a nap last time we checked, and I'm pooped. I hate hospitals, they're so draining. I always feel so sad and awkwardly guilty when I'm in them.

I'm sitting on my butt playing at Pogo.com and not doing anything. I didn't get home until almost 3, and I don't know what to do with myself. I feel all off center now. I didn't cry though, not once. Aren't you proud of me?

HotD:

Juicy fruity yum.
Peach iced tea you are a god,
With a little "g".

I got sentenced summoned for Jury Duty yesterday. I really can't fathom why in the world the Circuit Court of the State of Oregon wants me to serve so very badly. They've sentenced summoned me every year for the past five years, however, I've never once actually served as a juror. You'd think that would give them a clue to stop sending me those postage paid postcards in the mail?

Personally, I'm torn with the whole Jury Duty thing. On one had, it would be fun to be able to say, "Hey yeah, I was on such-and-such trial. You know the one about the guy who sued the other guy because a branch fell over his side of the fence?". I mean man, can you just feel the excitement in the air during that conversation? It's enough to make a girl wet herself.

On the other hand, a more serious one, I am not a judgmental person, and I honestly do not believe that I have the right to sit in some little box and pass judgment on someone else. I am just highly uncomfortable with the whole process. I don't want to do someone I don't even know wrong, and I don't want to make a choice that will have people angry - even though I know in this situation you can't please everyone, it just doesn't work.

Oh well, I guess I'll send the card in and then wear a tin foil hat and quote scripture during the Voir Dire, that'll get me out of it.

I've had company for the last four days (hence no posting!), and it's nice to finally have my apartment to myself again, even though company is always fun. I enjoy having friends and hanging out, but I refuse to give up living alone over my dead, bloated and puss-oozing body. I need my own space too badly to share it, I guess I'm just selfish like that.

Now that everything is back to normal I've got tons of work that piled up, including a clients tower that is sitting in my dining room needing to be looked at. I, however, think I may be really naughty and put it off in favor of a bottle of peach iced tea (brewed by yours truly, with brown sugar instead of normal sugar because I like it that way better, it's...mellower?) and Black House, which I finally got my sticky little hands on (I'm slow when it comes to books lately) but haven't read yet. My house is very nice and cool compared to outside, and reading on my couch instead of working is very, very tempting.

I also need to clean out my refrigerator. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that one is being bumped to the very bottom of the list. Over, and over...and over. I hate cleaning out the fridge, I'm always afraid something I've neglected for months has grown sentient and is plotting against me in the deep, dark depths of the crisper.


Still time to donate for the Blogathon. C'mon. A buck, it's all I ask. We've got $1214 left to hit our goal, and I can't do it without you, you cute little 'umpkin you.

HotD:

Serene quietness.
I love having my own place,
Even fridge duty.

Thanks for everyone who contacted me about my bleed-happy nose. I really, really appreciate all the suggestions and nice comments. I haven't had any problems with it since my last post (thank goodness) it's just dry, I might try the Vaseline thing, although it does seem a little weird sticking stuff up my nose.

A Blogathon update! We're up to $276.00! WOW! Thanks SO MUCH to everyone who sponsored! Our goal is $1500. It sounds like a lot but it's totally possible, so if you can sponsor, even a dollar or two, it would totally help! Thanks a gabajillion, as a three-year-old I know says.

Since I'm all for trying one new thing everyday, I decided to be cautiously adventurous and bought pomegranate juice at the store. For five bucks a bottle. It was a very spendy adventure, and I now won't be able to retire. I don't mind pomegranates, and I don't mind grenadine (pomegranate juice syrup usually sweetened with sugar or honey or with currant juice. I think I'm going to name my first imaginary child Grenedine) but I've never had just promagrante juice straight. Yipes. Talk about a bitter aftertaste. It's like eating a pound of straight pomegranate seeds at once. Yummy! I have a bottle of plain and a bottle of pomegranate-blueberry. Anyone want some? I'm all about the sharesies!

A question: If you hit someone with a bag full of pomegranates, does it work like beating them with a sack of oranges?

