You’ve probably noticed that my journal page changes it’s look at every load. I welcome you to peek in the source code of this page to see how I do that. It’s easy. I just added a new random style sheet today.. journal3.css
@import “journal.css”;
/* This CSS inspired by http://razor.sourceforge.net/css/default.css */
body {
font-size: 12px;
}
h2 {
width: auto;
border-color #4e7aaf;
color: #000000;
background: #cde6ff;
float: left;
}
h3 {
background: #cccccc;
padding: 4px 10px 4px 10px;
border-style: solid;
border-width: 1px 1px 1px 1px;
border-color #4e7aaf;
}
.quote {
border: #4e7aaf;
border-left: none;
border-right: none;
background: #cde6ff;
float: left;
}
This really freaked me out. (local archive)
I think it bothers me for a couple reasons…
- A part of me is capable of falling into this
- I sometimes see this tendency in others… friends of mine.
- Some of my friends actually do this full-bore.
That last one bugs me the most. It’s kind of a “guilty by association” thing. Maybe this form of insanity is contagious? (oh and a note to PPG: No, I don’t count you as a person that does this)
![](http://www.lee.org/blog/images/20040303lekvar.jpg)
My sister made a huge batch of Lekvar cookies for Christmas. My grandmother on my mother’s side used to make these.
I went to Ikea over the weekend with PPG. Our goal: a couple more CF bulbs and an Ikea can opener. It was a real challenge for us to be IN and OUT as quick as possible since, traditionally, shopping at Ikea is more a lifestyle choice than a shopping decision. I’m happy to say that we succeeded!
We were in and out of Ikea in 15 minutes :-).
You know that area of Ikea where you have to wait for your big items to come out of the back warehouse? Do other people call it “purgatory” too? Both PPG and I called it that before we even met each other.
I got some 15 watt CF bulbs that don’t have “looks more like an incandescent” shields on them. The big fixture in the front hall could use a little more brightness. So I swapped out the 11 watt bulbs for 15 watts. They’re great. Bright, white, natural, and way cheaper than incandescents.
I’ve replacing light fixtures all over the house. Usually I replace a 100 watt incandescent with a 75 watt inc. and an 11 watt fl. on a splitter. It gives more light, it comes on instantly and uses less electricity. Happy day.
Amazon.com. Sony Ericsson T610 Phone, T-Mobile $40/month, 600 minutes/month + free nights and weekends. They pay you $50 to take the phone. $35 activation fee. Total cost for first year: $35 + $480 – $50 = $465.
$465 is a lot of money… but that’s about the best deal going…
Life Balance
A friend of mine is a developer of Life Balance. It looks like a great program. It’s a program to help you manage the tasks in your life… in more than just a checklist format. It’s for Windows and the Palm OS. I’m a PocketPC user so I can’t really use it :-(
Check out Life Balance.
I
t was initially a pain to organize but I’m so glad that I finally got to see Robot Stories with friends! The initial plan was to see it on opening night at The Cinema Village theater in NYC. I had sent out emails and organized so that about 5 friends and I would go to the 7:40 show. River was a late comer so he tried to get a ticket online. But it was sold out. It’s a good thing he emailed me that because I didn’t have tickets yet! I was going to go all the way into the city and meet for dinner just to find out I couldn’t get into the show! Both shows were sold out on opening night so we had to reschedule. Another round of invites went out for the Wednesday 7:40 show. Glenn, Shara, Jim D, Marian, and Marah said “yes”.
What a great evening! It started out with a minor miracle… I found a place to park on 3rd between 11th & 12th. But I realized that I didn’t have any quarters for the meter. A guy parked right next to me so I got out and asked to buy quarters from him. I looked in my wallet and frowned as I noticed that all I had were $20s. He gave me a quarter… yes, that’s right gave me a quarter and suggested that I use the 15 minutes to find more quarters. :-)
I got some quarters at a costume & magic shop right nearby (I’ll have to go back, they had fun things). I walked to the theater and noticed that there was free street parking right in front of the theater starting at 6pm. At 5:40, no one had shown up so I fetched my car and sat in it ’til 6. I parked right in front of the theater!
Glenn showed up at 6 and we met in front of the theater. We walked to the restaurant and met up with Marian and Marah. Dinner was just peachy. The talk was really nice. It’s nice to be social! We went off to the theater and met Jim in front. In we went. We were there 10 minutes before showtime and the theater was packed! There were only about 180 seats or so but.. it was packed! We found 6 seats in the first and second row.
No one was disappointed. You should see this film!
We went off to Cosi (previously Xando) a few blocks away. Laughing, carousing, talking, happy times! Marshmallow s’mores (complete with fire!), mint hot chocolate, talk about the movie, the universe, space elevators, work and play, the future, the world. It was just wonderful!
As the evening closed, I got to drive Glenn and Shara home. Glenn showed me a great place to park when coming to the city… next to the Harrison PATH stop there is a pay parking lot.
A great night.
I found myself in the Short Hills Mall a few days ago (technically, “The Mall at Short Hills” but saying that makes me want to vomit and defecate at the same time). They have an Apple Computer store. The place is totally done up… if you squint a little, it looks like The Disney Store for high-tech adults. It’s as if The Sharper Image is for mechanical engineers while The Apple Store is for information (music, images, literary, etc) engineers. The vibe was palpable. I understand the hype.
George W. gave an interview on the NBC program Meet the Press. Here is a transcript of the interview with my comments.
Transcript with comments (long).