Spaminating
I just deleted about 300 comments that were sitting in moderation, and 50 pages (20 comments each) of spam that got through, most of it Russian. WOW.
I’m turning off comments until I can upgrade the site and theme. I’d try to do it myself, but I don’t remember any of the FTP information, so I’ll have to get it from my husband and have him walk me through the upgrade process. I found some AWESOME themes. I haven’t decided on one yet, but the search has been fun. 
How come I keep posting about plans and stuff, but never actually follow through? Story of my life, I guess. Anyway, I have lots and lots of funny clips from Craigslist that are post-worthy, and some other clips from here and there. I’ve also started my first refashion—just a t-shirt, but it’s coming along well! I think I need a digital camera, though, because my phone isn’t cutting it for the fine details of the project.
So, yeah. I’ll put out a notice to people who might be interested once I get things back online.
Published by Sunbeam on January 21st, 2010 tagged Administration, General | Comments Off
Comment Spam!
This is one of those blogs that takes up Webspace and is never ever updated, as much as the author (that would be me) would like to use it for something. It just stays up, looking pathetic, having not been written in for over a year—collecting comment spam.
I’ve been hit pretty hard lately. I closed comments to the hardest-hit post, and the spam switches to the next most vulnerable post(s). Most of the time, I don’t even look at it—I just spam it and call it a day. However, I’ve been taking a closer look since I’ve been getting so much, and have found it . . . amusing. Hilarious at times.
Here is one I spam-canned, but screen-shot first, because it made me giggle (click to embiggen in another window):
(The weird link to some chick’s ponytail was what did it for me.)
The following (also click to open in another window) are all taken from my post “Expanding the Subject Matter”, which, now that I think about it, is just ASKING for comment spam.
I left the others where they were, because they made me laugh—not necessarily at their actual content, but because of the content to which they referred.
Go and read (if you can stomach it) “Is this for REAL?”, and read all the comments (except for the first one from Kelly, which is legit). The non-sequiturs are funny in themselves, but the ones referring to the content of the post just crack me up, because they’re so ironic! Haha! I am SO easily amused! I obviously don’t get out enough!
Now go read the comments after “I actually submitted something!” Don’t bother to read the post; it’s boring. The comments are MUCH more interesting.
The funniest one: “Зер гуд уÑтанавливаю 5 балов.”
The great thing about getting Russian spam (that is not immediately obvious as a sexual enhancement drug, cheap prescriptions, or pr0n) is that I’m married to a Russian linguist who will translate it for me! He translated this as, “[Zer good] I give it five points.”
For fun, I visited Babelfish to see what kind of nonsense I could get out of it, and I received this as a translation:
“[Zer] buzz I establish 5 balls.”
BWAHA!!! Just too funny! 
But, again, I don’t get out much. Probably why this blog is so boring . . .
Thank you, spammers! You’ve given this blog new meaning!
Published by Sunbeam on August 19th, 2009 tagged General | 12 Comments »
Expanding the Subject Matter
I originally wanted this blog to be my only blog. Then, I wanted it just to be a super blog, with posts that are more pertinent to certain subjects than my day-to-day LiveJournal covered. It eventually evolved into something resembling a writing blog. That I never update.
NOW, I’m looking very seriously at beginning some new craft projects, especially knitting and sewing new things, and refashioning old clothes. I might also continue some writing posts here, since that is a craft of a sort. I think I’ll send readers over here from my other blogs, but I don’t think I’ll list my other blogs here, because I feel like keeping this one relatively exclusive. Instead, I’ll keep a blogroll of sites that inspire me. I might even do what my husband does, and find an online bookmarker to keep my more random favorites off the main page, to keep the clutter down.
Lots of ideas are running through my head, but I’m essentially a pretty lazy person. With an internet addiction. Because of this, I hope to turn off the internet for a few months so I can establish a routine of sorts that will allow me to actually get these projects off the ground, and maybe even finished! Of course, I will post pictures often. That’s half the fun!
