Friday, June 06, 2003

I can’t get my page to open because Imood is having problems. Dang it.

There is no one here today. LW called to say she’ll be at home with her sick son (sure, and it has nothing to do with how sunny it is and that’s it’s a Friday). My boss is in Norfolk. The Asset Forfeiture folks have been at a conference all week. And I have no idea where the warrants supervisor is. So I’m all alone in the front half of the office.

It’s going to be a long, lonely day. *sigh*

It’s a beautiful day and I’m happy it’s Friday. Although they’re calling for more rain tomorrow, so that sucks. I’m stuck inside with no windows on the sunny day and have the rainy day free. Figures.

I have no big plans for the weekend. I have worship band practice tonight, as usual. Tomorrow I plan to hit the Wal-Mart to pick up some stuff. I may try to rent a carpet cleaner to do my semi-annual cleaning of key areas in my apartment where my pet has done what pets do.

I’m sure there will be some blogwork. I’d like to get my about page moved over here. And there are a couple features in pMachine that I’d like to figure out and get working. I’m missing my smilies in my comments and want to figure out how to get them back too.

My dad is home this weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll be hanging out with my parents at all tomorrow.

Sunday is pretty standard - church in the morning with small group in the evening. I’m hoping I’ll actually have my whole small group this time. We’re really behind on our study, although we have the summer to get it done since we sort of have the summer off.

That’s all very exciting, huh?

Thursday, June 05, 2003

I love dialects. I think it comes from moving around so much as a kid - you learn the little differences in language with each new place. Even within the US, it’s like there are several little foreign languages to be learned - cool words and phrases, how to pronounce town names, how certain letters and words sound, new words (can anyone tell me what a frappe is?), etc.

I realized while I was in Georgia that as soothing as the southern accent is, I don’t love it like I used to. There was a lady from the Brooklyn USMS office who had the thickest New Yawk accent and I wanted to hear her talk all day long. And there was another from Maine that I enjoyed listening to as well. After spending almost six years in New England recently, I realized that I was completely in love with those accents - as harsh as they are. There’s something about them - I think it’s that I wasn’t able to pick it up (because there are about 7-8 dialects within New England and they’re all jumbled up in the area that I lived in because of transplants).

So I was surfing and discovered Wicked Good Guide to Boston English at Boston Online. Now this is wicked good stuff.

See also Vocab a-e, vocab f-p, vocab q-z, place names, and pronounciation.

Krempasky speaks of that which we shouldn’t and yet we’re all aware that it happens.

As my post title says, ladies encounter it as well. And it’s not pretty.

ALERT!!!

I will be watching Episode Two in about 30 minutes. Blogging may be non-existent for the rest of the evening.

You’ve been warned…

LATER: Show’s over. Good one. There are definitely some teams that I won’t be sad to see go when they get Philiminated. 

Some interesting public figures finish this sentence over at Beliefnet.com. My favorites (for varying reasons, as I’m sure you’ll understand as you read them):

If I were Goddess, I would send a wave of understanding, love, and wisdom throughout all of Planet Earth so that humankind and the rest of the web of life would be in better relation, not only for that moment, but for times to come. --Rev. Selena Fox, Wiccan high priestess & Ecospiritual minister

Recalling the line, “If I had a hammer, there would be no more folk singers,” let me say, “If I were God, there would be no more God-movies.” --Jack Miles, author of “Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God”

[via the thinkings]

I’ve seen this test many places. Thought I’d go ahead and take it. My results:

The Dante’s Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how
you matched up against all the levels:

The Marshal decided that we needed to have a “Welcome to the District” cake this week. So today’s the day. He showed up today with a bee-yoo-tee-ful cake.

Just 20 minutes until the cutting and eating. Can’t wait!

Yes, I know the diet starts on Monday. I haven’t forgotten. Sheesh.

Later: It was a very good cake. Chocolate with whipped chocolate frosting. And lovely flowers, too. Yum!

The Marshal did the cake cutting and the pieces were hee-yoog, very generous. I may have to send Craig revised weight numbers before Monday.

I couldn’t care less about Hillary’s new book. I don’t care what her reaction was to Bill’s “inappropriate relationship” with Monica. I’ve moved on. I wish the rest of the country would too (at least the media, who seem completely enthralled with it).

Outside the Beltway has an interesting post about publishing and whether or not Simon & Schuster will break even on this one.

I don’t think it’s going to sell that well. At least I hope not. At $28 a pop, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to pay that much to read such trash. Borrow it from the library if you must read it. Or wait for the paperback. Or wait for the paperback at a used bookstore. Or don’t read it. That’s my advice.

I just figured out where to view IPs and edit/delete comments. Cool.

See this story for info on a bad guy our fugitive squad nabbed yesterday.

Later: There’s also this link.

I know, it’s actually most of the time. Here’s a new example that I heard on the radio driving in to work this morning. I will try to research a link later.

Basically, Maryland has toyed with the HOV lane idea for the past several years. The idea has never passed a vote or a governor’s desk. (For those who don’t know, HOV = High Occupancy Vehicle aka carpool lanes.) IMHO, HOV lanes are stupid and don’t help traffic or pollution.

Anyway, the idea has been brought up again with a new twist - tolling the HOV lanes with higher tolls during peak hours to encourage carpoolers to drive outside of the heaviest traffic hours. So basically you’re screwing over the carpoolers, which makes no sense at all.

My dad and I had a long conversation about the uselessness of the HOV lanes. Maybe one day I’ll write our thoughts down and post them here.

LATER: Here’s the link.

Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Am I the last to hear that Jennifer Garner and her husband, Scott Foley are divorcing?

That makes me sad...they always looked so happy. Of course, they’re actors so maybe they were just acting happy.

I’m watching Special Report with Brit Hume on Fox News and there was just a story about how the Democrats are criticising the President and GOP for not allowing their “tax cut” be a part of the one Bush just signed off on.

So here’s what their cut entails:

1. It’s a $400 child credit to the “working poor” - those who don’t make enough money to pay any Federal Income taxes.

Let me repeat that...they pay no federal income taxes. So this cut sounds more like a gift from the government to me, paid for by those of us who do pay income taxes.

2. The catch is that these folks do pay Payroll taxes (aka into the Social Security Trust Fund^TM) and so that’s how it qualifies as a tax cut. And the Dems claim that this would not be a tap on the SSTF.

Oh really? That’s exactly what it sounds like to me.