Although I had enough sleep, I wasn't ready to get out of bed when I looked at the clock. Instead of getting up, I switched positions, buried my head under two pillows to block out the light, and fell back into a light sleep and equally light dreams.

Usually my dreams are replete with adventure, sex, espionage, quantum physics and tons of weirdness.

One of the last ones I had this morning was one where I dreampt of alcohol, of being in a liquor store shopping for a small dinner party later that night. For reasons that do not necessarily mimic real life choices, I was searching for super sweet selections. ie; ice wine, Tequila Rose, Kahlua, Baileys*. I recall finding odd shaped bottles of pre made martinis. On the shelf were several frosted glass isosceles triangular bottles, the long tip being the opening, and somehow, also the bottom of the bottle. I bypassed those momentarily, as the thought of making mudslides sounded really good.

Still dreaming, this idea prompted me to entertain the idea of alcoholic ice cream. I spoke about it to the friend in my dream. Lovely cool scoops of ice cream that tasted like any sort of beverage you desired, and actually had that alcohol contained within. MmMmmMmmmm. My dream proceeded onto more interesting material, and there was a lot more to even this one, but this little bit remained as a fresh memory upon waking.

Now I could go for some Baileys icec ream- maybe in a soft serve custard? nice!

Alcohol ice cream has been done:


Makes me want to try making of my own.
Snoopy snow cones made with vodka doesn't count. Who was that? I bet it was (e:mike)?

I think the alcohol element derived from all the sweet drinks and various 'martini' talk around here, and I'm pretty sure that the ice cream element rose from my reading material last night, one of Augusten Burroughs many memoirs, Running with Scissors. (Is this a movie now?)

In a chapter titled, "School Daze", young (13) Augusten is reflecting that things going on in his life are much more interesting than anything in school. That when in school, he felt completely unable to identify with the lives of his fellow students. He didn't want to go to school and only went when necessary. An excerpt from one passage:

"How could I just sit there obediently pinning a butterfly's wings to a lab tray or memorizing prepositional phrases? When the other boys in the locker room were showering and talking about their weekends playing soccer, what was I supposed to say. "Oh, I had a great time. My thirty-three year old boyfriend said he wished they could package my cum like ice cream so he could eat it all day."
:X
and that last sentence stuck with me.

If I am to take anything away from my dream, it is to get drunk and laid pronto.


I can not draw with this. Some of you can create masterpieces.
I've got master pieces of crap. Not that that stops me :)

triangular martini bottles


licking a cone of baileys ice cream

• Are other brands of Irish Cream any good? If so, which? I've only purchased Baileys, but I've seen a few others and was curious.

laptop issues continue (e:theecarey,47877)
(e:theecarey,47879)

So, my computer mouse and touch pad issues did not mysteriously disappear as I had hoped. While I enjoy miraculous recoveries of inanimate objects, there is usually an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.

Originally, two mice failed to work. USB ports are working with other components. Touchpad stops working or works intermittently at the same time that the mice fails. After uninstalling the mouse drivers and allowing the computer to reinstall them, I found that neither continued to work. I did not see how a new mouse would help, but I had picked one up anyway as I wanted a retractable travel variety. Interestingly, the mouse worked. (e:theecarey,47877)

Forward to a couple weeks later or so, and now the same issues have reemerged. Touchpad and mouse work intermittently. Now that I have backed everything up with my new hard drive (e:theecarey,47946), I am much more open to experimentation. Going to root around in the video stuff soon..

But all that stuff besides, I am facing the reality of having to purchase a new computer. I've had this Toshiba laptop for over four years, my old Gateway laptop (still running, but has its own set of issues) for about seven years, and for kicks, I still have my desktop circa 1997; rarely used but once or twice a year- wow, twelve years already? (it collects dust)

I know I have prattled on about buying a new PC on and off for some time. I always want new gadgets, but am often reticent in plunking down the money until I have to. So now reality is setting in, and I really need to figure out what I want, need, etc.

Ideally, I would build a desktop myself and purchase a little laptop for my mobile/in between needs. That would be a toss up between the ASUS or the HP. Not sure what my budget is yet, but once I start getting prices that will help figure out what I want to spend versus what I have to spend.

I miss CompUSA. Online, I usually look at TigerDirect.com

sorry again, (e:metalpeter) - nothing risque to be seen here. (again!)

drats.

I'll leave that to (e:paul) and (e:hodown) :)


I purchased a 1TB external hard drive over the weekend.

I went with the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition. After some research and checking price points, I felt comfortable going with this one at this time.

It is a simple plug and play utilizing its USB connection cord.

