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Category Archives: Shiney!
Driving a 2006 Cadillac STS
J.’s car was totaled last week. So Friday he bought a 2006 Cadillac STS.
The car is freaky.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s a nice car. It drives like a sports car; it’s fun. But the thing is freaky. J. gave me my own set of keys so that he doesn’t have to die a horrible squished death after I’ve gotten in. That’s because the car remembers who you are.
So when I got behind the wheel for the first time with my fob (car comes with a key but there is nothing to put the key in), the car unlocks for me (you don’t actually have to push buttons on the fob, but they’re there) and I sat down. I pushed the ignition button and all hell broke loose.
The wheel jumped out of my hands then pinned my legs down and blocked my view of the odometer. It also backed out of my reach. The seat dropped way down and moved and nearly crushed my daughter in the back seat as it laid down over where she narrowly jumped out of the way. The time changed on the navigator display, all the mirrors move out of usability range and the radio station programmed itself for an oldies station. Helpfully the display said Hi Jerry!.
J. showed me how to program the fob not to do that ever again. However I was still trapped by the steering wheel. We started pushing buttons because the wheel had no lever like my car to move it. I found out the display under the odometer will tell you all kinds of things…it even has an egg timer (seriously). Finally I found a knobby thing and moved the steering wheel, saved my settings and we were off.
Now keep in mind it was the 14th, so the St. Paddy’s Blockades were up. That’s why I panicked when I got on the highway and realized everything had changed to the metric system. J., still buzzed on beer, is trying to convert miles to kilometers on the fly because the STS doesn’t let you mess with settings while driving (that’s a good thing actually). Then the brights went on, then off, then on. I kept trying to turn them off manually but the car kept insisting they should be on now.
I had no idea how fast I was going but I made it home. J. then freaked out because it didn’t change back to the English system when he got in (he also accidentally erased his settings when he was trying to fix mine). So I got back in the Carrie car and looked at the buttons on the opposite side of the from the navigation/dvd player system.
Apparently one lets you cycle through info on the dash, another dims dash lights. Another one appears to do nothing…there is a hood opener but nothing for the trunk. And then there is EM.
Laugh all you want but there’s supposed to be a / there. So now that we are off the metric system the car seems okay. It even tells me Hi Michelle! now.
The clock thing we haven’t figured out though.
Of Goals and Other Squiggly Things
Other than having strep I’ve been working on web pages. I have a large update ready for the Pulp website…but they’re changing the document now…so it’s best if I just wait. I need to get that new porfolio up and working too.
WH is coming along. I’m finishing up the last chapter. I’ve started a new program where I get up early, do the 5 Tibetans, meditate, and then write until shower time. Then I walk the spawn to school. So far so good. Today was the first full day of doing all four…I’ve been working up to it.
I would like to have a set of miniatures to bring with me to conventions for Serenity and maybe other games I run. This involves me getting more pulp miniatures, and some sci fi ones. Painting continues. This brings me to the Cynwall Dragon.
The Cynwall Dragon is a “mini” from the Confrontation line. I don’t play mini games…though I wouldn’t mind this one…if I knew a group that played. This mini is huge. J. gave it to me for Christmas last year. I finally started cleaning up and putting it together. This is my second dragon. My first was an old Ralpartha. I had to glue the tail and the head and the wings on. It’s a very pretty amytheist…but this was before I knew about sculpting. So it has a lot of gaps. I could fix it I guess. But it’s fine for what it is.
I was at Valhalla’s last week and found a Reaper limited edition Dragon vignette on sale. The base is the dragon hord with cliff The dragon is one piece just needing wings and horns glued on. The dwarven thief is pre attached to the cliff and just needs to be glued on the base.
Back to the Cynwall. Confrontation minis come in pieces. Even their tiny 1 inch minis come in many pieces. Now imaging a huge dragon. The body comes in not one but three parts that form a hollow shell. The head is separate. Not only are each wing separate but the folded wing? Two pieces. That’s if you don’t count the five claws that need to be attached to feet and wings. Bestly (that’s my new word for today) the tail part that needs to be glued on is the middle part…since the tail curls and all.