Anyway, I don’t plan to close this down. But I don’t want it to be just another bandwidth-sucker and spam-collector, with no real purpose. I will be domestic, dang it, and the world will know about it!!!
That is all. For now. 
Published by Sunbeam on October 26th, 2007 tagged Administration, General | 3 Comments »
Is this for REAL?
Every once in a while, I peruse Fictionpress.com for Really Bad Writing. Maybe I’m just snarky like that, or masochistic. Whatever it is, I occasionally unearth a doozy — usually written by a teenager.
I have never seen anything like this, though, and it makes me wonder if someone is faking it. A troll pretending to be a horrible writer. Waiting to get flamed for crappy writing so they can flame back.
I have no idea, but this particular author just about made me cry.
Damned Soul of Chaos (notice it’s spelled correctly). Read the profile. Scrub your eyes and pick your chin up off the floor. THEN read this “story”: Serenity’s Moonstone. It’s not very long, but it IS very painful.
Two notable quotes:
“Gaoelie Moonfire was pretty with hair the color of crimsen blood and eyes the color of a algae-infestid swimming pool and her body was thin and slender and her eyes shone bright even in the dusty picture. ‘she luvs you Serenity’ said her dad ‘she always said so even before the cancer ate her brain and made her beet u.’”
“Serenity missed mommy and she missed alot of things lyk her hart, her virgin hart thatd been splattered on the floar like when you drop ur Dr. Pepper in the Burger King and you rele want to drink it but you can’t cuz its on the floar and dirty and with germs and u cant get a free refill. U need to pay the price.”
I just . . . I can’t believe a 16-year-old could write that badly. I refuse to believe it. Especially with a “collage” friend helping her. It’s highly possible she’s doing it on purpose, judging by her earlier poems’ descriptions (still badly spelled, but hardly as unreadable as her most recent).
It really sticks in my craw, whether or not it’s real. I’ve seen other “serious” writing that looks more like a text message than a real written work. Are we on the cusp of a language slip? Will we be spelling “you” without the “y” and “o”, and lower-casing the pronoun “I” a hundred years from now?
I can’t fathom it. And yet I see it all the time. What is the written word coming to? 
Published by Sunbeam on July 23rd, 2007 tagged Rants, Writing | 8 Comments »
New look
Hey, we updated WordPress to current (2.2) and uploaded a prettier theme. Expect more minor and possibly major changes once Sweetie wakes up from her nap.
Sig
Published by Sig on June 13th, 2007 tagged Administration | 2 Comments »
The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam
I just found via another funny writing site (Miss Snark, literary agent), the Fantasy Novelist’s Exam.
The intro:
Ever since J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis created the worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia, it seems like every windbag off the street thinks he can write great, original fantasy, too. The problem is that most of this “great, original fantasy” is actually poor, derivative fantasy. Frankly, we’re sick of it, so we’ve compiled a list of rip-off tip-offs in the form of an exam. We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering “yes” to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.
An excerpt:
1. Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
7. Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about “The One” who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
23. Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
26. Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like “The Blasted Lands” or “The Forest of Fear” or “The Desert of Desolation” or absolutely anything “of Doom”?
51. Do you ever use the term “mana” in your novel?
52. Do you ever use the term “plate mail” in your novel?
53. Heaven help you, do you ever use the term “hit points” in your novel?And more!
That was really funny. I had to blush at some of them, because I’ve been there. Um, still am, depending on the story . . .
Now to add Miss Snark to my Google RSS Reader . . .
Published by Sunbeam on May 1st, 2007 tagged Writing | Comments Off
Some Writing Snark ;)
We went on a marriage retreat a week ago, and on the way I discovered some fun typos and oxymorons that I thought I’d share here, since I’m supposed to be making this a writing blog.
1. Is it Tibetan?
Seen on a sign in Starbucks in North Bend, WA:
FREE COFFEE
*Ask me how*
This reason this is funny is probably kind of obscure. I should have asked what the sign meant, but I didn’t want to sound like a grammar nazi if it happened to come out why I asked.