I have since backed up my music, photos and other files from my primary laptop, but I have plenty more to back up from my other computer and CD-ROMs, and even a slew of old floppy disks. I will continue to back up on disk (back up to the back up), then also back up on occasion to the external hard drive. I don't see myself having it continually in use at this point.

I now want to pull the tools off the drive (save them to a disk/flash drive) and reformat the drive to get that space back. I imagine I would lose everything I have saved to it so far? Anyway, I'm not in a hurry as I'm not hurting for the 465GB that it takes up, but would like to know that I have all that extra space for my precious belongings.

Here are some Google images:

A slew of over ripe bananas and creative use of available baking supplies plus random items from fridge produced not one, but two varieties of insanely delicious banana 'bread'. Banana something anyways! So good I want more and desperately want to reproduce in all its yummy glory.


I'd list the recipe, but I didn't follow one. I had some ingredients and mixed them together to see what came up. Seriously.

Two bowls of ingredients were mixed together. One that resulted in a regular super crazy moist banana bread with fine chopped walnuts:


Then, feeling extra experimental (and loving the taste of bananas and chocolate), I added a bunch of stuff** together to get this:





Both were so good, and the antithesis to all things relatively healthy. My next adventure in banana bread will be an experiment in making a hearty bread made with all good stuff. But I'd be tempted to try and make one or both of these again.

• I remember I threw together a bowl of several mashed bananas, butter, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, eggs, a splash of vanilla coffee creamer, the remnants of an almost empty sour cream container, small semi sweet chocolate chips swirled in, hot cocoa mix and a few walnuts. Maybe a sprinkle of brown sugar too. Oh and a few extra tiny chocolate chips tossed on top once poured into the pan.

It was a huge hit with anyone who ate it. They didn't believe what was in it. I don't think it was that weird, but I know my 'creative tendencies" in the kitchen can be questionable.

mmmMmmMmmMmmmmmmm

• sigh*

I'm sitting here looking at my user pic. I was musing over the events surrounding it when I thought more about the time frame. My user pic is one that I took with my phone (pocket pc 8125) over two years ago.

That was when I lived with (e:Paul), (e:Matthew), and (e:Terry).

wow, how time has passed!

Also, I am sitting at the same desk that is in that picture. I loved sitting at my desk, in my room, working on various writing and creative projects. The second hand desk was an important part of my little world. A lovely large Salvation Army find, now so long ago.

When I moved out, my beloved desk was shoved into my garage, left to sit and collect dust ever since. I was planning on selling it, until I had the notion recently to bring it inside my house. I had moved the furniture around my living room a bit, and now had a very empty large space. Which in most cases I prefer. Simple surroundings is a preference.

But I needed a better work space. I often used my dining room table, but that is a little out of the way (and cold), despite my loving the room it is in. I have a pseudo office slash exercise room slash cat litter box slash throw all room, but it isn't inviting to my needs at all. So usually I sat on the comfy couch with my laptop and just hooked up the printer as needed. My coffee table always in some sort of office like disarray.

yuck, clutter.

Couch is good, very comfy even, and likely preferred for mindless surfing, but now that I moved my desk in, and my comfy computer chair, I am loving it so much more. I normally hate sitting at a desk. I am tall with a long torso, so often desks, counter tops etc are too low, even with lowered seating, putting a strain on my back. It puts me into a forced bad posture. This desk sits high, and my chair is low, so my back is happy with good (ok, better) posture.

Now all I want to do is sit at my desk with a mug of coffee and write.

even my coffee tastes better sitting here.

and that's a good thing.

kinda dorky, but I bet some of you relate in some way :)

come on, girl, do it right!.... looks like Jackman is!



and so..
I just tuned in (ok, 35 minutes ago) to the Presidential Address to Congress, after watching, The Biggest Loser. I forgot how much I liked that show. Somehow it seems wrong to munch on gummie bears (e:theecarey,47879) while watching the people on there bike for 24 hours straight.

Reminds me that I need to renew my gym membership and get myself on a schedule. I'd like a training session to help me get back on track and to have a better goal in mind. I lose and tone quick (and lose tone and gain quick), so I want something further to reach for. If the trainers at UB Alumni didn't look so damn bored and put off by training, I would set myself up with someone from there. Alas, I don't need someone yakking with other college kids while I'm trying to learn and push myself. Leave me to my elliptical and weights, thank you.

ok, gotta get back to Obama. I think he just made a snarkyish comment about no more will people be flying their private jets to meetings, or something like that... heh

I really am in the market for an external hard drive. I think that has also been on the mind of another estripper? (e:tinypliny) perhaps? Was it/is it you? Whomever it is, did you come up with something yet?

