I just realized that I have officially become a fuddy duddy.  My next door neighbors are setting off fireworks and they are loud and my 7 year old is unable to sleep.  And my 3 cats have gone into random freak-out and run 100 miles an hour from room to room mode.  I understand it is Saturday and tomorrow is the 4th, but I am still very irritated.

My cats always went nuts when they heard fireworks. Of course it could be worse. During the nasty 1981 recession I was out of work. And we were living in a miserable part of Venice here in LA (either that or be homeless). It was crime-ridden and very dangerous (I was mugged, our apartment was broken into, etc.) In fact, a man was murdered right outside our bedroom window while we were watching TV. There were even bullet holes in the outside wall the bed was placed upon and we had our backs leaning against. Fortunately, it was cinder block and the bullets didn't penetrate.

Now, back to the "fireworks" story. The locals had their own way to celebrate the 4th. They fired off all their guns for an hour or more--I guess until they ran out of ammo. There were even automatic weapons and something that sounded like a cannon. We just went to the center of the house and hid under a counter in the kitchen, hoping the roof, upper floor, and counter top would stop the ammo before hitting us (we already knew the cinder block would stop the lower-level rounds). The stupid thing was that these idiots didn't understand that bullets don't just disappear when shot into the air.

What goes up must come down... unfortunately, if anyone was hit is was probably an innocent bystander...

I moved to Topeka, KS when I was 19.  I had a great job opportunity and 1 week to find an apartment. I found one that had 2 bedrooms for 340/month all bills paid.  I thought I was incredibly lucky to find a place so fast and so cheap. I knew right away I had made a mistake. Nightly gunfire and sirens and loud bass music all night. Not to mention stray animals all around. I only made it 5 months, I moved back to moms house when a body was discovered in the complex dumpster...

My son wants to see a beach really bad (we live in Missouri).  We are thinking of taking a trip to California since the beaches are supposed to be better than the East coast. I better get your advise before I book a room in a bad neighborhood!

Please do. There are parts of Venice that are quite fancy. In fact, AS lives in Venice. But there are parts that are plain awful too.

I've lived on both coasts (30 years in the West and 20 in the East) and the beaches on the West Coast are prettier since there are hills, cliffs, mountains and higher waves (due to the winds and size of the Pacific Ocean). But the East Coast beaches are better for swimming. West Coast waters are very cold and very rough. The surfing is better here in the West because of the rougher waters, but the swimming is not. Even in the middle of summer, the waters are quite chilly, and people need to wear wet suits to keep from getting dangerously chilled. There is a steep ocean shelf drop off, not that far from shore that makes swimming more perilous, too.

The Atlantic is much warmer and it has a shallow shelf that extends quite far out, making swimming safer and more pleasant. There's also more sand on the East Coast (at most beaches anyway). It might be the more gentle action of the surf. Or it may be an older shore, so there's been more time for the sand to build up. I know that some of the Floridian beaches on the Gulf of Mexico (as opposed to the Atlantic), can be difficult to enjoy since they are covered with broken seashells that are not yet sand.

So if you want to swim in the ocean, then the Atlantic is better. If you want more rugged scenery and more dramatic waves, the Pacific is better. I truly haven't been in the ocean since I saw Jaws. I was very blasé about it when I saw the movie (having been raised by the ocean). That is, until something big nudged me in the water, and that was it for me.

There's also more sand on the East Coast (at most beaches anyway).

More and more the ACOE has to do beach nourishment. NJ's shoreline is a mess. NJDEP is always having to lay down sand. Long Island is a mess too. Knowing about this stuff is part of my 'day job' when not writing fanfiction

I know that some of the Floridian beaches on the Gulf of Mexico (as opposed to the Atlantic), can be difficult to enjoy since they are covered with broken seashells that are not yet sand.

I was so shocked but FL's "summer fun" vacation ads are all "We have 800+ miles of beach in the state. Don't WORRY about that pesky BP oil spill! Just don't go to the Gulf area. Come to the Ocean side, instead."