Anyway, the word “FREE” is most likely being used as an adjective. However, the use of “how” in the next phrase implies that it is not an adjective, but a verb, as if one should be asking how to free the coffee. Did someone, in their grammatical cleverness, actually mean to write it this way? I’ll never know. But the image of liberating a bunch of beans and setting them loose into the wilderness does make me giggle.
2. Picky Punctuation
Seen on a sign in the mountains:
END TRAFFIC INFO.
ZONE
This wasn’t funny as much as it was confusing at first glance. There are certain words whose abbreviations over the years have just been turned into their own words, such as “info” for “information”. The use of a period after “INFO” is redundant, and almost causes the word “ZONE” in this sign to float off by itself. It seemed very odd to me.
3. Oxymoronic!
In the tourist center of North Bend, there is little more than a few fast food restaurants, gas stations, a strip mall, and outlet stores. The strip mall is called “Mountain Valley Center”. It made me giggle. I realize that to have mountains implies the occasional valley, but it still seems oxymoronic. Kind of like “Alpine, California”, where there are evergreens, but no Alpines to be found.
. . .
Okay, so it’s probably not as hilariously funny as it was at the time I saw it, but I thought I’d write about it, anyway.
So, uh . . .
Published by Sunbeam on April 10th, 2007 tagged Writing | Comments Off
I actually submitted something!
I got an email in my inbox the other day from Gather.com, a website I’ve been a member of for a few months, but haven’t really participated in at all. There’s a contest going on through the end of April, whose grand prize winners (voted on at the end of May and announced in June) will go on a 13-day research trip to a sustainable coffee farm in Costa Rica. To be honest, I don’t really know how a two-week trip to a foreign country to work on a farm will fit into my life — but, dang it, I’d be willing to give it a shot if my little essay were to win me a slot. It sounds like great fun.
I wrote a 348-word essay (the requirement was no more than 350) and submitted it yesterday. I don’t know how long it took — an hour, if that — and I already have a rating of 8. Not as good a rating as some of the others, but it’s not the greatest essay ever, either (at least, in content — I have to swallow my pride over the fact that most of the people rating these essays are rating on content over quality of writing. Not yet sure if the judges will be any different). You can read the other submissions here.
I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, I’m working on another story I’m planning to submit for an anthology. It’s due in August, and I’ve recently made some progress on it. Again, however, I’m stuck on the end. These huge, climactic endings trip me up. I want to milk them for all they’re worth, which involves lots of planning and moving pieces around just so — almost like one of those little slide puzzles. When it all moves into place, it’s fantastic, but it takes a lot of time and patience to get it there. Sometimes, you have to forcibly rip it all out and put it back to make it work, which is what I’ve already done two or three times now. I’m getting closer, though! I’ll post more about that one later, too.
Hasta!
Published by Sunbeam on April 10th, 2007 tagged Writing | 2 Comments »
SPAM!
I’m getting spam comments now. They always find me! Argh!
I’ve only gotten two so far, and they’re long, long lists of links for things I don’t want or need. At least the first spam comment started with “sorry about this”. How thoughtful. 
I really will post again some day. I’m working on a story right now for an anthology, and I have an idea for a “just for fun” serial story on this site. Gotta figure out how to set it up, though.
So . . . laterz!
Published by Sunbeam on March 29th, 2007 tagged General | Comments Off
Off The Cuff
Now that I’m leaning heavily toward making this blog all about writing, I’ve been working on plans for several posts dealing with various writing topics, examples I’ve found, and personal observations I’ve made over time. I’ve also been fashioning a post for several days focusing on paid-to-post websites. It’s not done yet, because I want it to be relatively polished. I know it’s “just” a blog post, but it’s also an article of sorts. There is no editor other than me — and possibly my husband after he reads it and points out any speeling spellling spelling mistakes — and I want it to be quality.