I have most all of my pictures backed up. I know I copied several folders awhile back, but I am thinking that I haven't kept up with it since then, so I am going through them now and making sure that I have at least the past ten months copied to disk.

Then Word documents will simply be attached to an email and sent off to another email account. Most documents that I have are old school papers, so overall, nothing really vitally important.

HOWEVER, my music is.

This is what actually prompted my desire for backup more than anything else. Using a bunch of CDs would be ridiculous- time consuming and it would take way to many. So, I decided on burning all of/most of my music to DVD's. I just bought a ten pack at Big Lots for $4.00, should more than take care of my immediate needs. 4.7 GB each? yeh, i think so.

Once I scout around and find an external HD, then all will be backed up to that. Maybe I want a couple of HDs? Would that be better for keeping organized? ie; a place for all of my photos to be stored? This will all be new to me, as I haven't looked into/been interested in them before now.

also, I bought an optical travel mouse (retractable cord) for $8.00 *

and some gummy bears.

• The new mouse is working. Unlike the two/three others tried out in the prior post (e:theecarey,47877). It is smaller than I am used to, but I am thankful that it is working. It is all shiny blue and silver. I pledge to take good care of it. Keep it from plunging to it's death.

but I am still keeping my eyes open for other laptop misbehavior, as I feel skeptical that the others weren't working, and the touchpad was all wonky as well.

anyway, so far so good.

Sitting here sipping a mug of coffee, I have a few things to figure out with my laptop.

Could it be possible that I have two dying mice, or is it likely something more troubling than that. I'm betting on that latter, hoping for the former.

My notes so far- add suggestions if you please :)

My laptop mouse, once plugged in, works for a second or two, then cuts out. I had another laying around that I tried, and it too did the same. However, I am good at managing to let those things nose dive to the floor, so if either of them gave up working, I wouldn't blame them.

but I doubt it.

I also had a full day of normal mouse behavior in between the erratic mouse behavior (and now pretty much unresponsive).

So off to the Device Manager I went. Found the mice, uninstalled the drivers. Restarted, let the computer recognize and reinstall/reestablish drivers. Prior erratic behavior continues.

Use of the touchpad is now erratic (from smooth and accurate pointer movement to effortful placement and location of pointer) as well. and annoying,

Thinking it is not mouse specific at this point

Both USB ports work well -dug out an old A drive, also plugged my printer in.

So, System Restore. I can't think of any programs or other tweaking I have done to my computer recently, but I went back a couple of weeks anyways. As assumed- system restore wasn't fruitful. Could go back further.... but I don't want to at this point (if I don't have to).

so now I am stumped (or at least reticent to go where it might be going--motherboard). Laptop issues stump me easier than desk top issues. Everything is so integrated that it can be difficult to pinpoint, or even find an accurate starting point.


again, because of this, it is possible I am looking at a downhill motherboard.

but maybe not.

now I'm backing up some files to disk and flash drives.

and then some research, see what more I can come up with

oy!
(I've also since added liqueur to my coffee)

Go play with your own spider:


This is as close as I would willingly come to touching one.

It is creepy.







and if that doesn't do it for you, you can:

break dance:



sketch and paint:


eat mice in a snake game:


or..

play with a drum machine:

I was looking through yahoo news photos from around the world. I took particular interest to ones involving an Australian bushfire. I believe this took place around the 8th or so of this month? Not sure if anything about it has been posted around here, as the more I looked into the story, the more I realized how much of a global interest it has, especially in regards to a Koala named Sam (Samantha) and a fireman, David Tree, who helped her**.

This is the picture that initially attracted my attention:


"A koala named Bob (top), rescued from last week's deadly bushfires, puts his paw around new friend and fellow fire survivor Sam as she recovers from her burns at Southern Ash Wildlife Centre near Melbourne February 11, 2009. A love story about two koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided a glimmer of hope after days of devastation and the loss of more than 180 lives."
(Southern Ash Wildlife Centre/Colleen Wood/Reuters)


Then this picture followed, which made my heart ache a bit. I immediately wondered how he came to approach her and what the scenario was like (which we get to find out... )


"A firefighter finds a koala moving gingerly on her scorched paws after wildfires sweep Australia. "Sam" accepted a bottle of water and is now recovering at a wildlife shelter."


Then I did another search, which brought me to this video of the fireman approaching the Koala and giving her water.