In the Northeast this past week there were Shark alerts. Apparently, the coasts of US not contaminated with oil are now occupied by sharks. Hm, wonder if they're swimming over here to get away from the oil?

They do have to do a lot to groom all the beaches and keep them sandy. I'm most familiar with Florida since I was raised in Miami. There's terrible erosion on these beaches and much of that has had to do with remove of natural sandbars to support boating and destruction of offshore reefs (due to pollution). But the East Coast still lends itself better to sandy beaches much more than the more rugged West Coast. Except for the parts of the Gulf Coast I'm familiar with (before BP ruined them). They're younger beaches and much more rocky with broken shells etc.

I heard about the sharks and wondered that myself. We actually get great whites out here in the West, since there are large sea lion and elephant seal colonies.

West Coast waters are very cold and very rough.

I can attest to that as I grew up in Vancouver,and the ocean is freezing there!  I figured it would be warmer further south in California, but I guess not.  We used to go to Hawaii a lot when I was a kid, and although the water was warm, I was terrified of sharks, too.  My mum told me all about the shark nets etc. but I wasn't buying it!  I'd seen the movie.  Actually, now I much prefer swimming in fresh water lakes.  No salt, no broken shells to cut the feet, and no sharks!  We have a beautiful stretch of sandy beach about 2 hours drive east of Toronto called, obviously, Sand Banks.  It's gorgeous, with big sand dunes that stretch on forever.  My in-laws live nearby so we take the kids for the day.

Long Island NY has good beaches.  Jones Beach  is nice and clean.  We have a boat and go out in the bays all the time.

Oh, that sounds lovely!  Are the beaches sandy?  Do you fish?  We had a boat for a few years when I was little, and I have very fond memories of it.

I live on the water.  My husband works on boats.  So he goes out almost every night.  Yes the beaches are sandy but alot of eel grass in the bays and GREEN FLIES which I hate.  NY just passed another dum law that you need a fishing license.  He's not to into fishing but he does once in awhile.  But there are party boats to go on.   But I love the sunrises around here.  Its a very short season.  We try to get out every week to the beaches but that gets hard to do.

I would send a picture but I don't know how.  Any ideas on how to do that?

I grew up in a tiny town outside of Beaumont TX.  We used to drive to the coast all the time and I just remember brown water and shells.  Of course it was gulf waters.

Brandon (my son) wants to go to a beach like he sees on the Travel Channel. Sandy beach and blue water and waves.  He also expressed and interest in watching surfers...

I have thought about San Diego because of the zoo and such but my husband thought that San Diego was not as nice as it used to be???  I hadn't heard that but who knows.  My son and I want scenery and nature to look at, my husband just drives like a madman- he's a Griswold all the way.

I'll take any suggestions- East or West coast!  And if anyone ever visits Kansas City, I'll give you the hook-up on the best BBQ joints and jazz clubs.
 

I would send a picture but I don't know how.  Any ideas on how to do that?

OK, I'm so not a techie - why are you answering then? You may ask... well, because I can't help myself!  lol  There are many more tech savvy people on this forum, but here are the basics.  You upload a digital pic to a photoshare site like flickr or photobucket.  Then you copy the http website.  Come back here, click on the picture link inbetween the smiley face and the film strip, paste and submit.  Technically, that should work... good luck!  

I needed my son' s help but got it.    I am such a spaz when it comes to doing anything on the computer.

Me too, Mary, me too!  I had to get Caroline's help to put up a pic of my dog on the "show us your critters" thread.

Wow, that sunset is really beautiful.  Is this near where you live?

This sunrise is in the back of my house during the winter/fall months.  You can actually see the sun move during the year.

OMG, you are so lucky to live where you do!  That's incredible.  To see that out your window every night.

Your house must face the same way as mine, I get sunrise at the back and sunset at the front.

This is OT and totally gossipy but ...  Today's "In Touch" mag. reports they think KB has recently had a boob job, going from an A to a C-cup.  They base this on recent photos, including the TB premiere black bra-dress photo where, "There's a fullness on top that's only achieved via implants."

