12 daze

this one is pretty good, too. very very silly, but somehow pretty funny.

christmas can-can

i get tired of hearing all the christmas music, but i thought this was pretty good. enjoy!

can't keep up

i am waaaaay past everyone else in getting to see avatar but i know i'm going to love the visuals; my understanding is that the dialogue is terrible though. i loved myst, even though i never made it all the way through, so i'm sure i'm going to love avatar. visuals are a strong thing for me.

as i was looking around for information on how the movie was doing, i ran across this: http://www.geekologie.com/2009/12/spoiler_alert_avatar_the_movie.php. ahahahahaha!

a new baby!!

on tuesday, december 15, adam jeffrey was born. he was 8 lb. 15 oz., with dark hair and eyebrows, and a very quiet demeanor. he's been a very good baby with his only demands being to be fed and to be held.

big sister is happy around, and interested in, little brother and all is well. paternal grandparents stayed with the family for five days and maternal grandparents are visiting today.

it will be interesting to see who adam ends up looking like -- ava's looks seemed to change so much from day one, just like babies tend to do. she is a pretty and absolutely darling little kid and with such good-looking parents, i expect adam will be a little heartbreaker.

however it turns out, everyone is healthy and happy. a good start to any type of endeavor!

Oel ngati kameie.

i've got mixed feelings about james cameron. he's brilliant and has an incredibly inventive mind, but also seems to have a colossol ego and a really bad temper. he's been married five times, which shows he has flaws and keeps him from being a genuine role model. regardless, i'm excited about avatar and want to see it in a movie house. with it's own language and planet, it's got to be interesting, even if it flops. as if.

the little guys are goin' down

ooohhhhhhh, a new bad guy. and this one is going to ultimately increase the cost of food. we can only hope the big guys go ahead and do an antitrust suit on these people.

hahahaha, blechk, hahaha ...

since i do all except grocery shopping online, i get a ton of catalogs. a lot of them i just throw away since they don't have the slightest thing i'm interested in. some of them i look through, then throw away. some of them i decide to order from.

and then there's the ones i look through and shake my head over. this latest catalog has the following interesting items for your consideration: gun cufflinks, 18k gold, $5,590; natural shell cufflinks, $1,475; leather-topped bed steps, $675; pair of dresden peacock urns, $9,500; 8x10 enamel picture frame, $325; fake fur throw, $1,750; crystal lamp, $425; alligator earrings, $2,150; diamond elephant pin, $10,500. sorry, i can't go on ... between laughing and getting ready to throw up, this is too much.

mandelbrot

do you like looking at fractals? they are pretty darn fascinating, to me. MYS started putting together a 3-d fractal thing recently. i'm interested in what it looks like.

i saw an article recently about a math equation which can produce a fractal. it goes through numerous iterations getting more and more detailed and complex. the picture below is one of nine shown in the article. check them all out -- they are otherworldly. is this beautiful, or what?!

caveat

do you do the facebook thing? recently facebook decided to change their permissions. if you have an account and care anything at all about who gets to see your stuff, go in and check your settings.

i went to look at mine and made changes, but good grief! there are a lot of different places you have to watch out for. it's not simple, that's for sure.

i've never really liked facebook, and now i like it even less. i may just shut down my site. any company who plays loose and free with privacy just sucks as far as i'm concerned. user, beware!

it's so special

my ex-boss makes this great christmas candy. it's mint candy pieces in this white fondant. it is sooooooooo good!!!

she willingly shared that she gets the pieces from this candy store in kalamazoo, michigan. i am going to have to call them and see if i can get some. all my little darlings will have a taste treat they won't believe!

thanks, ex-boss!!!

do this, don't do that, let them do what they want

i think my unhappiness with things nowadays has a direct and very strong tie with my age. i've seen strictness in america (police in the 50's), i've seen dissent (abby hoffman, the weather underground, the black panthers), i've lived the cold war (gary powers, community and basement bomb shelters), seen two presidents shot (kennedy and reagan), seen deadly spy efforts (georgi markov), and seen rules and regulations you wouldn't believe (girls can't wear pants to school, if you missed a deadline there were no second chances, complete statistics about people who lived in a town were available in city directories -- their jobs, salaries, family members and ages, address, phone number, and more).

i don't miss that stuff, but i do have a problem with namby-pamby laws which let criminals off easy, parents who let their kids run amok in stores and restaurants, people who are rude, and the whole litany of political correctness since it's usually waaaaaaaay overdone.

can't we strike a pleasant and reasonable balance?