So this posed a problem. I needed a hobby vice. No screaming…I hadn’t needed on yet…some kind of gap filler and more glue. I already have a hefty glue and putty stash: Elmers, Aileen (clear, wood and regular tacky), wood glue, spakle, Insta-Cure thin, GW Green Stuff and probably stuff I can’t remember. The Insta-Cure is the best for putting together metal minis. I took one look at this heavy beast and decided I needed better glue. I debated picking up more of the Insta-Cure stuff…but it’s expensive and tends to dry out in the bottle IME. The thin seems to last the longest.
I headed to hobby lobby and my local train hobby story. I got some gorilla glue and some gap filler (I forget the company…but it’s called, predictably, White Stuff. So First I gorilla glued the two halves of the main body together. That took a day to dry. Next I gap filled the body and stuck the neck on. It came off. (Stop with the pinning. There will be no pinning) But the filler had sunk as it dried. So I refilled and stuck the neck on again. This worked and I cleaned off the bleed.
For the head I used Insta-Cure. Success!
This morning I tried to connect the tail middle. Stupid thing was not at the right angle to fit between the tail end and the tail base. I used my new vice to squish the piece into the right angle. Again I’ve used Insta-Cure.
The damn folded wing was back to Gorilla Glue.
This figure is going to take a lot of green stuff to fill the gaps. I have to attach the wings and the claws. In the meantime…I wish pulp, sci fi and western minis were cheaper.
Dollhouse
I finally got a chance to watch Dollhouse last night. It was like pulling threads in embroidery. What you have is about 100 tangle messes that, with a little teasing, will straighten out into something pretty.
It was different and serious. So far I like it. I’m pretty lax
Aia found it a bit confusing but came up with the same questions. Why is Caroline doing this? What did she do? Who is after her? What is the true goal of the company? All fun questions. So now I’m up to four TV shows with another coming up. Anyone know when Torchwood comes back?
101 Method, A Return to IF
My first day of return to IF was less than successful.
I’ve done IF before as I said (in fact iirc, that’s how I found Steve’s site, came for the IF, stayed cause I’m a fan of the novels, stayed longer because the conversation was interesting). The last form was the JUDDD method with limited calories allowed on down days. Worked well until we realized something else was wrong with me. Now that’s under control…back to IF.
The first day the voices were murmurs. I ended up eating an avocado salad (avo and lemon) and my protein shake. It was also time to set up another batch of mead (black berry and lemon ginger in three months!)….I did not partake of the ingredients. Unless you count my sophisticated aeration process, which failed when my thumb slipped and I splashed my front side with must. So my body was exposed to undue amounts of sugar, just not internally.
So after the voices laughed me into the shower…I was pretty okay. Go some lower body done last night. Feel pretty good today. I drink water and tea most days without fail. Lunch is salad with artichokes, lemon and pork, raspberries, and blueberries (we have the best farmer’s market ever…cheapest produce ever…if you live in Colorado look for Sunflower Market). Dinner is unknown…the SO is in charge of dinner on Fridays. Could be anything.
Tomorrow I’m preparing better. Teapots are clean. I do have party to be at, but no one will expect me to eat or drink there (bowling alleys are good for this).
I’ve spent some time on goal visualization today. It’s interesting and important. Keep it up say the voices.
What would you attempt in life if you knew you could not fail?
I would just go. Travel. Failure is having some thing stop me (money, etc). If nothing can stop me there are no limits. I once played a game where my only instruction was “You can do anything.” So when the gm asked me what I wanted to do, I told him I set my enemies on fire and fly up to a safe vantage point. He said, “how can you do that.” I said, “Does it matter? I can do anything!”.
Power is truly limitless.
So I think of what is stopping me from my goals: Weightloss…my own body, but I am fighting it. Writing…nothing but time. Relationships…nothing but time. I am excited. Because I can do this.
I saw a bald eagle today.
Really! It buzzed my windshield twice.
Kitchen Redone
I get home last night to a disaster. J., whenever he leaves town, leaves in a explosion of newspapers, plastic bags and whatever he was cooking before he left. This time it was Yucca, prepared like Potato Pancakes (none kosher style), but takes a lot more preparation (you can’t eat the waxy skin at all and you have to press the Yucca for several hours).