That got me thinking about blogs in general. My writing skills go beyond my usual off-the-cuff blog posts. I know I can fashion a decent sentence, catch a run-on before it gets out of hand, punctuate properly, and create an effective argument (although that last one is debatable)(heh). However, when I’m posting in my blog(s), I’m not as concerned with sentence structure and whatnot, instead preferring to “write like I speak”, which is sometimes confusing and often unpolished. And heavily sprinkled with creative punctuation. (Seriously, if I had speech bubbles above my head when I talk, Strunk and White would roll over in their graves. That is, if they are actually dead, a fact of which I am unsure and too lazy to look up right now.)
My LiveJournal is much less formal than this blog (not that this blog has any history of formality, but by giving it the title of “writing blog”, it now bears the burden of needing to be mostly grammatically correct. I don’t want to be too hypocritical in my criticism). I deal with day-to-day stuff there, preferring to rattle stuff off and ramble if I feel like it. It’s more conversational than it is articulate, most of the time.
Now, as a writer with reasonable skill, I do play fast and loose with the rules at times, because I know the rules (for the most part) and know when to break them (again, for the most part — sometimes I take risks, sometimes I’m oblivious). For instance, I tend to have problems with subect-verb agreement. I don’t know why, it just sneaks in under the radar, or something. As a person with a relatively limited working vocabulary (as opposed to stored vocabulary), I do have my “crutch” words that I use more often than others, because, well, they’re my favorites and I’m a creature of habit.
I tried to explore one day why my writing can be precise and enjoyable, but my more eloquent vocabulary is lacking. I think I attributed it to my habit of breaking things down into more understandable concepts for children, mainly, and adults who don’t share my particular education (scientific concepts can be confusing when you are trained in art or music, for example). As a result, the words on the forefront of my mind are not the more complicated variety. Also, my memory can be so horrible that words I know don’t even come to mind when I need them, so I use a simpler substitute in order to get the thought out. This is apparent in my day-to-day ramblings, and occasionally my ranting. Somehow, though, being flustered or passionate about something can bring out the big words I rarely use. Unfortunately, this is not always the case — sometimes, I’m just tongue-tied, and am reduced to, “Me so angry! Me SMASH!!! ARGH!!!”
My husband is much more eloquent than I am, especially when ranting. I bow to his superior verbal acuity! (Especially since he defined “acuity” for me when I asked what it meant. He rules. )
Going back to the original topic, a limited working vocabulary and the ability to break the rules are not excuses for a poorly-written blog article in a blog on writing. Especially since I am planning a few articles about writing poorly for publication (I’d say “print”, except that a lot of poorly-written publication is “virtual” material online). Hopefully, by the time I actually get them written, the examples I’ve chosen will still be there for everyone else to snicker at learn from.
SO, that being said, I will go and finish that article I’ve been working on for days, and have it posted . . . soon. Can’t give a definitive time, but it is almost done. I’ll probably have to break it up into another post, because there’s just so much to work with, but the first one will go up soon.
Until later!
Published by Sunbeam on February 8th, 2007 tagged Writing | Comments Off
The Writing Life
I’ll post here again sometime. My husband is home now, and he gets computing priority. Once I get down to it, this will become a writing blog, with reviews as practice, probably cross-posted to another site, such as Helium.com or Gather.com.
I’m making changes in my career life, putting Mary Kay aside completely and focusing on being a writer. It’s what I truly want to do with myself. I need to stop putting it off.
More later — including, possibly, a story serial that I will post on a semi-regular basis. We shall see . . .
Published by Sunbeam on January 22nd, 2007 tagged General, Writing | Comments Off
More About Writing
If you didn’t read it in my other blog, I finished NaNoWriMo at 21,348 words. It’s about time I updated here, huh?
Well, I’m posting about a different story now. I had a fantasy snippet I wrote before NaNoWriMo started, but I was stuck at an impasse and let it lie for a time. I had my husband read it and posted it on my writing forum, but it wasn’t until I had another writer friend read it that I finally started unlocking it again.
I’m now writing the “prelude” to it, which will cause me to rewrite the snippet — but for the better! The male character was a bit of a wimp. Now he’s much cooler.
