Tvindy

X10 Saves the Day

I don't hear much once I'm in bed. That's intentional as I happen to live in a loud neighborhood. I always pop in my earplugs in switch on the air conditioner in the window right next to my bed. That drowns out about 90% of the noise. The remaining 10% can still be significant, though. Loud enough noises can make it through.

Last night there were at least two huge thuds. I actually felt them much more than I heard them. Whenever something like that happens, I grab the X10 remote control next to my bed which I use to control the lights. Just in case there is a prowler, I like to let them know I'm on to them. Since both the front and back lights are always on after dark, I first hit the "Lights Off" button to switch them off, and then I hit the "All Lights on" button to turn all the controlled lights in and outside my house on. That's what I did last night. Then, when I heard no more sounds, I concluded that someone must have set some firecrackers off in the street below and went back to sleep.

This afternoon as I went out the front door to get the mail, I saw that someone had actually broken a pane of glass in the door right next to the doorknob. They could easily have reached in and undone the deadbolt. They must have hit it with incredible force for me to be able to feel it upstairs in my room on the other side of the house. (Some of the frame is also cracked.) But I guess I must have surprised them with the lights. I doubt they'll be back any time soon.

The funny thing is that I've had the house since 1999, and it was vacant for the five months that I was away at school in Oregon. This is the first time anything remotely like this has happened (unless you count the time thieves stole the battery right out of my car one night while it was parked in the driveway). There is also a mad arsonist running around the neighborhood setting fire to homes. It's great to be back in Muncie.

(If you found this interesting, be sure to check out this entry by Essay, who experienced something very similar last January.)

Weebles

Here are my weebles. But wait! One of these little people is not a weeble. Which one and why not? (Sorry, no prize this time.)

Name That Blog

It's time to play Name That Blog. Below you will see author pics from various blogs of my readers. See if you can be the first to match each pic to the correct blog. Use the comments section to list them in order. The winner gets to submit a picture that I will put up on the main page of my blog that will represent me as the author. I'll try to be open on what I accept, but I still reserve veto power. (After all, I'm not crazy.) This contest was inspired by a similar idea from Bill.

Blogrolling Woes

I've been doing a bit of reorganizing on my blogroll. Since I started this blog, I've tried to be fairly conservative about adding people, so I don't end up with one of those sidebars containing hundreds of links. My goal at the begining was to add people slowly and try to reach a point where I had ten core readers blogrolled. People often show up and leave two or three comments over the course of a week, add me to their blogroll, and then completely disappear when I don't immediately reciprocate. In other words, their reading my blog is contingent on me linking to them. Those people come and go. I usually only link to someone who has been poking around on my blog for so long that they are clearly reading for their own enjoyment and don't really care about getting a link. But once I link someone, I make a point of reading them regularly.

Recently, with the addition of Michael's orionoir, I managed to bring the list up to ten. At that point, I didn't want to add anyone else, so I really dragged my feet. But Alicia of TwilightCafé and Courtney of Aethele really should have been added. What to do?

I ended up creating another category, which I called "People Who Have Forgotten Me". That way I could move Essay from stupidangrycanajun and Schmed from Dumbidity, neither of which had left any sort of comment on my blog in ages, to that list and free up two spaces in the primary list. I also added Rose from QueerlyCreative to the secondary list even though she had never been on the first, since I always felt bad for not adding her back when she was reading me.

So then I go to check my comments today, and both Essay and Rose have left comments. Obviously, I can't say that they have forgotten me. So now I have one list entitled "Primary Readers" and another entitled "Intermittent Readers". As near as I can determine, the people in the first list are my most faithful readers, and I read their blogs faithfully. The readers in the second list read me occasionally, but not faithfully, and I sometimes read their stuff. I'd like to read everyone all the time, but ten blogs is about all that I can handle on a regular basis.

Am I overanalyzing? Any suggestions? I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on how they manage their blogrolling.

Mouse

My mouse started becoming listless just before I left Oregon. Since my mother had scheduled an appointment with the veterinarian for her cats, I had her include the mouse, so it could get checked out as well. The vet was a little surprised. He thought that Mousey was the name of a third cat and not an actual mouse. Apparently here in Indiana, not many people take their mice to the vet. He said that he sees a mice perhaps once every couple years. This was clearly a bit outside his area. He referred to the mouse as a him, and I explained that it was female. He was pretty sure it had a penis, though, but then he left the room to get a book with a diagram of mouse genitalia. He said that it was probably female after all, since the book said that a mice os that age would have prominent testes, which it did not.

