This is my address book! If you would like to be in it so you can hopefullymaybe get a Christmas/Winter/Yule card from me, you can drop your address or link to same in here. Everything is screened. Likewise if you have this kind of an entry you want me to see, you can link it, too. :)

You don't have to know me well. I like making new connections with people.

And while you're at it, if the mood should strike you, let me know what your favorite colors/animals/styles/music/anything else you want is.

My cards are not handmade this year, because every time I try to do that I fail spectacularly, but they are still sent with many good spirits and maybe even genuine affection.

"When I grow up, I want to be......"

So far I have Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, MacGyver, Ron Moore and Michael J. Straczynski.

It's 3 AM. The world around you is (probably) asleep. (Unless you're a college student or emergency worker. Or in healthcare.) (Or if you're a raccoon, and I suspect several of you are.)

What is it the perfect time for?

Poll #1779594 3 AM is the perfect time for....
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 16

It's 3 AM. What's it the perfect time for?

And by "other" you mean....

Dear Barnes & Noble:

I love the idea of downloadable samples of eBooks. Nothing like reading that first chapter to see if it's something you want to spend $8 (or $10 or $16) on. However, I think your samples would be better served if they actually included some of the book instead of the title page, the reviews page, the publication information page, the table of contents, the dedication, and pretty much every page--blank and otherwise--up until (but not including) the first page of story.

Just a thought.

Hugs and bumblebees,
Me

The new version of Illustrator lets you do multiple art boards in a single file, which is a dream for doing my buttons. I rapidly set up a template and began copying things over, tweaked, tweaked some more, etc. etc. etc., until I had a 20-board template (enough for 160 buttons per file), a 5-board template, and one full 20-board button file and a dozen partly filled. Halfway into it I realized I had my layers messed up and redid them all; each art board is its own layer, and each one of those has 9 sublayers. That's 200 layers per file, plus one extra for miscellaneous stuff. I went through and fixed them all so they're in the right order and color-coordinated. One at a time; there wasn't a way to do it in batches.

Happy and pleased with myself, I put them aside and yesterday I went to print out a button, just one, based on these templates.

They're wrong. Every last one is wrong.

I don't know how and I don't know where, but somewhere, the cutting circles got too big.

Every. Last. One.

This may not seem important, since I have the circle cutter and all, but since the blades are small and mail-order only, I try to save the circle cutter for things I can't print a cutting circle on.

Yay for intermittent quality assurance checks!

Dear Movie Theater Workers of the World:

My heart goes out to you tonight. You'll be in my thoughts and prayers, and may God have mercy on your souls.

Cave Inimicum,
Me

Also looking for "naughty" (or even raunchy) quotes to have available for buttons. (I'm hoping to maybe get some sales to the munch/dungeon crowd.) Replies are screened for your privacy!

What Stargate quotes would make good buttons? Right now all I have is "SG-1: Because the Prime Directive is for chumps."

Edit: Expanding that to cat and religious quotes, too, especially Pagan.

I cought a snippet a Weather Channel segment on severe snow vs. severe heat. It got me wondering what people would rather have--a week of snow, ice and bitter cold, or a week of brutal heat? Would you rather have dry heat at 110 or a humid heat at 95?

Poll #1750709 Which weather?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

Which would you rather have--too much snow or too much heat?

I signed up to take classes in Business and Marketing this summer, both intro classes and both 4-month classes squeezed into 10 weeks, purchased my materials, and got down to work. I'm one week in, and I'm sticking with Marketing, but I've been debating whether or not to stick with Business 100. It's a lot of work, i'm still sick and not going to get better quickly, and the materials are weirding me out a bit.

One of the early pages of the textbook (a 2010 edition) states that America is "land of the free and home of the brave, and part of that freedom is to own a business and reap the profits from it." While that's true, it felt very out of place. There was no context--we weren't comparing the USA's business opportunities to China or Cuba--it was just talking about working for yourself versus being employed. It felt weird, like the author was trying to say something. I wrote it off as awkward wording and my over-interpretation and moved on.

For this week's homework, the textbook had me visit the National Taxpayers Union website and look at their (confusing) income tax charts, break down how much the top 1%, 5%, and bottom 50% were paying in taxes. Based on that information, I was to say with whether or not I felt business people (their wording, not "businesses") were paying their fair share of taxes.

The site gave no indication as to what a business person was defined as, or what part of those percentages they were. I answered honestly that I could not derive any such conclusion from the data presented, nor did I feel educated enough to say in general, but I did disapprove of mega-corporations who manipulate tax laws until the country owes them money. (I doubt I'll get high marks.)

The website's figures seem to say that the higher tiers--upper 50%--of America pays 97% of the taxes, while the lower 50% pays less than 3%. I don't know if those numbers are right or not, and there's no mention of tax rates, so it felt off to me. Staged.

A second look at the site shows one jab at Obama, another at Democrats (both on the front page), that it's a Fair Tax website, and that the staff's mission is to "work hard to fight against government growth."

Nope, no chance for bias there.

But, okay, still, it's entirely possible I'm seeing something that isn't there. Despite the occasional remark about the current administration. And even if there is a right-leaning bias, I'm sure it's small, and I can deal with it. Just because I don't agree doesn't mean I can't lear--

"While touring Greece last year, Angela landed in the hospital for five days when she was run-over by a careless motorcyclist. To no avail, her son and daughter who were also on the trip tried frantically to pay for the medical care required to set her broken bones. There she lay with no casts, limbs hanging until the state's doctors deemed it her turn for attention. In nations where medicine is ____________, individuals often wait for several days, and often several years for proper medical attention." (Emphasis mine.)

That's a question from last night's quiz.

The answer is "socialized."

Annnd the camel's back just broke with a nice handful of straw.

I'm dropping the class.