So I decided to get the kitchen cleaned up. I started with dishes, only to notice that the dish dryer rack (a thing I truly detest) was askew. So I lifted it up to find mold.
So I’m screaming, the dogs are howling and Yui (the black cat) is giving pitiful moans of “what’s going on” from the basement. I start ripping apart the kitchen to find that mold has moved under the microwave. About an hour later the microwave is saved (yeah!), the rack is trashed (yeah!) and I have moved all the appliances to the floor. I call M. to bitch a bit as I scrub the counter, first with bleach, then with soap and scrubbies, and then with bleach again.
I found the white counter top!
I start putting things away. I found no less than 4 flashlights, one rusty (it got tossed). I moved the microwave to the island, the small appliances to the corner…and viola!
We have tons of counter space now…long free flowing counter space that is only whispered about in the myths of rich people who don’t actually use their kitchens unless it’s trendy, otherwise they just cater.
I have more stuff to put away, then I need to tackle laundry, and perhaps my room, which has languished due to other things.
I am so eating out tonight so I don’t ruin kitchen. That can wait till tomorrow when I bake cookies.
It Came!
Last night my computer finally came. Fedex took it back to the facility since we weren’t home at 2pm. Luckily Arvada has it’s own center so I did not have to drive back downtown. I got to the center, door ticket in hand, and lo had to wait a bit.
After about ten minutes the Fedex man popped his head into the waiting room to call my name. I followed him out and he took me to the pallet.
“2 boxes, right?” he asked.
“What?”
“Two boxes.” Okay there are two boxes here. One is obviously my new lap top. The other is a full Bose speaker system with a woofer. After getting the boxes in my car and driving home. I brought the Bose box into my house with the proclamation: “This is our Don’t Shoot Me gift from Dell.
”
I think I managed to convince J. to hook it up to the upstairs stereo, and therefore hook the TV, Wii, and Satellite into the stereo for full surround. What? Did you think I’d be hooking up all that crap to the lap top? Maybe if I have a desk one day.
So after that ooo and ah, I started to dig into the laptop box. This is the part where you must realized, I am neglecting trash duty, laundry and present wrapping to do this. I did get the present wrapping done later and I managed to do the dishes, but my wardrobe today is a bit lacking in the not-so-white trash department.
The large boxed turned out to be a layer of two smaller boxes. The first contained cords and software (I have MS Office 2007 now. Another Dell gift). It also contained a leather day planner.
Okay, it only looked like a leather day planner.
When I opened that up, it had a convenient pocket for the manuals, sleeves for about 10 cds and a pocket for the included shammy and noise cancellation ear phones.
Cool.
So I pull the actual laptop out. The exterior is black warped watery thing with a few inches both vertically and horizontally on my last laptop. Instead of a pci slot, it has a remote control for watching dvds and playing music. The Dell logo lights up with that eerie diamond colored light that most laptop logos light up with now (think the apple logo, M.’s hp laptop does it too.) I have the added bonus that the gray gills on the back of mine also emit that light. I can’t control the color or brightness of it like I could with the M1710 or even the M170 I used to have. The lights on the side of the computer are also gone. However like the M1710, the M1730′s touch pad lights up, and I can change the color, as well as the front lights.
It doesn’t have the bio tech that the other laptops come with…but it has some weird gaming LCD at the top left…supposedly some games use it…but right now it tells me things I need to know…like the time and what my computer is doing with itself. Handy.
The screen is extremely clear. Since Dell has it’s own doc for icons, I’ll be trying that out. I can’t make it as small as Rocket Dock but it has groups. 
.
I only had enough time to put Firefox on the machine and uninstall various stuff I didn’t want to deal with. I now have two computers with webcams…hrm.
Stupid Things I Did Today
Realized that I had already fixed the database to print tickets via an MS Excel or Open Office Calc document last March.
I just forgot.
Less work for me…just need to get a printer so I can get it to feed right.
When Things Explode Everything will be Okay if you don’t Panic and have Towel
Not Panic (tempted to kick the shit out of an off the shelf Compaq server).
Towel (Dell Latitude Laptop)
Status: Server Software Installed, Website Software Installed.
Ticket Issue: SOLVED
I’m so good.
Realizing I’ve been over thinking the problem: Priceless.