HotD:

Let's dance you're a star!
Step, step, one two, DDR!
I'm better then you are.

I'm having issues with my nose. No, not the it's huge and I need to have it done type of problems. I do not have a big nose. My nose is dainty! average and I like it. No it's not because I'm picking it (or letting my friends pick it, for that matter. I don't love my friends that much), so don't even get into that. It's just plain disgusting. I prefer my protein from children and small, rare woodland animals.

I've had four bloody noses in the last two days. To my knowledge I have not bumped my nose into anything. I would hope, even if I'm growing old, that I'd remember if I walked into a wall or slammed it into a headboard. No, I have not done anything that would get my head slammed in a headboard either. Really, you people and your filthy minds.

I don't recall angering anyone in a bar/alley/subway/church to the point that they popped me one, and I certainly don't think I've shoved anything up there like a raisin or a marble (or a hot pepper seed, which I did once when I was four, and don't ever want to do again, thankyouverymuch) so what's the problem?

I woke up once the other night with blood everywhere. I thought for a moment that I'd gone and murdered someone without my knowledge and did a poor job of cleaning up the mess. Then twice yesterday I just spontaneously spewed blood everywhere. It's a perfectly good way to ruin a sandwich, let me tell you. I was lucky I was not in public...although I wouldn't say no to some cute EMT guys coming to my rescue. Then once this morning when I was, of all things, brushing my teeth and did whap my nose a little.

Is it stress? The heat? An alien? Have I contracted a rare nose disease? Am I going to have to have it coterized? I won't get it done! I'll bleed to death first! They don't freaking numb you for that crap! Is my nose going to fall off? I'm going to look right stupid with no nose on my face. I need my nose, it's good for things, like smelling. I like smelling. I'm good at it. I don't want it to go away.

Help me.

I was trying to open a package of Louis Rich Carving Board Grilled Chicken from hell and it was being insanely stubborn. I couldn't get it past the seal under the zip that reseals the package, and as I finally got frustrated and reached for a knife, the package came flying open and I punched myself in the jaw.

Yeah yeah, yuck it up chuckles.

What's even worse, is this isn't the first time I've whapped myself in the face, nor is it the first time I've posted about it. I really am pathetic, aren't I?

Because of this, I think not only should you kiss it and make it better, you should also sponsor me in the Blogathon. That'll make me feel better! Also, what is suitable torture for a package of chicken that hits you while you're trying to get at it's sweet chickeny goodness? Stew? Stir-fry? Salad?

We're all signed up for the Blogathon. If you'd like to sponsor us (please, even a dollar or two, if you can. Payments are sent directly to the charity and do not have to be sent until after August 6th) then follow these simple steps!

1) Go to the register page located here: http://www.blogathon.org/blogathon.php?Register

2) Sign yourself up for an account and sign in!

3) Go here: http://www.blogathon.org/blogathon.php?Campaign&id=56 scroll down to the bottom where the pledge box is, enter the amount you're pledging and smack the button.

Tada! You're done! See, it was simple to get yourself a little good karma for the day wasn't it? It also makes you eligible for swanky sponsor gifts, you'll get some exposure (great for businesses!) on our `Thon site, and love forever from yours truly. Now what more could you want then that?

Don't forget! August 6th starting at 6 AM over at Blessed Blogger we will be blogging for 24 hours for Doernbecher's Childrens Hospital Fund. Be there, or I'll cry.

I added Radio.Blog to IBOM. You can find it on the sidebar underneath Tropical Tunes. If you've never seen Radio.Blog before, it's pretty swanky. It's a jukebox type program that lets you stream music on your site. It's spiffy, and it's an EXTREMELY easy install, all you do is upload the files, convert MP3s to rbs files (takes about 30 seconds an mp3, give or take), tweak the skin to look like you want, and call it to your website. It's gravy, yo.

What's in there right now? Mostly J-Pop and Anime tunes in honor of the upcoming Blogathon, and a few fun songs that I just really like that aren't Anime or J-Pop related. Give it a whirl, don't call the RIAA on me, and lemme know what you think, yeah?

