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July 17th, 2008
09:52 pm - Album Cover Meme redux
Speaking of Covers...
Remember that Album Cover Meme from a ways back?
Well, I'm a little bored and trying to stay awake, so thought I'd try it again. Of course, I cheated a bit, as I did last time. :P
Presenting:
Artist: Ethan Allen Express
Photo: Swish! by mintyfreshflavor
Quote: What They Tell Themselves from Seth Godin
Font for the title is Jellyka Castle's Queen
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first article title on the page is the name of your band.
2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album.
3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4. Use your graphics program of choice to throw them together, and post the result as a comment in this post. Also, pass it along in your own journal because it's more amusing that way.
Current Music: Ethan Allen Express - What They Tell Themselves
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09:15 pm - Covers can be awesome
I have a CD of a bunch of Goth Rock bands covering Cure songs, and I've heard 311's cover of Love Song, but Ben Folds does "In Between Days," and it makes me very happy.
Current Music: Ben Folds - In Between Days :P
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05:01 pm - Found this via ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) pharyngula
In Kansas, there's a man running for the state legislature. Big deal, you say? Well, he's an idealist. So he's gonna lose, you say? Well check out his xkcd-style Running for Office ad. No, seriously, click it. Get a good chuckle, then, if you like, make that donation. I did. Kansas could really use more people with brains running things.
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July 7th, 2008
02:08 pm - And many more... on Channel Four!
Happy birthday (and recover-from-Con-day) to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) davedujour!
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01:34 am - Opost-opossum-opartum
Well, I talked to the DNR guy, and he suggested that we all keep our cats in and let it outside in hopes that mama would sniff it out. It was in the top-opening cat-carrier, so I took the top off, and sat there in the dark for about thirty minutes, but mama was a no-show. I figured my presence might be the problem, so I came in for about another half-hour, and when I went down, the baby was gone. No signs of struggle or anything like that, so I think mama and baby are probably back together. At least I hope so. I hope Ares never brings me another. I almost wanted to keep it, but then I'd have to change my username to ellymayclampett, and wow, that's a PitA.
So, best wishes to my little temporary companion.
PS: I cut my hair on a whim. Actually, it may have been because I couldn't stand it any longer, which is the usual reason. :P
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July 6th, 2008
03:05 am - Semi-awesome opossum
Well, the little monsters have done it yet again. I went downstairs for a bio-break. Spot was freaked out about something, but I thought it was just the other cats. It was all I could see. I come back upstairs and Ares had a mouse, no a rat, no a BABY OPOSSUM on my floor. The poor thing was terrified. :( I picked it up by the tail, and it seemed to be uninjured. No blood or anything, anyway. I thought about putting it back outside, but it's only the size of a six-week old kitten. So I wiki'd it, and found the National Opossum Society site, which has a whole page dedicated to found orphan opossums. I followed the instructions to potty it (the cats scared the shit out of it, but I finished the job), and gave it some water in a dropper. It's now in a box with a couple of cloths to keep it safe and warm. While I was transferring it from just sitting on my lap wrapped up to the box, it panicked again, and it actually bit me. No broken skin, though. It's so tiny.
I'll call our DNR guy tomorrow to see what he thinks we should do with it.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/scared.gif) anxious
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July 2nd, 2008
06:25 pm - History, and cats + off-genre cover of Star Wars music
First, yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of the presentation of Charles Darwin's "On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection" to the Linnean Society.
Secondly, I just ran across this on my feeds:
http://www.stuffonmycat.com/index.php?itemid=10372
Listen to the music! OMFSMFTW!
Oh, yeah, kind of wish I could be at Cvg, but I just wasn't up to it this year. Have a cuppa in the TARDIS for me. I am so anxious to see the finale! ZOMG!
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June 30th, 2008
10:54 pm - WHY?!?! Do we really need this?!
From my TiVo newsletter:
SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE… Have you heard? Hollywood is bringing the adventures of "The Smurfs" to life in a feature film that will introduce the lil' blue cartoon creatures to a new generation of fans! It will be a hybrid live-action and animated film. Hmmm… who will be Gargamel?
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June 29th, 2008
06:51 pm - This guy's an asshole
Last night, I was playing WoW, in Heroic UB, and this PuG'd in mage yells out something that COULD BE NOTHING BUT A DOCTOR WHO SPOILER! Then he went afk for 10 minutes without telling anyone. I was healing. I let him die when he pulled aggro. Fuckin' asshole.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/charitycam/goth_girl/angry.gif) disgruntled
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June 27th, 2008
06:59 pm - This is why I love the Discovery Channel (and xkcd makes it a three-way)
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June 24th, 2008
11:00 pm - Don't drink anything while watching this unless you're into spitting things out your nose.