I don't have a problem with her getting a boob job. Not with the way Hollywood is about those things. But that god-awful dress she wore to the premier didn't show enough boob for a C-cup. It looked to me like she just squashed in her boobs to plumb them up (not pushing them up like wonder bras do). It sort of looked to me like she had kind of circular cleavage from her nipple being pressed inward to displace what little was there. I can't remember seeing a more ugly dress or bizarre display of cleavage in my lifetime.

From the front it looks like somewhat awkwardly pushed up cleavage, but from the side it looked very bizarre. I'm trying to find a shot to illustrate it.

Hows this for random? The effects of too much SVM Fanfiction, snarky TB obsessing, and just hitting the northern edge of my 30s...

Got into a pissing match with my not-just-yet-ex via text today. He just pissed me off so much I finally told him I thought we had been getting along fine, I don't know why he's all angsty, obviously he's having his period and I suggested he get a BJ to help him relax.

LOL - I think I may have channeled my inner Pam. And it felt good.

Haha.

Hey people, You've proberly all seen it by now but OMG im going to see Eclipse tonight!.. Im so excited!

Aswell as TB i loveee Twilight! Just needed to share my excitment!!!  

    obviously he's having his period and I suggested he get a BJ to help him relax.

That is just classic!!!   

This is random to. Sometimes life is just life. So, problems with the ex. Issues with my job (basically I have a PT research project that I'm never motivated to work on and a FTE that is all-consuming) but the most fulfilling thing in my life is I have a following on Fanfiction.net who are addicted to my story like a bunch of v-drinking crackheads! I can't get over it! 200 people read my last chapter in under 24 hours! WOW! Yeah, I'm stroking my ego, but its nice, happy to think about when I get all frustrated over the ex or work shit.  

Thats really good Mari/Miral  Keep your chin up!

Its ok to talk about you're accomplishments with friends, esp. when they make you feel so good! Good work Mari! 

I do not know if I believe that KB bought implants. If you look at pictures of her when she is younger she is not an A cup kind of a girl.

The problem is that's she's so skinny now that she doesn't have much breast left over. But I don't think that dress she wore to the TB premier indicates she got implants. I think she just managed to squeeze up what was left to look like cleavage.

I lead such an exciting life.

Today I went out and bought a toilet seat. This is my third in a year and a half, not counting the one that came with the apartment. Well, I got rid of the first one when the cheap particle board seat cracked soon after moving in. The crack kept biting me when I sat on it. Besides, someone else had used that toilet seat for years. Yuck! So then I went online and got a plastic one with a custom color that matched my bathroom. Turns out it was molded in a concave shape. Most seats are convex. But being concave meant it was like sitting in a bowl-shaped depression with a higher outer ridge that pressed right against my hip bone. Maybe if I wasn't fat and not in so much chronic pain, it might have been ok, but it hurt to sit on it, and I don't think that was the point.

Next, I got a fancy (i.e. expensive) padded one that was just the right color. However, the hinge assembly broke on it this week after around nine months. They sent me a new hinge, but while installing it I also noticed that the seam was split in one place, and the top part of seat was separating from its base.

I considered gluing both problems since no one would notice the split seam unless they were lying upside down under my toilet. But first I figured I would look around and see if there were any alternatives, since I figured other parts might might break or tear soon too. So I called a store and asked if they had a particular toilet seat in jade. I had found it at Amazon, but couldn't be sure the color was displaying properly. Here's the punchline to this long preamble: She asked me if jade was like burgundy?!?

BTW, I can't get the introductions thread to open.

Oh Judy! Getting information on the phone is such hard going sometimes.

The very same 'excitement' had crept into my life to over the last three  months. Last year we had a new heating boiler and since they were going to be doing a bit of disruptive work in the bathroom we also put in a biiig shower and replaced the suite. Well the new toilet was chosen to make cleaning around it easier, it's solid right back to the wall at the bottom (does away with that naff bit round the back of the pan ) but it came with it's own 'custom shaped' seat. This was ok at first (although it never fit particularly well) but it was badly flawed because where the cover meets the seat is a nightmare to clean properly  and we're both very particular when it comes to a clean loo!

