Designer CD-R’s to hit the market?

One thing I’ve been doing in my spare time is filling out surveys for new products. Every once in a while I get samples of new stuff to try out at home … I’m hoping I get a few samples of these:

These are new “designer” CD-R’s that Maxell and Sony might be releasing. Last listed price I saw for these was $12.99 USD for a 20-pack. I submitted my feedback on the designs but did note that the price was a bit high. Other “specialty” CD-R’s have a problem being sold for that reason: the high price. (Remember the cute “vinyl” CD-R’s?) If they come down on the price a few bucks, I’d buy ‘em.

I Pledge Allegiance …

I read this on Michael’s blog today and it was so cute I just had to share it here! :mrgreen:

A young Star Trek fan was suspended from school for reciting his own version of the Pledge of Allegiance, in which he pledged to the United Federation of Planets. His mom has posted the hilarious story:

“So, anyway. What did he do?” I picked at the hem of my sweatshirt, looked just to the right of her face. I couldn’t meet her eyes. I felt nervous. I felt underdressed. I wondered where 8 was.

So she told me what he did. And as she told me, I started to laugh. I didn’t laugh a little, either, but I belly-laughed and grabbed my stomach. My son stood with his class this morning, put small right hand over heart, faced the American flag, and recited his own personal pledge of allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Federation of Planets, and to the galaxy for which it stands, one universe, under everybody, with liberty and justice for all species.

“Mrs. Jaworski. This isn’t humorous. The Pledge is an extremely important and patriotic moment each morning in the classroom. I am ashamed of your son’s behavior, and I hope you are, too.”

If you’re Batman, who are they?

I woke up this morning and to my dismay it’s Monday already! :cry:

Oh well, let’s get to it … had an OK weekend. Friday we left work right after lunch and got to goof off for most of the day. I went to work out that afternoon and am still a little sore today from it. (that’ll teach me for slacking the last coupla weeks!!)

Had to do some work-related stuff Saturday and wasn’t thrilled about that. But we did catch up with Captain Fantastic and his girlfriend Miranda to see the new Batman movie. I thought it was great!! It was a lot darker and more serious than the other campy Batman’s … and I thought Christian Bale has been the best Batman yet! He can pull off the handsome millionaire party boy role (ala Shaft … can you dig it?), but also can do the dark and tortured, brooding super hero bit as well.

Of course, I did enjoy the older campy Batman flicks … hey, who doesn’t want to see the governor of California as a walking Popsicle? But this Batman better explained and displayed the one we know and loved from the old comics.

I thought that Cillian Murphy did an excellent job as Dr. Crane, aka Scarecrow. Of course, it also starred Katie Holmes … and who doesn’t love her, right Tom? :roll:

Jessie’s mother is taking her to see it today. When I objected yesterday, she became really defensive saying that she had talked to Jim already and he OK’d it. Which I later found out that they didn’t exactly “talk” about it, she mentioned it off-handedly some time back. I dropped the issue, but did try to tell her to prepare herself for Jessie’s reaction to it.

There weren’t ANY kids in the theater when we went … and probably for a good reason. Bruce Wayne’s parents’ death is a heavy subject in the movie, and right now Jessie has a hard time dealing with that subject. She’s terrified of dying, and gets upset from time to time when she thinks about her mother or me or Jim dying. Hell, I spent an hour last night talking to her about the subject and trying to explain that death is a natural part of Life’s cycle. But I don’t think she fully understands … who does at that age?

Plus (back to the movie) there are some Scarecrow scenes that will most likely give Jessie nightmares. I tried to warn the woman … hell, I suggested taking her to one of the many “kid movies” out right now that Jessie’s dying to see.

Batman was awesome in my book … but not for my kid. But that’s just my $.02 … what do I know?

Surely you must be joking. I never joke, and don’t call me Shirley.

In my Neopets guild, my rank is Jester — an honorary title mostly, I liked it better than the regular Council ones! And so this month I won the “Member of the Month” award. Part of my prize is to organize a quest for all of the other members.

Seeing as how I’m the guild jester, I thought it fitting that I request they send me their best jokes. Here are two really cute ones I got this week:

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Two women went out for ladies night out. They got a little tipsy and decided to walk home for the bar. On the way home they each had to use the bathroom. They were walking by a cemetery and decided to hide behind a grave marker and go. Neither having paper it was decided they would use their underwear and just throw them away. Well the first lady goes and throws hers away. When the other lady goes she has on some expensive underwear and does not care to lose them so she grabs a big ribbon of some flowers on a adjacent grave.

The next day the one husband calls the other and says “I dont think we should have girls night out anymore, my wife came home with no underwear.” Well the other husband says, “Is that all? My wife came home with a note attached to her butt that read ‘FROM ALL OF US AT THE FIRE STATION, THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES!’”

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Q: What has 75 balls and screws old ladies?
A: Bingo

It’s the Fett!

A few days ago my buddy Jason had sent out an email asking that anyone who either had or could acquire a Boba Fett Star Wars toy from Burger King to get him one. The next day I came home from work to find a note he left on my door that morning letting me know that he found a BK (which happened to be near my house) that had Boba Fett’s! hehehe a very excited Jim wanted BK that night, LOL! So now I have 2 Boba Fett’s to add to my collection, as well as a C3PO, a coupla more Tie Fighter ships, and a Storm Trooper.

(Of course Jessie adopted one of the Boba’s as her new bath toy, LOL!)

Thanks Jas! :mrgreen:

So Grim, So True, So Real

“Justice is lost, Justice is raped, Justice is gone
Pulling your strings Justice is done
Seeking no truth, Winning is all
Find it so grim, so true, so real” — … And Justice for All, Metallica 1988

When I heard yesterday’s verdict in the Michael Jackson case, this song instantly popped into my head. Fitting, I thought … money being the ultimate defense in our Justice system.