The problem I’m having now is that I fell asleep while writing last night, and I cannot, for the life of me, remember the direction I was going with the section I started to write. What’s worse, I stopped at the beginning of a sentence. A nebulous sentence. One that can go any direction!
Here’s a little of it, including the unfinished sentence:
      ”May I come in?”
She paused again. “No.” She didn’t meet his eyes.
“What happened, Ila? I can help you.”
“I can’t talk about it.”
“You can. It would help–”
“No! It won’t!” He expected her to slam the door just then, but, instead, she met his eyes. “Later, okay?”
Well, it was something. And it would have been hypocritical of him to press. “Sure. When we go camping. We can talk then.”
She smiled weakly. “Sure.”
Impulsively, he
ARGH! What did he do? Hug her? Kiss her? Block the door? Say something? I CAN’T REMEMBER!!!
I might have to cut that section out, or do more brainstorming. I’m really not even sure why she’s so upset or sick.
Hopefully the smoke I generate from thinking about it doesn’t set off the alarm.
Published by Sunbeam on December 15th, 2006 tagged Writing | 1 Comment »
A Novel Affair
Okay, so instead of writing my novel, I’ve been goofing off a bit. This little distraction was something I came up with while messing around with last year’s novel’s playlist in iTunes (I had a new song I needed to put in there).
What happens if your Chick Lit novel suspects you’re cheating on it?
Published by Sunbeam on November 23rd, 2006 tagged Writing | Comments Off
Muse Hunting
I guess I grossed out my muse this week with various stomach and abdominal issues. She has fled the coop — and I have ONE WEEK left to write 34,323 words. I am STUMPED. I’d think being laid up on a couch for three days would give me plenty of time to write, but I’m not that lucky. I’d stopped at a scene that was emotionally intense before I got sick, and just couldn’t call up the energy to deal with it. Bleh.
My characters are doing things I did not expect them to do yet, and I’m having trouble digging up the rest of my plot (which is slowly burying itself). I’m also beginning to believe I should have gone with my original hunch and written it in first person. It was supposed to be humorous, too, and it’s turning into this social awareness drama. SHEESH.
HOWEVER, I’ve written 15,000 more words (15,677, to be exact) than I’ve written all year, and that’s gotta count for something, right?
If I could drag my energy out of the hole it fell in this weekend, I could probably hunt down my muse and get her to help me dig my plot out of its early grave. I’m hoping I can get at least 20,000 — or even 30,000, if I work hard — before the end of the month.
Heeeerrrre, muse muse muse! Come get the niiiiice, shiiiiny carrot!
Published by Sunbeam on November 21st, 2006 tagged Writing | Comments Off
Slither!
I’d heard that the movie Slither was supposed to be this dark horror comedy thing, featuring Nathan Fillion, the actor who portrayed Captain Malcolm Reynolds in Firefly. Well, that was enough for me. When I saw the commercials for the DVD, however, I was afraid it was going to be a little too gross for me to watch.
As a general rule, I’m not a huge fan of slasher flicks (not slash flicks — that’s another animal, entirely). They’re unnecessarily bloody, usually lacking in plot and character development, with very cheesy (and rather brief) interludes between the gore. I like a good psychological thriller, where my imagination is filling in the blanks and scaring me well beyond the end of the movie. Those are the mark of a good writer/director/producer/etc.
So, when I agreed to go over to my friend’s house last night and watch Slither, I did so with some trepidation. He was going to make dinner, and we were going to watch the movie afterward. As usual, over at his house, I ate too much (so VERY good food!). I was hoping that was not going to impede my “enjoyment” of the movie.
(Spoiler Warning: The following will contain spoilers regarding both the movie Slither and Dawn of the Dead. You have been warned.)
Published by Sunbeam on November 4th, 2006 tagged Movies, Reviews | 3 Comments »
Pathetic Bachelorette Food
I am neither a bachelorette, nor is this food.
(There is no question that I am pathetic.)