My only suggestion: "zap" the songs before listening to them to pre-load them so it doesn't pop if you close the browser or whatever. Also, you can 'Pop-up' a player and take it along with you if you want to close my blog...but you don't want to close my blog do you? Right? Do you? Hey...where are you going? Geesh.

Blogathon sign ups are up! As soon as our blog is all signed up for the `Thon I will pass along information to you, I very much hope that you can sponsor us! Even if it is just a few dollars, every dollar helps.

Again, for those of you who don't know, I will be blogging along with a group of people for Doernbechers Children's Hospital in honor of a six-year-old little girl in a class I teach that passed away. Doernbechers covered her hospital bills for, from what I understand, the entire length of her illness, which was her entire life. Because of this, and to honor her, we are trying to raise money to assist Doernbechers in helping cover the medical costs of other families who can't afford it, but have ill, or even terminally ill children.

I will be doing 24 hours of Anime. I will be watching the first five episodes of 11 different series picked pretty much at random (save Bleach), and giving reviews of them. Also, my secret guest posters will give their thoughts as well. I will be holding a raffle to give away eight prizes, giving away random secret prizes, I will be giving away J-pop and OP/EN songs of animes throughout the `Thon, I will also be giving away backgrounds, website sets, and other goodies. I'm not the only one though, my fellow group-bloggers will also be giving away prizes based on their themes (art and science) and we will be running a Live365 radio station throughout the night for your listening pleasure. It'll be a night chock full of fun, sleep-deprived goodness.

Until we are all signed up (which should be within the hour) I'm posting my Official Geeky Anime List and Watching Schedule (so official it's underlined!), are you not thrilled? If you, my dear figments, would like to watch it with me, every series is available through AnimeSuki for Bit Torrent downloading. Also, if you're interested in doing a couple guest reviews of an anime you've watched with me, I'm so totally up for that!

Like last year, animes will be reviewed by episode and then by series and given a rating of Duckies, five Duckies being the best. All anime series will be episodes 1 - 5. All posts for the Blogathon will be posted at the group `Thon site here.

Official Geeky Anime Watching Schedule:

Hours 1 & 2 (6:00 AM PST Â? 8:00 AM PST)
Victorian Romance Emma


Hours 3 & 4 (8:00 AM PST Â? 10:00 AM PST)
Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~


Hours 5 & 6 (10:00 AM PST - 12:00 PM PST)
Cooking Master Boy


Hours 7 & 8 (12:00 PM PST - 2:00 PM PST)
Ichigo 100%


Hours 9 & 10 (2:00 PM PST - 4:00 PM PST)
Bleach


Hours 11 & 12 (4:00 PM PST - 6:00 PM PST)
Zettai Shonen


Hours 13 & 14 (6:00 PM PST - 8:00 PM PST)
Eye Shield 21


Hours 15 & 16 (8:00 PM PST - 10:00 PM PST)
Touch


Hours 17 & 18 (10:00 PM PST - 12:00 PM PST)
Gin'yu Mokushiroku Meine Liebe


Hours 19 & 20 (12:00 PM PST - 2:00 AM PST)
Hachimitsu to Clover


Hours 21 & 22 (2:00 AM PST - 4:00 AM PST)
Tsubasa Chronicle


Hours 23 & 24 (4:00 AM PST - 6:00 AM PST)
Beet the Vandel Buster


Holy crapoly. I'm going to be so sick of anime by the time this is done. That's ok though, hopefully certain people (who know who they are) will be coming to keep me awake (and play some DDR! Woo!) and hopefully some other people (who know who they are) will be downloading anime and watching it with me.

Sounds good? Good! Now keep your eyes peeled for the sponsor link, and please please sponsor me, so I don't melt my eyeballs out of my head for nothing.

HotD:

Summer Sunshiney.
Why does it always feel like,
It goes by so fast?

One Word time.