"A koala named Sam is given a drink of water by Country Fire Authority volunteer fire fighter Dave Tree as he rescued her after deadly fires swept through the area of Mirboo North, about 120km (75 miles) southeast of Melbourne, February 8, 2009."
(Mark Pardew/Reuters)



A few more photos from news.com.au- Tree and Sam reunited..
insanely sad and cute- I want to kiss and hug and squish her with love!











Taken from above link, the following article is one of many available.
[box] Feb 12, 2009 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (2)
Belinda Goldsmith
Reuters News Agency

CANBERRA-A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of more than 180 lives.

The story of Sam and her new boyfriend Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter Dave Tree used a cellphone to film the rescue of the bewildered female found in a burned-out forest at Mirboo North, 150 kilometres southeast of Melbourne.

Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit website YouTube.

But it was after reaching the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter that Sam met and befriended Bob.

The shelter's Colleen Wood said both koalas were doing well, while other animals like possums, kangaroos and wallabies were also starting to emerge from the debris.

She said Sam had suffered second-degree burns to her paws and would take seven to eight months to recover while Bob had three burned paws with third-degree burns and should be well enough to return to the bush in about four months.

"They keep putting their arms around each other and giving each other hugs," said Wood.

"They really have made friends and it is quite beautiful to see after all this. It's been horrific."

Tree, a volunteer with the Country Fire Authority Victoria, said the pair have "really taken a shine to each other," adding that after the devastating fires "it gives people a bit of hope."

Meanwhile, police in the state of Victoria have detained two people suspected of deliberately lighting one of the bushfires that tore through rural towns north of Melbourne on the weekend, fanned by strong winds and heat-wave temperatures.

"The investigation is in its initial stages. Two people are assisting police with inquiries," a police spokesperson said today.

The fires have burned 1,033 homes and left 5,000 people homeless. Authorities say the death toll is expected to rise beyond 200 as more bodies are discovered in the charred remains of houses.[/box]

• There are some conflicting articles regarding the timing of the video. Firefighter, David Tree took the picture and video about a week before the fires? So while nothing above appears to be untrue, the timing if the video is in question. Regardless the pictures are what they are, an animal has been rescued and things are going well.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10556565

[box] Footage not what it seems * Prue Vincent-February 12, 2009

'Koala Man' Dave Tree woke up this morning to find he'd made front-page news across the globe.

NBC, Fox, CNN, even Ellen Degeneres have been on the phone, propelling Dave into the spotlight.

Unfortunately nobody appears to have asked the relevant question 'when was this video filmed?'

The video of the Mirboo North resident stroking a singed koala was actually taken in the week leading up to the deadliest bushfires in Australian history, during preventative backburning operations.

The video shows Dave feeding water from a bottle to the koala, now universally known as 'Sam'. The wounded animal also rests its paw on Dave's hand.

Now Dave has become a household name from London to Los Angeles, but he says all the media interest has taken its toll.

"I think it happened about a week and a half ago, but you'll have to bear with me - I'm losing track of the days.

"I've had all these phone calls for interviews, I've lost contact. I can't get my head around it. I don't think it's finished yet.

"But if Oprah Winfrey called and wanted me to come over to be on her show, I'd have to say No - I'm terrified of flying. I can't get in a plane.

Dave says there was no intention to deceive the public or court publicity and fame.

He says he only took the video to show his daughter.

"I emailed the photos out to a few people to cheer them up. And it's just snowballed from there.

"It's just gotten so out of control, I definitely wasn't up for it. My head's spinning. I'm having a hard time dealing with it...Mentally...it's just, wow. I'm really outside my comfort zone.

"I'm a country boy. I live in a small town of 1800. "

"If people see it as a distraction and a good news story amidst all the tragedy we're going through, then that's great.

Despite the time-lag, the photographs of Tree stroking Sam the Koala have come to symbolise the plight of native animals left homeless after thousands of hectares of bushland burnt.

"At first she was really wary, then she just plonked down and it was like "You're a big predator, but I'm sore, I'm beat, I'm done." She was in pain. And she just looked up at me. So I yelled out for the bottle of water. And she started lapping it up.

Tree was reunited with Sam after she'd been taken to the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter for bandaging.

"It was great to see her again. She had a sniff and I got a bit up close and personal, and I even got a bit choked up.

"So I got in there and got a few happy snaps but I had to bail because I was getting a bit chocked up.

Tree is full of praise for the CFA and DSE's work.

"I don't think there's a word in the English vocabulary that sums up the work these guys are doing. The CFA is a massive family. If one stands we all stand, if one falls, we all fall.

"We got off scot-free in our hometown. My heart goes out to those guys out there still fighting. It's just tragic what's happened.

"So many people have cried over it and I think people needed a release. I think that's why they've related to the koala so much."
[/box]