Discuss.
Published by Sunbeam on October 20th, 2006 tagged Food | 3 Comments »
NaNoWriMo Cometh!
Just a few more weeks till NaNoWriMo begins!
This means I will actually WRITE! This has been my dryest year. Maybe. I miss writing so much, but it’s been relegated to “stuff to do for fun, when there’s time”, and when I actually try, there’s NOTHING.
I’ve been reviewing my priorities in my mind the past couple weeks, and I’ve decided I want writing to be set back near the top of the occupational priorities, even over Mary Kay (Shock! Awe! What will my director say!). I still think I could write the great American novel, or several of them, if I would stop listening to the nay-sayers in my head. They really are in my head. There have been some who doubt (especially those for whom I’ve worked in the past), but no one who’s outright told me I shouldn’t make that a living.
I’ve been writing and loving writing and wanting to write for years and years and years. It’s been a passion forever. I’ve loved it more than anything I’ve ever done. Why not make it into my life’s work?
I’ll still do MK, but for the time being, I’m not going to beat myself up over the fact that it’s no longer my #1 occupational priority. I’d like to take both of them out of the “hobby” status and into the “business” status, but if I lead with something I KNOW how to do well, then I think I will do better mentally than I have been over the past two years.
Can’t wait till the 1st of November!
Published by Sunbeam on October 5th, 2006 tagged Business, Writing | 4 Comments »
Urine gone! Petastic FTW!
Yet another review post dealing with cat whiz. I live such an exciting life.
After dumping the supposedly miraculous product, Urine Gone, liberally over the cat spots on my bedroom floor, I discovered two things: 1) Urine Gone does not work, and 2) Urine Gone has a scent that becomes quite cloying over time, and because it does not actually work, the cat smell never goes away, either. My room was smelling like urine and Urine Gone, and it was not pleasant.
My friend who owns a pet store also owns a large number of cats, herself. She has a problem with one of her cats peeing everywhere, so a few weeks ago she was singing the praises of this other product called Petastic, which has worked wonders for her. Since I was going to the Bainbridge ferry the other day, I stopped by her store and picked up a couple bottles (one for me and one for my friend who has dogs who pee everywhere). When I got it home, I poured it over the spots on the carpet, and the smell was instantly gone! It’s still gone, and there is no product smell, either. I also bought a relatively inexpensive carpet steamer (a small one, because I only need a spot treater) and will be using that later to finish the job.
I will have to use it to wash the Litter Robot later, because I used a form of litter that has a scent I can’t stand, especially when mixed with cats. For the record, the best clay clumping litter I have ever used (and I’ve used a LOT of different brands) is Wal-Mart’s Special Kitty. Even their regular clay litter is good. However, one day they were out of Special Kitty, so I used Scoop Away. Ugh. The smell is atrocious.
ANYway, the Litter Robot is working fantastically. I do have to empty it two or more times a week, because I have two larger cats with fast-acting digestive systems, who use the box frequently during the day. But it’s SO much better than scooping, I can’t even describe. It’s totally worth every penny.
So is Petastic. I HIGHLY recommend that.
Published by Sunbeam on August 17th, 2006 tagged Reviews | 4 Comments »
“Urine Gone” and the Litter Robot
The two products are separate items that both deal with cat whiz.
I bought Urine Gone (site will open in a separate window, and has sound and video) to deal with a mess my cats had made in the corner of my bedroom when I didn’t clean the catbox in time. At first, I thought it was going to work great . . . but it doesn’t.
First of all, it does not actually make the fluorescing spots on the carpet disappear, like in the video. Secondly, it takes hours to days to “air dry completely”, meaning you have to leave that spot bare of anything for hours or days. Fortunately, I don’t have a piece of furniture to put there right now. Thirdly, the smell is not gone, even after three days. Unless my cats are still using that corner as a potty (which I’m pretty sure they’re not), it seems pretty clear that this stuff does not work. 