Today's Word: Own

He stared at the dingy brown plaid fabric covering the seat in front of him, and shifted his weight trying to find a more comfortable position in the cramped little airplane seat. He glanced down at his watch, trying to see the time through the cobwebbed broken glass of the face. They had been in the air over the ocean for nearly two hours now. He was just beginning to relax the tense, sore muscles in his shoulders and neck. Stretching them was like pulling out needles that had been long since lodged in tissue and let to fester. It hurt, but it felt oddly good too, confirmation of still being alive. The muscles he could relax, but he still couldn't shake the habit of glancing around the plane and mentally marking the other passengers positions. He was on his own; he knew that, it was just so hard to break yourself of compulsive little habits that give you a small measure of order formed in such chaos.

If I hadn't written it, I wouldn't think it was that possible to write that much in a minute. Oddly enough, a very fun little story is beginning to develop from these words. I want to avoid the habit of writing my words off a plot though, because that forces me to conform the word into what I want, rather then writing whatever comes to mind from the word. If it stays being this easy then I'll keep with the poor man in the coat, but if it doesn't, then...I won't. Yeah.

As always, give it a shot, and leave me a comment.

So, yesterday a certain friend who loves it when I don't get any work done gave me a copy of the new Harry Potter book. What did I do? I read it all in one sitting, that's what. It took me a little over three hours or so to finish it. It was hot, so it wasn't like I was going to do anything else anyway.

I won't give any spoilers for those of you who haven't read it, or are still reading it now. It was good though. I made a lot of giggling noises, and angry noises. That wasn't really a spoiler, was it? Nah.

Before I started reading, however, I had a YCC to teach. One of my former YCC kids were there, with the Harry Potter book, so I gave him a wide birth. He's totally the type who would spoil it for me with a big grin on his face, and then I'd have to beat him up, and what kind of behavior for a teacher is that?

The date for the 2nd Annual Camp-At-HOME has been set. It will be August 13th & 14th. From the looks of it I may have more children then I did last year, which should be pretty fun. It's basically a tiny mini sleep-away camp that I did last year that was a big hit. The first official YCC weekend o' summer I had requests for a repeat, I wasn't sure if I was going to, but I finally decided to go ahead and do it. I might set a limit of 20 children, and more only if I get volunteers. Anyone interested in camping out with a bunch of kids? What? Whadda mean no? Some figments you are.

HotD:

Noise pollution, yo.
Your car is not a bubble,
Turn your music down.

One Word time!

Today's Word: Hush

He sat stiff and uncomfortable, bunched down in his seat, drumming his fingers aimlessly against the worn, stained armrest. Earlier, in hushed and hurried tones, he had managed to convince the elderly woman next to him to give him the isle seat. She had agreed, and smiled uneasily and turned away to her carry-on bag embarassed when he thanked her, near something like tears. He felt more comfortable knowing he had a way of moving away quickly if necessary, even if it was a false feeling; he knew there wasn't anywhere to hide on the plane.

For Prana, who wanted to know a little more about the man in the coat.

If you One Word, give me a trackback or comment, yeah?

If you're a "writer" like me, or even a real writer who isn't pathetic and sad, then I'm sure (like me) you enjoy finding and trying new writing tools. I know I do. Anything at all that can possibly help me be less sucky and more organized - even if I know it's not possible at all - is good in my book.

I'm on the hunt for anything that will help me better organize my little plots into something coherent and less scary. Especially since (yeah, here it comes) NaNoWriMo starts in just a few months. You can never be too organized for that thing. I've tried the flying from the seat of your panties approach, and it just doesn't work for me.

So yesterday I downloaded the trial of Writer's Cafe, software that has all sorts of neat tools in it. Like plot cards that you can drag and drop along plot lines to help you organize your story, and a notebook, and a journal, and a visual story plotter, oh, and games. Games are good. I heart things that distract me from actually writing help me get inspired. One of the little 'games' they have is magnetic poetry, which of course, I spent hours doing.



Ah, the joys of being easily entertained.