But to be fair, the accuser’s parents didn’t exactly help make the case open and shut. Honestly, who in their right mind would send their child to sleep with a grown man!??! :shock: Especially one who has been accused of child molestation in the past!!!

Did anyone else notice how the closer to the verdict that case got, the sicker and more pitiful Jackson appeared? In the beginning of the case, he was all happy and dancing on top of cars … and just a few days ago, he was “severely underweight” and “dangerously stressed” to the point of hospitalization.

He was stressing because he just knew his pansy ass was about to go to PRISON! That doesn’t sound like an innocent man to me.

But what do I know?

Dreams

I had a really weird dream last night. I don’t remember all of it, but one part I do remember as clearly as I can see my monitor in front of me now — I was bleeding. What I do remember is that I was doing something to make myself bleed, either cutting or stabbing. It didn’t seem like my skin, or even real blood, but in my dream I knew it was real and that it was mine. I remember the way my skin looked, the color and texture; and I remember watching the blood slowly creep out of my wounds, first a deep purple, then crimson, streaking red lines down my flesh.

I remember thinking “Why am I doing this?” And then I started tasting, then drinking the blood. I don’t remember anything after that.

I’ve both seen and been monsters in my dreams before, but never with this kind of clarity.

Search down

I’m not sure of the when or why, but at some point the Search function stopped working, so I’ve taken it down for now. Considering the fact that I’m going to re-do my site, it’s pointless to spend a bunch of time on it anyways.

Oh Woe Do I Begin?

I’ve been kind of avoiding everyone lately. Work and family have been stressing me out so I’ve been rather withdrawn … Hell, it’s taken me 3 days to actually SIT and write this …

Work has been rather trying. The owner, rather than work with us and schedule a time, told Jim that he’s to perform the next webserver upgrade at 2 in the morning on a Monday or Tuesday or his picking (not Jim’s), rather than the suggested Thursday. If something goes wrong over a weekend, that’s no big deal and would make it really easy for one, if not both, of us to be available to work on it — plus have time to sleep. During the week, however is another issue because of Jessie. AND neither of us will get any OT pay or offtime for working those hours.

During last week’s meeting, the issue was brought up and Jim’s re-suggestion of doing it on a Thursday and it was quickly shot down. To put it shortly, he wanted it his way or we were free to leave.

I’m ready to leave.

Today I found out that a 3rd-party is re-doing the entire site in ASP. That’s just fine and dandy … except for the small teency fact that we will be the ones doing the updates and maintenance of this thing, and NEITHER JIM NOR I KNOW ASP!!!

This was, of course, much to the boss’ chagrin when we brought this to his attention.

What pisses me off most about this thing — not that someone else is doing what should be OUR JOB!!! — is that the new site looks to me (although I haven’t received any of the source files YET) that it might negate all of the PHP work I have done over the past year … A FUCKING YEAR!

I need a new job.

Working here is stressing me and Jim out, we’re constantly at each other’s throats. Our benefits keep getting reduced. And when you ask for a raise, you’re given a sob story about how the company is going through financial troubles.

Yeah, you guys look like you’re hurting … one of you JUST built a brand new 5 bedroom house, all of you are driving monstrous SUVs, … your kids’ allowance is probably more than my salary, so pardon me if I don’t fucking CARE.

The office manager tells me that the owners didn’t draw a paycheck in order to meet payroll. Forgive me for not sympathizing, but if they miss a payday, they’re still fine — if *I* miss a payday, I could lose my home, or my utilities, or not be able to buy FOOD or the basic NECESSITIES for my FAMILY!

But I rant and digress …

Jessie had her eye appointment a couple of weeks ago. We’re told that she’ll have to wear glasses for the rest of her life. She’s self-conscious as it was, now she’s worse. I feel bad for her. I knew a lot of kids growing up that wore glasses and were picked on a LOT! She has enough problems getting along, she doesn’t need that.

We found out Friday that Jim’s insurance is not going to cover the work done on his hand. Great, another expense we didn’t need. Plus his car needs the A/C fixed. My car needs engine work.

It all feels so overwhelming, and I know it’s taking a toll on everyone. Last night Jim and I had a huge fight that ended in a shouting match … we both said things that hurt. Poor Jessie tried to play referee between us, asking us not to fight and to “not be apart.”

Bless her little heart, she’s so sweet.

We try not to fight in front of her, but she did hear Jim telling me that his ex was better than me and that he should just go back to her, and me telling him “Fine, go back to HER!”, … and I didn’t hear his reply because at this point I had gone upstairs and turned the TV up so I couldn’t hear him.

After both of us had calmed down and started talking again, she hugged both of us saying that she didn’t want us to be apart, and that she liked Jim staying with me better than she did him staying with her mother.

Out of the mouths of babes … *sigh* … the only thing we have that’s *right* is each other, but even that is wearing down because of everything else.

We both know that if we keep working here, we are going to tear each other apart. And it’s looking as if we stay near Birmingham, we will not be able to find a decent job. Something’s got to change, and soon.

Oh well, at least it’s finally stopped raining …

Email down

I should’ve known something was up when I noticed the miniscule amount of email I received yesterday … it seems my MX records were screwed up sometime late Tuesday or early Wednesday, and I didn’t realize it until late lastnight when none of my emails would go through and I received a bounced message from one of my php mail scripts.

So if anyone emailed, me please re-send it!

What’s odd about the whole thing was that only 3 of my domains were affected, the other 4 were ok … weird …

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