We spent a lot of time over the last three months everywhere we went visiting DIY and plumbers merchants trying to find a good replacement seat, problem being that it's fixed from the top and there is no access from below. Eventually we found out that it's a special sort of fixing, but even trying to get an answer from a plumbers merchant over the phone about whether they had these in stock, sheesh, I've had some of the weirdest conversations of my life! Eventually I read on the internet about someone else who had had the same problem and he mentioned a seat available from a big DIY chain that came with the correct fittings. We were dubious but away we went to look. Halleluia, he was right, we bought it and brought it home and peace and sanity (not to mention good sanitation) was restored. It even fits properly

It's amazing how little things can assume huge importance and drive you to distraction. Fortunately our suite is white, I can't imagine the stress if it had needed to match another colour.

i just think this is so hilarious...and a bit random haha...im currently following True Blood HBO on twitter and they repost what other say about TB. well i think ive read about 6 re-posts that say "omg Alan Ball I Love You! i love you i love you!"..."can i just say that i love you alan ball!"  haha...and on another random post..."This is getting SUPER AWKWARD to watch with my dad" lol!

..."This is getting SUPER AWKWARD to watch with my dad" lol!

Haha! I no hwo you feel watching it with my nan is pretty awkward!!  lol

i wasnt sure if this was really True Blood news so im putting it here....looks like AB is going to be executive producing and directing another HBO series called

i wonder if this will interfere with his TB involvement. if it does, i wonder if his absense will be a benifit or not lol (although most likely hed work on the new series during the TB 9 month hiatus).....AB really seems to be fascinated by death huh? haha six feet under, true blood, and now this

looks like AB is going to be executive producing and directing another HBO series 

First rat to leave the sinking ship that will be TB I reckon.

So I turned 46 today, and I celebrated my birthday with a visit to the "butt doctor"... aging sucks!!!!   

Happy Birthday Liann!!! Hopefully, besides the "butt doctor" visit, you had a fab day!!!

Happy Birthday Liann and many more!

Liann, Happy Birthday! Did you ask about getting the dimples? 

Happy Birthday Liann.

Happy Birthdayy!!! hope the rest of your day went better!

  Did you ask about getting the dimples?

 hahah! 

Oh, I wish it had been about the dimples!  Thanks for all your kind birthday wishes!  My two little guys were lovely this morning, but I tell you it gets harder and harder to work up any excitement about a birthday now.  Anyway, thanks again.  

Happy birthday Liann. You are still a baby from my perspective.

Happy Birthday from me too Liann.

Happy Birthday! I am a day late!

Thank you!  And thanks for the perspective, Judy.  I don't know why this one was so hard.  I was pregnant when I turned 40 so I think that distracted me.  LOL  I guess I am actually noticing the aging now.  I'll just have to be a little more pro-active health wise, and get my head around it.  

Oh Happy Belated Birthday wishies!! I am of the age where birthdays make me want to peek through my fingers and wince as the years roll by, Only cheerful thing is that I am the youngest of my siblings and I get to jibe them all for being older!  

Happy Birthday Liann!!  Sorry I'm late.

Happy Belated Birthday, Liann!

Thanks again, ladies!!  

BTW, I did fine crossing 40 and even 50, but crossing 60 was quite depressing.

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary.  wow.  We actually been together since 1984 though.  Long time. He says he's a saint,  I just laugh at him. My 15 year old son made a card for me with my husband's picture in it   He gave him fangs.   That shows how obsessed I am with all this stuff.. very funny  the fangs look so real too.

My 15 year old son made a card for me with my husband's picture in it   He gave him fangs.   

That is funny. Sounds precocious. Maybe he can take over the Exec Producer spot on TB when AB finally bails? Oops. I'm getting my threads mixed up.

Congratulations.

I wish the forum would let me send you a private message, because I would enjoy disussing the big 4-6 more. 

Thanks  He wants to go into computer science or physics.  I turned 47 this past May.  It's all the same after 45.  But I am still young because my husband is 8 years older then me.  But not looking to be 50 though that is scary.  I also bake my own BD cakes  which I like to do.