They also have writing prompts, and a whole buch of other stuff. I encourage you to download the free trial and give it a go. It's pretty basic, and way easy to use, and I like it so far. It has lots more bells and whistles then Vault, the program I normally use does. All in all, it has the potential of being a highly useful tool, it is fun, and distracting. A win-win!

HotD:

I am not a sheep.
Harry Potter is good reads,
I can't help it, yo.

One Word time, boys and girls!

Today's Word: Current

The man in the long coat was sweating like a pig. He had not bathed in days and he was sure he smelled. He tried his best to keep arms-length distance between him and the others waiting in line for the terminal. He was exhausted, tired from endless hours of hiding in molding hotel rooms and peeking out curtains at every noise. He let out a stale, shaking breath he didn't realize he was holding and tried to suppress the panic in his chest. His turn was up next; would the man at the counter notice the fake? He had been repeatedly assured that the passport was of high quality and completely current, but he still anguished over it. He didn't want to be caught, not now, not when he was so close to vanishing across country borders without a trace.

If you One Word, leave me a comment or a trackback so I can read yours!

Happy Birthday to Robert, my fantastic and disgustingly talented step-father. He and Robin will be over later this evening for dinner, and so his presents are sitting all neatly wrapped up on my living room table. Saves me from lugging them over to their house.



I'd tell you what they are, but I don't know if he reads this or not and I don't want to ruin the surprise. It's possible he reads this, sometimes people I didn't even think knew I had a blog tell me they read it. Or people come up to me on campus and tell me they liked a post. Amazing isn't it? People actually read this junk. Now, if they'd just leave comments.

As the years go by, I find myself becoming more and more capable of buying him presents. Like most men, he's horrifically difficult to buy good presents for. I got some good ones this year though, I am sure to win!

No, there really isn't a lemon in the 'this gift is not a lemon' bag, I swear. I wouldn't do something that corny. Besides, I bought the lemon too early and it molded, so I had to throw it out.

Anyway, a big Happy Birthday to Robert, regardless of if he reads IBOM or not. Love ya!

HotD:

Yay! The Weekend! YAY!
There is so much work to do.
But laziness calls.

One Word is a quicky writing exercise where you have sixty seconds to write something about the single word that is given to you. The word changes daily. I decided to start posting my blurbs to my blog (after all, isn't that what my blog is for? Violating the expanses of the internet with my dribble?) and I encourage you to One Word along with me, it's a ton of fun. Plus, it's good practice to get in the writing groove for NaNoWriMo. Yes, I had to throw that in there.

Today's Word: Unfold

He stat, completely focused on the mound of earth in front of him, oblivious to the frantic rushing bodies and drifting voices in the room around him. It was just him and the muse of the clay, whispering its shape with quiet urgency. Sculpting with nimble fingers, he pushed, pulled, and smoothed the pungent sulfur-smelling argil until, finally, a small, delicate pot unfolded in his hands.

Trackback or leave a comment if you do this as well, I'd love to see what you write!

HotD:

Art is so awesome.
Paying out the nose for art,
Maybe not so much.

Well Figments, it's that time again. Summer means Blogathon, and once again I will be participating in the 24-hour hate-your-computer-until-your-eyes-bleed posting extravaganza.

For those of you unaware, the Blogathon is an on-line charity event where people post one blog post per 30 minutes for 24 hours and raise money through sponsors for their chosen charity. Over the last few years we've had thousands of participants and raised thousands of dollars for charities across the US and the world.

This Blogathon will be (including Project Blog last year in lieu of the Blogathon which was on hiatus) my fourth, if you can believe it. I am a sucker for punishment, aren't I? This years Blogathon will take place on August 6th starting at 6 AM. God isn't even up that early, but you do what you have ta to help out others, right?

I will be blogging for Doernbecher Children's Hospital at Oregon Health and Sciences University in honor of Melissa, the six-year-old in my YCC who passed away. Doernbecher is where she was treated, and they took care of all her hospital bills while she was in and out for most of her short life. I feel like this is a way I can give to honor her, and to help out an amazing service to sick children.