I did try it on clothes, and it seems to work pretty well on underarm smells. I’m going to give it a few more tries, but when I washed a shirt that I’d pretreated with it, the smell was still there when I pulled it out of the dryer. Not cool.
So, my overall rating for Urine Gone, on a five-star scale: Two (the blacklight is cool, and it works on laundry until you wash it).
And I was so hoping it would work, too!
Now, as for the Litter Robot, I am completely impressed! I even skipped a few of the “introducing your cat to the Litter Robot” suggestions, because I know how my cats adapt well and enjoy clean litter. They’ve already used it a few times, too.
The noise it makes when it’s cycling is a little startling at first, but soon you begin to get used to it, and you’re happy to hear it, because it means you don’t have to scoop the litter box! The robot is doing it for you!
Ain’t technology grand?
And now I’m thinking about getting a dog . . . Am I crazy? 
Published by Sunbeam on June 23rd, 2006 tagged Reviews | 2 Comments »
Truth in Advertising?
I was just reading a Snopes article about the song “Precious Lord” written by Thomas Dorsey after his wife and child died. Below the picture of the album that they posted in the article was an ad for a Lincoln SUV. The text was “We can help you get there”, and under the Lincoln logo was “Reaching Higher”.
That made me giggle.
Published by Sunbeam on June 19th, 2006 tagged Funnies | 1 Comment »
Two Things
One Thing:
I decided to go see Poseidon last night after my Mary Kay meeting. I was one of three people in the theater.
It was an intense movie, and better in some ways than the original. There were some aspects of the original that were more intense, but this one definitely did kill people off a lot faster, and in greater numbers.
The special effects were fantastic, though, and so was the cast. I would watch it again.
Second Thing:
I broke down and bought the Litter Robot. I HATE SO MUCH cleaning the litter box. This is the best thing I’ve seen yet, and I think it will save me time and money in the long run. Not to mention sanity. I’ve told myself I would scoop more often when I buy the scoopy litter, but I don’t. And then it clumps to the walls of the litter box, and is so nasty to clean . . .
I’m REALLY hoping this purchase is as great as I hope it is. I’ll know in couple weeks.
Published by Sunbeam on June 13th, 2006 tagged Hardware, Movies, Reviews | 1 Comment »
More Verizon Drama
Apparently, the person who helped me reverse the extra charges from March in order to credit my bill accidentally charged when he should have credited the access fees. I was double-charged last month, but the totals were a few cents off each other, so I couldn’t tell that’s what it actually was.
After calling Verizon, they figured out it was a double charge, and will be crediting my account — after I pay the full amount they charged me, plus this month’s because I waited to see my next statement. But, golly, they’ll waive the $5 late fee.
So, I’m still out $200+, but I won’t have to pay that much on next month’s bill. Or the bill after that. Hopefully, I get a couple “free” months out of this.
Next up . . . another call to USAA to get my payment plan back in the works for insurance, even though I’ll be selling the Subaru before the bill comes due. At least, that’s the hope. I can’t pay the whole 6 month premium at once — not after that Verizon bill.
Published by Sunbeam on June 9th, 2006 tagged Rants | 1 Comment »
COUCH!!!
I have a COUCH!
I purchased a Classic 3-cushion in Altima Hickory Pet Care (scroll down to “Classic Couches for $409″, click on the Altima Hickory Pet Care, and then click on the “See this fabric on the furniture” button in the popup).
Published by Sunbeam on June 2nd, 2006 tagged General, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Food photography
A friend of mine shared a bit of wisdom about using photography to improve the presentation, portions, quality, and joy of cooking for oneself. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and decided to embark on a photographical journey — right here on Rainy Day Sunshine!
Published by Sunbeam on May 3rd, 2006 tagged Food | 1 Comment »
Pain at the Pump
Gas prices, as I’m sure everyone is aware, are completely ridiculous right now. And gas companies are profiting. This doesn’t really make me very happy. However, it has been prompting me to do research on the next car I want to buy, because the time to put the Subaru to rest is drawing nearer and nearer (*sniff* ).