Shit, he was a funny guy.
PS: I'm an atheist, in case no one got the memo.
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June 23rd, 2008
08:12 am - R.I.P. George Carlin
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits.
Dammit. I really wish I'd gotten to see him when he was in CR. v_v
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June 20th, 2008
04:08 pm - This Day in History and Nommy Medical Terms
The Free Dictionary's This Day in History (tdf_tdih) is neat because it gives you a tidbit, a link to a wiki article on the subject at hand, and asks a little trivia question that you can research in the wiki. Today's is "Queen Victoria Ascends British Throne." The trivia question was, "She was the first known carrier of a hereditary illness later dubbed the "royal disease"; what is this disease called today?" You may be able to guess what my answer was.
Also, I wanted to point out that while a horrible condition (easily corrected with an outpatient procedure, btw), Anal Fistula has got to be the diagnosis that makes me giggle the most. The only other that does it for me is T&A (Tonsils and Adenoids).
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June 16th, 2008
07:57 pm - Non-flood related post!
anterastilis, I saw Neil Gaiman link the BirdChick's blog where see posted his pix of a Piliated Woodpecker, and thought of you! http://www.birdchick.com/2008/06/i.html
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05:57 pm - P and Bob interviewed in Newsweek online
My roomy/landlady, P (for Patti), and Bob Saar were interviewed for Newsweek Online. Here's the article. Their interviews start on Page 3.
From what I understand, the crest has hit and the waters should be receding, but I'm unsure when I'll be able to go home. The road into the Reserve is culverted to the stillwaters on the other side from the Lake, and if I go through Solon, there are no actual bridges to cross. Mehaffey Bridge and the bridge south of my road will likely need inspected for stability before they're reopened. I haven't heard about power to the Reserve, either. I expect P will keep me informed.
I can never express how much it means to me that so many of you have been "there" for me, at least in spirit. It's good to have the emotional support, even though I've avoided the worst of it. If anyone needs anything that I can help with, let me know. :) (No, I can't help with winning lotto tix.)
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June 15th, 2008
03:17 pm - My residence is okay
Sorry I don't have better image editing atm, but this is a pic of our house hidden behind the trees from across the lake. At the left you can see the steps down to the dock. The water's not yet up to the top of the steps which is still a few feet below the level of the house. With the cresting, the house should be okay. In that picture, you can also see the tops of the tiki torches that we left in the dock poles. The tops of those are about 5 feet above the top of the dock, which is normally about a foot above the level of the lake. It's a good thing that the Lake is so far above the Res or things would have been worse for us. Some of the other houses with lower elevations were not so lucky.
I'm just emotionally exhausted and pretty much unable to comprehend what's happened. The following weeks and months are going to be very difficult for everyone in the area. Those who are without a home to go back to, or a job to go back to, or with neither are going to have it the worst of course. The clean-up is going to take a long time and rebuilding will take all such resources for possibly years. I'll do what I can. I know the Red Cross is here and trying to assist the displaced. Here are the numbers for what they've done in Iowa. This organisation is one of the premiere charities for disaster relief and I highly recommend that if you have any resource that they can use, to help them to help the affected.
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June 14th, 2008
11:06 am - Just an update
snakewich let me use his computer to check email and LJ and everything. Thanks again to everyone for the war, dry thoughts. Hopefully things will not get any worse, although it's getting harder and harder to imagine how it could do. Cats are getting along okay, snakewich's Mim is still warning my babies to stay back, but nothing fur-flying-worthy. Going to the Mall. Shopping tends to be a stress reliever for me, and even if the shops are understaffed, I'll be patient and happy to be safe. Ta again and type to you all later.
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June 13th, 2008
05:23 pm - Flood update
Just a quick update from work. Internet is slow, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to check email for replies. I appreciate everyone's well-wishes. I especially appreciate the offers from morgaine723 and snakewich to stay with them for however long until I can get back home. I'm currently evac'd to snakewich's, and this morning, P called to tell me that the projections for the crest are getting progressively worse, so she was going to evac the cats as well. The water was starting to come over the road to the Peninsula, so she grabbed the cats and put them in their carriers and met me in Solon. snakewich's cat is wary, and my poor Ares is freaked and under the futon, but we're all alive and well and dry. I've come into work to do what work there is. The IC area is pretty much split in two by the river. Not much else to say, really. The flooding will probably enter the house, and the way it's built into the hillside, I'm concerned that there may be uneven subsidence which would bring the house out of plumb and maybe worse. I've declared a personal emergency and broken out my credit card for unexpected expenses so I needn't worry about money at the moment.