I will be blogging with two other people: Prana of Blessed Blogger, and Sean of Chemical Shift. They will both be blogging for the same cause as I am. We will be blogging right here, and this totally cute site designed by Prana for the event. Bookmark it! Don't worry though, I'll post a link to the blog the day of the event, if you want to stop by and say howdy, or point and laugh, which ever makes you happy.

We've got some pretty wicked fun stuff planned for this year. Each of us are doing a theme and giving away prizes based on those themes. I am, once again, doing 24 hours of Anime. I am a total geek, what can I say?

I will be watching the first five episodes of 11 different series picked at random (thanks to Anime-Suki) for a total of 55 episodes, and then posting reviews of them. I will also have guest reviewers, tons of prizes (including anime themed prizes, backgrounds, wallpapers, and layouts), a free music download every 30 minutes (shhh, don't snitch me to the RIAA), and maybe even a live webcast of a Dance Dance Revolution Tourney with bets and prizes on who wins. If I can get the poor suckers keeping me company to do it.

I will be posting my watching schedule this week, so if you want to watch along with me, and maybe even do a guest review, you are more then welcome!

Sign-ups for sponsors are not available yet (technical difficulties have really pushed things to the edge this year. Hopefully it all works out and we don't have to back out) but they will be soon, and I really want sponsors, so even if you can sponsor a buck, or five, or ten, it would be greatly appreciated. I will be posting sponsor information as soon as I have it. Which should be within the next five days. I will be posting the group blog information as well as what anime I'm watching and what prizes I'm giving away before the weekend is over.

Please, please please give heavy consideration to sponsoring us. All it takes is a few dollars to support a program that does wonders for sick children, especially for those sick children who's families can't support their extreme health care needs. Help me make this memorial to Melissa an unforgettable one. I promise you, you won't regret it.

Failing that: if you don't sponsor me, Baby Jesus will cry, and you don't want that to happen, do you?

HotD:

Mmm. Pineapple-y.
I don't know why this is good.
Soda? Who'd have thunk.

Figments! Did you miss me? I missed you! I have lots and lots to post about, so it's time to get started. How was your weekend, first of all. Yes, I know it's Wednesday, but we can pretend like it's Monday can't we? Did you all behave yourselves while I was gone?

Sadly, I have some rather disturbing news. I came home late Sunday evening to find that my house had been broken into. I was completely devastated. It was broken into and the vandals that did it left these all over my house:



Can you believe it? Someone broke into my home and left those frogs strung out all over. I even found one on my kitchen floor! I laughed so hard, it was probably one of the coolest surprises to come home to ever. I would have jumped up and down but I was so completely beat from not getting any sleep over the weekend.

The retreat was awesome, we made it to the cabin about 4:30 after stopping for lunch and dealing with traffic. It's so pretty up there.



Ignore Cory the picture. I'm sure he doesn't mind if I post his backside all over the internet. Terra and I shared a room, which was the biggest one with a private balcony that we utilized in our conversation that lasted until 6:30 AM on Saturday morning.



As you can see, Terra was super stoked about it. I thought it was great. We had the best room in the cabin in my opinion. I also think all the guys should have slept outside, but I wasn't going to be that mean.

We got quite a bit done, except for sleeping that is. I think I had about five hours of sleep total total from Wednesday until Sunday. I came home Sunday night and crashed on my couch. I fell asleep about six and didn't wake up until eight the next morning. I thought at first I had been kidnapped because I couldn't figure out where I was...but now that I think about it, that's no different then normal.

I had a really good time, and not only did we get a lot of PTK work done, we got a bunch of bonding done (bonding is important, unless you're bonding your fingers together, that's bad) and I felt like I got a break from a lot of the stuff that's frazzling my mind lately, which I needed.

It's always good to be home, though. I missed my apartment, vandals and all.

HotD:

I got a new grill!
Brown char lines on all food now.
Because I can, yo.


Technically, they didn't break in because they have a key, but it's not nearly as fun saying that.