He looked pretty grim as he examined the mouse and felt its belly. He said there was noticable swelling, which indicated a probable tumor, since there was no sign of infection. Apparently there is very little that can be done for mice. Then I raised the possibility that it might be pregnant, since there is that wild mouse that sometimes gets into the cage with it. He said that that was also a possibility but that he couldn't tell, since he had no experience feeling up pregnant mice. He looked up mouse gestation, and it only takes three weeks, so that could not be ruled out. That night the mouse started panting and proppped itself up on its dish with one paw. The next morning I found it dead in the same place.

In any event, I'm glad I got it to the vet before it died, so at least I know nothing could have been done. For the first time in a long time, I am mouse-free. This means that at the end of the summer, I will not have to worry about the logistics of transporting a small rodent with me to the west coast, sneaking it into hotel rooms and keeping it at a non-lethal temperature throughout the trip. Also, I don't have to worry about sneaking it into my dorm room and keeping it hidden from sight for an entire school year.

I've Got Gmail!!!

I've recently come to realize that without a Gmail account, I'm just another nobody. To be somebody on the internet, you need to have received a Gmail invitation. All the cool people like Snowball and Receptionista have them. Recently I set out on the internet to get an invite, but after about fifteen minutes of no success, I lost my patience and realized that there had to be a better way. And there is -- eBay. I found an auction with a minute to go, placed my bid, and, for just $1.30, received my invite. Now I can chill with the movers and shakers. Suddenly I am just so cool! This is almost as big a deal as smoking was twenty years ago. So far, I have yet to receive invitations to give out. That is probably for the best, though. After all, we've got to draw the line somewhere to keep the riff raff out.

Photoshop Madness

I've developed a multitude of ways to procrastinate by engaging in meaningless projects on my computer. Last night I went crazy with photoshop. I happened to be looking over Receptionista's new business logo and thought I'd spend a few minutes trying out some effects to see if I might be able to improve upon it.

One thing led to another, and I ended up working on it for most of the night. I ended up with something that looks like it was inspired by a run-in between Andy Warhol and the Hell's Angels. I doubt this will be of any use to Receptionista (although she's certainly welcome to use it), since it really has little to do with the point of her crafting business. But I'm really happy with the end product, so I thought it deserved a post.

Weekly Links

DEATH "the releaser, eliminator,
expander" You are commited to change, metamorphasis, and
transformation, cutting through limitations,
obstacles, anxd restrictions. You have a
desire to let go of anyone or thing
constrictive. Like the caterpillar to the
butterfly (you are the cocoon), you shed old
beliefs and atttudes to release something new.
which major arcana of the thoth tarot deck are you? short, with pictures and detailed results brought to you by Quizilla (from Alicia)

If you listen to Britney Spears backwards, you'll hear some lyrics that are almost as apt to offend as what she sings forwards. (from Dave Mansfield)

Test your Portuguese. If you can understand what is being said in this, this, and this, you are at a very advanced level. (from kittyss)

See George Bush drunk at a party in his younger days. (from The Smoking Gun)

Iranian merhan Nasseri has been living in Charles de Gaulle Airport since 1988. Now that he can leave, it looks as though he's become psychologically dependent. Kind of reminds me of the Shawshank Redemption. (from Zannah)

The Messiah has recently been born. It's true; it's on the internet. (from mikeslist)

Have you seen the online American Express commercials starring Seinfeld and Superman?

Dorm Door

When I was at U of O, I put a new photo on the outside of my door every week. I know I've mentioned this before, but I thought you might like to see a pic of the door as it was on my last day there. Almost all of these pics have appeared on my blog at some point.

Fisher Price People

I'm very fortunate in that I am one of a very few people in the US who has managed to retain ownership of about 90% of his toys into adulthood. Now that I'm back in Indiana and in my house, I can go into the toy room once again and look upon what I have. I'm considering photographing a new toy every week and blogging it.

Here we have most of my old Fisher Price people. These I remember vividly. At first they were made of wood. Then there was a brief hybrid stage where they were plastic from the neck up. Finally, they became fully plastic. I was lucky enough to have a childhood that experienced all three generations. One of the main reasons these figures escaped Goodwill is that one of my mother's friends told her that what with the oil crisis and all, plastic objects like toys would soon be things of the past. It might pay to hold onto them, which she did. (As far as I know, Fisher Price has not yet gone back to wood.)

If I remember correctly, these figurines were not sold individually. They went with different playsets. The ones with crowns are from the castle set; the ones with cowboy hats are from the farm set (remember the mooing barn?); and some of the more unique ones (like the token black one) are from the town set. The woman with the bonnet is from an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe set, which my father bought for me used at a university garage sale.

The lack of arms is a bit odd. I once heard that children who draw themselves with very short or no arms suffer from low self-esteem. These poor figurines are terribly disabled. Perhaps they were the inspiration for Homestar Runner.