Tuesday, June 24, 2003

I can’t find a link, but when I was sort of listening to Neil Cavuto this morning, he was interviewing someone about how miniskirts may indicate a bull market.

The idea is that as women (consumers) are feeling more confident their skirts get shorter and the economy booms. The guy said you could track this from as far back as the 1920s. Apparently, skirts would get short to show of the stockings, which were expensive. As the economy tanked and things got tighter in people’s wallets, the skirts got longer again because women couldn’t afford the luxury of stockings.

Wacky idea, but interesting, no?

UPDATE:  Here’s a link. [Thanks, Tommy]

Say what you will about Barry Bonds, he is one of the greatest modern baseball players.

He has some impressive statistics, and there’s no doubt that he will be in the Hall of Fame with his first eligible nomination.

I was listening to WMAL talk radio - the Andy and Grandy Morning News Show (yes, that’s Fred Grandy of Love-Boat-turned-Congressman fame) on the way into work and they did a news story about a local 19 year old who murdered his parents last year because he thought he was in the matrix. So this is his defense. Good luck, kid.

In case you’re wondering, Grandy is pretty good. I’m happier listening to him than Bill Press anyway.

You know summer has officially arrived when they start announcing the ozone alerts.

Monday, June 23, 2003

I’ve had many discussions with various folks about the Harry Potter books.

I like them. I’ve read the first four and plan to buy and read the new one. I plan to buy and read the rest as they come out as well.

As a Christian, I can understand the concern Christian parents have about certain aspects of the HP stories - the elements of witchcraft, the way “regular” people are portrayed negatively, the way the kids in the stories seem to flout the rules and discipline, etc. I’m not going to argue my points on those specifics. But I will say this (as I posted over in the comment thread at the Thinklings post on the subject, where there has been a sometimes heated exchange along a couple of their posts about the wickedness vs virtue of HP.

My latest comment was this:

And maybe it’s because I don’t have children, but I think we credit books (and some movies) like this with having a little too much influence with kids. When I was a very young child, I read plenty of fairy tales that included magic and fairies and unicorns and wizards and flying carpets and pumpkin coaches, and I don’t believe that I ever thought that stuff was real or possible. I understood from a very early age that there was no Tinkerbell, no Wicked Witch of the West, no Fairy Godmother, no Dracula or Frankenstein, or whatever. I knew it was just a story. A fictional, entertaining story.

So why are we assuming that kids today won’t be the same?

This is where I need an emoticon that shows me pulling out my hair in frustration.

I cannot figure out what I have wrong in my code. I followed the directions. I think I’m missing a step somewhere, but I’m not sure.

It’s very frustrating not being a techie.

It’s a beautifully sunny Monday. It’s a shame I have to sit in my windowless cubicle.

LW and I did venture out to pick up lunch in Old Town. So we got to enjoy the warmth along with the rest of Alexandria. Seems everyone wanted to get out today, the sidewalks were crowded.

I’ve been working on my smilies problem. I’m no nearer a solution with the fixes I’ve seen at other places. I can’t read the page that Tony recommended because of the colors vs. my browser. So I’ll have to wait to try that tonight. I feel like I’m really close to a solution though.

It’s quiet in the office today. There’s been this trial that I can’t speak of right now. We’ve been waiting for the verdict - I think it’s happening right now.

I’ve checked the forums at pMachine.com. I’ve googled. I’ve checked ScriptyGoddess and I can’t figure out what I have wrong in my smiley javascript that’s preventing the clickable smilies in my comments from working.

The code I’m using was developed for Moveable Type, so maybe that’s the problem. I did find a couple posts to the pM forums, but they’re only accessible for Pro users and I’m a Free user.

So I put out the call for geeks** everywhere...can someone help me get them working? (Tony, I didn’t want to bug you with this since you’ve already helped me a ton.)

**I mean geek in the most positive sense, of course!

I got to the office at 8:10 this morning. My hours are usually 8:30-5:00. I beat my boss in, so that was good. But I have a feeling the day is going to be a long one.

Mom gave me another picture of Harry to scan. Isn’t he the cutest?

Sunday, June 22, 2003

I think I may have been the last person to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I watched it this afternoon. It’s very cute.

Best line:

I don’t remember frump girl, but I remember you.

I love Disney World.

There, I said it. *whew*

I really, really love The Happiest Place on Earth™. So imagine my delight when I was surfing the channels and came upon Disney Unwrapped on the Food Network!

That’s a great show. But the Disney-fied version was fantastic. I took notes…

1.  When I’m at Disney in January, I must eat at the Chez Mickey buffet.

2.  One of my favorite places is the 50s Primetime Cafe. It was fun to watch the video of other customer family members getting harrassed about having their elbows on the table by their wait staff brothers.

3.  The secret to the “cooking like Mom’s” at that restaurant is the use of old Betty Crocker cookbooks. Who knew?

4.  The people who come up with the amazingly creative ideas are called “imagineers.”

5.  At Epcot, they hire “native ambassadors” (who come to the US on one year VISAs) to represent the various countries to lend authenticity. The chefs are all natives of the country, but in some cases they’ve had to Americanize some of the dishes to make them more palettable for uncultured Americans.  For instance, in France they “use less salt and strong flavorings” as the chef put it. Interesting.

6.  At Animal Kingdom there is a restaurant called Jiko, which means “The Cooking Place.” They got quotes from folks eating there. The best, “I thought we’d be eating crickets.” Heh.

7.  Did you know that Disney does weddings there at DW? They were showing these amazing wedding cakes, with Disney themes of course. One was gorgeous with silver Mickey symbols stamped into the sides like confetti. The base of each layer was wrapped in silver ribbon and there was a white chocolate Cinderalla’s castle on top with silver on the turrets. Totally hokey, but totally beautiful too.

The coolest thing was that they will do individual wedding cakes for each guest if you want. They showes samples and they were these miniature little duplicates of the enormous cakes. Very cool.

And that’s all I wrote down.

You know that Chinet™ commercial where they ask what Chinet™ means to you or what it says to you or something like that...they show the plates with hand written words that are supposed induce you to buy Chinet™ and Chinet™ only.

Does my use of Chinet™ show my affection for you?

Saturday, June 21, 2003

It’s a lazy Saturday. The Cooties had plans to meet up with a friend this morning and maybe go antique hunting this afternoon, so I have been home.

I haven’t done much:

1. Installed Photoshop on my computer. I still need to read up on the tutorial, because I have no idea how to use it. This ought to be good.

2. I just finished watching The House of Mirth. Excellent if depressing. I liked it a lot. And it ticked me off too...I’m thankful I live in the time that I do, because I wouldn’t have done very well in those repressed Edwardian days.

3. I just started the last load of laundry for the weekend.

4. I need to stop at the grocery store on my way over to my parents. We’re having a birthday dinner for Mrs. Cootiehog with friends and family. That should be a good time, although Jaynee’s birthday may get eclipsed by CootieGirl’s presence.

Oh, and I didn’t mention the glorious evening Marmie and I had with CootieGirl last night. The Cooties went out for dinner and a movie, so we babysat. She’s an angel...so sweet.

5. And now I’m quickly searching for how to do clickable smilies in my comments before I shower and head out.

Today is the first day of summer, and if you look really quickly over here you will see that it’s a beautiful morning. It’s a cool 60 degrees, low humidity, blues skies with the wispy white clouds that are sparse enough that that yellow orb, known in some parts as the sun, is shining brightly.

I’m almost afraid to mention it for fear that it will bring upon us the plague of gloom, doom, and wet that we’ve had pretty much daily since early April.

LATER (1:20pm): It’s raining again. Just thought you’d want to know that.