Alright dear figments, I'm off. I shall be back on Monday to post all about my little trip to the mountains. Excited? Why yes, yes I am. Although, I've been put in charge of car games, and that's not likely to turn out well at all.

Remember - if you want a postcard, you have to E-mail me your address, so I "know where you live".

Have a great weekend!

Hotd:

Weatherman Pleadings:
I am going away now.
Please don't make it rain.

More Mommy fun!

Skyte's Mommy: Did you ask The grandmothership if you could use her vacuum??
Skyte: No, you want to ask her for me, because you looooove me
Skyte's Mommy: lol
Skyte's Mommy: when do I tell her she will get it back??
Skyte: After she pays the ransom of course. I want $50000000000000000000 in unmarked bills.
Skyte's Mommy: she would just go get a new one
Skyte's Mommy: and stop talking to you
Skyte: Then the vacuum gets it!
Skyte's Mommy: I am sure it will suck it up
Skyte: lol
Skyte's Mommy: lol
Skyte: That was bad, shame on you

If you've ever wondered where I got my extremely warped and messed up personality, here it is. A conversation between me and my Mom, over IMs:

Skyte's Mommy: What ya doing??
Skyte: Um, stalking you
Skyte's Mommy: Cool what am I doing
Skyte: Talking to me, picking your nose, which by the way is seriously rude.
Skyte's Mommy: But it is yummy
Skyte: You are really disgusting. I want a new mommy.

Applications are now being accepted for the position of Skyte's Mommy. Deadline is August 30th. I like cookies, being read to, and people who will do my homework for me. I don't like peas or being abandoned in shopping malls. That just hurts my feelings.

So tomorrow at noon (exactly, according to the itinerary. Apparently if I'm late they'll leave without me. Where's the love?) I shall be heading off into the wild blue yonder in a Chemeketa van which smells faintly of cheese and peat moss, thanks to the forestry students. I shall be trekking off into the wild unknowns of Mt. Hood with my fellow Kappans for a three-ish day executive board retreat in which many a illicit acts that cannot be repeated intense coffee-laden planning sessions will occur. It'll be tea for me, but that's not really relevant and messes up the flow of my post.

I am really excited.

If you just happen to be a mass serial killer that enjoys reaping your carnage on smart nerds (and one pseudo-smart geek, which would be me) in the middle of the forest while they sleep like little bookworm angels in a cabin, then we will be staying here. If it's not too much trouble, can you come kill us on Saturday night? I want to make sure to get some planning done before I bleed to death all over the coverlets.

It'll be really nice. I haven't been up to the mountain in a really long time, and forests are always good for refurbishing my shredded graymatter into something almost functioning. Of course, there is always the chance of Mt. Hood (which is a volcano, for those of you who don't live here in the Ring o' Fire) going kablooey and covering us all in really, really hot melted rock. That wouldn't be fun as, oh, say a truck full of really cute male exotic dancers breaking down and needing a place to stay for the night. Crispy burnt up Jamie = worst vacation ever. Cold, sad, lonely, exotic male dancers stranded in the forest = tolerable vacation surprise.

I will be huffing along the digital camera so I can get lots of shots of people doing lots of things people really shouldn't be doing in public. Dance Dance Revolution is already packed. Trust me, those are the first pictures being posted when I get back. It should be fun. I will also be buying post cards, so those of you who join me in my overzealous and slightly unstable obsession with them can have one. Yes, I mean you.

Just E-mail me your address (me(spamissomean)@brighterskyte(meansoisspam).com) and I'll send you one. No worries if you don't get me your address by Sunday (the day I go home) I'll buy a few extras so anyone who gets me their address late can have one.

Oh, don't worry your pretty little head, I won't use your address for the power of darkness, I'm already stalking you. Isn't that enough?

Happy Anniversary to Robert and Robin!

No, I'm not dead. Yes, I'll start posting more. No, that wasn't me on the news. I've never done anything like that in my life...you can't prove a thing.

Hotd:

Haiku of the day.
Oh, you are so cruel to me,
With your thinking stuff.