The Gov has declared I think it was 83 of 99 counties disaster areas at the last I heard. The river is supposed to crest at over 32', and the 1993 flood crested somewhere around 21'. I'm trying to remember the numbers, and these may be wrong, but just to give you an idea, this supposed to be around two fathoms higher than that other terrible flood that was fifteen years ago. The '93 flood was considered a 100-year flood, and the media's been throwing about the term 500-year flood, but really, there's no precedent at least since the area was settled by white people. I'm sure there are sites that I could link to, but it's be easier for you to Google them yourself at this point.
I'm safe for now, and it's really a matter of waiting for the waters to recede to assess what happens next. This is my first real I-never-thought-it-could-happen-to-me moment. I'm a refugee, an evacuee, and it's really an unreal and numbing experience.
I'll catch up on stuff and update as I can.
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June 12th, 2008
04:27 pm - The Epic of Gilgamesh II: The Refloodening
Just a quick update on my flood sitch. Last night I went down to the dock and checked the water level. The top of the dock is normally about 10"-12" above the water. Last night it was completely submerged by about 2". This afternoon, P took off work early to get supplies and come home to move furniture, etc up to the second floor. We took a tape measure out to see how high it would need to get to start flooding the pool room (pun not intended), which lies about 8" below the main area of the first floor. The water had risen to cover the bottom two steps down to the dock. That's at least another 8"-10" above last night. It looks like we have about 8' of rise before the water can enter the house proper. This is what is currently expected from the cresting of the River, which the Lake is a part of now that the spillway into the Reservoir has been topped. Hopefully, the large extra area of the Lake will help mitigate some of that cresting, both for us and for people downstream. I was watching Channel 9 (KCRG) this afternoon before heading to work, and the devastation in Cedar Rapids is "awesome," as one reporter said and quickly retracted. I immediately said, no, it is awesome in the original sense of the word. Inspiring awe, not necessarily being a good thing, accurately describes the flooding just north of us, and the worst part is that the crest hasn't hit yet. It's expected sometime tomorrow afternoon, so things will get worse before they get better. I'm most concerned that the Pen is going to become an Island and I will be either trapped on it or just my cats will be. I'm not sure which is worse. :\ Anyway, I guess it's just wait-and-see time. One can only hope for the best while preparing for the worst. I've got some spare clothes and other stuff packed up and in my car just in case. I have a decent amount of credit available, in case of emergency. I think this would count. I've also lost the ability to insert paragraph breaks effectively, so read the preceding at your own risk.
PEOPLE IN FLOODING AREAS: Please, please, PLEASE, if you come across a road that is water covered, do not attempt to cross it. Currents can be hard to discern and even a few inches of water can be enough to sweep away a person or even a vehicle.
Stay dry.
ETA: Just after I posted this, P called to say that the Sherriff's Dept. was out informing residents of a recommended evac, as the road to the Pen will probably be closed within the next 4 days. Power is out ATM, but might be restored. I'm going to do some work here quick and then head home. Kitties will probably stay with a roasting pan of food and a big pot of water on the second and third floors. Well, I'm really glad I bought so much reading materials last weekend.
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June 11th, 2008
04:38 pm - It's a brand new record since nineteen-ninety(-three)...
Well, if you're not in the area, let me tell you: it's rained a lot. A LOT. A WHOLE BIG LOT. We're over 7" above average for this time of year, the Coralville Dam's spillway has overflowed, the dog park has turned into a pond, and here on the Lake we're running out of land. The word is that this flooding will probably end up being worse than the flooding of '93, which was very bad. I read that about half the counties in the state are now considered disaster areas.
The Lake is very high. The foundation of the house is quite a few feet above the current level and even more above the normal level, but P called me this afternoon to say she's starting to move stuff out of the lowest level just in case. A lot of the houses on the Peninsula are lower elevation than ours, and she's concerned that if they start to get flooded, utilities might get shut off as a protective measure. I'm not so sure about that, and I'm not terribly worried, but I'm trying to be prepared.
So, if I need "alternate accommodations," is there anyone who'd be willing to give me a couch or futon or fuzzy rug to crash on?
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