Happy belated birthday Liann. I'm so pleased there are other 46 year olds on here too. I'm clinging on as the clock ticks over to 47 for me this year. I wonder when I'll start to grow up?

Hey I'm 62 and I assure you I haven't grown up yet.

Thanks so much for all the kind birthday wishes and camaraderie... or is it commiseration?!  Either way, it's helpful and much appreciated!

Lou, we can send private messages on this forum!  I will send you a friend request.  If you click "Recent Activity"   next to your name icon, I think that's where you'll see the request.  If you accept, then we can send messages to each other.  

Today is my 22nd wedding anniversary.  

Happy belated Anniversary, Mary!  Hope you had a wonderful day!  That card sounded so great your son made.  My son is ten and for Mother's day he made me a book mark with a Sookie theme.  He even drew Eric from the cover of DITF!  It's amazing how much they really do pay attention to what we like.

OK, here's another tweet from Kevin Smith about TrueBlood... I'm starting to think the Kevin is going to give Perez Hilton a run for his money!!  lol

Question:  "Team Edward or Team Jacob?"

Kevin's Answer: "Team Eric!  #1 Admit Without A Hint Of Shame That Hetero Me Would Suck Off That Beautiful Northman Vampire.

Kevin's Answer: "Team Eric!  #1 Admit Without A Hint Of Shame That Hetero Me Would Suck Off That Beautiful Northman Vampire.

LOL! He is awesome.

That he is... hey, maybe he could sign on to TrueBlood when AB leaves the project.  Or even just make a movie of one of the books. At least you'd be sure of getting a lot of screen time with AS.

Is this the same Kevin Smith that did Dogma?  Jay and Silent Bob?

YES!!  My husband follows him on twitter, and he sometimes shares his tweets with me if he thinks I'll get a laugh out of them.  He did a really hilarious rant last year, or maybe the year before, at Comicon about Twilight.  Just recently, he's started watching TrueBlood and making VERY pro Eric comments.  In the last tweet he said he'd totally get down on his knees if there was a gun to his head... I guess he's given up on needing the gun part of the equation!  lol

To funny .  I don't do any of the tweet stuff.

I have one of those husbands with no tact.  Usually I just grin and bear through his crude jokes and comments but today his tactlessness paid off in spades.

On the way to dinner he stated "I tried to watch your vampire show again. How come you never told me Sookie was built so good? Her body is perfect"

(referring to the disrobing during Eric's daydream)

I told him that she wasn't perfect and that she had a big gap between her front teeth (yeah catty, I know).

His reply?  "Well then she could use them to comb-out my pubes after she is done."

I know that is pretty mean but damn, I laughed. (And laughed)

That is funny. I think AB should write that line into the show. LOL! Maybe Quinn?

"Hey babe, since your already down there..."

Ha ha ha ha ha

Ew....

"Babe, let's go...uh...sit...down at the table....together....duh....Got any Cocoa Krispies? Hey, I see you got a cut on your finger...duh...which way did he go...Can I lick that? Its okay if you say naw, but I like to lick bloody wounds, Babe. Its my thing. Think of it as a sweet nothing from a dumb fuck...he he he"

Quinn is the quintessential douche bag isn't he?

His reply?  "Well then she could use them to comb-out my pubes after she is done."

Oh my f-ing goodness, that is classic. One of my my most favorite lines from this point on.

What can I say?  We're a pretty classy couple.

LOL - my fanfic is nearly 400 pages and I''m working on a memo for work and I've resorted to playing with margins and spacing!

Also it isn't really about any church marrying the two of them, it's about a Christian church, Sookie's church

 Yeah, I'm thinking of Sookie's local Bon Temps choices. I tend to come back to the fact she met vamps, witches, and shifters before Jews as an indicator that its not a very "open" society. Not a lot of options.

As for the practice of getting married in a church, I'm honestly thinking more of her own morality. I mean she's really getting to be more and more okay with killing. She seems kind of conflicted when she thinks about religion bc of her innate (yet awesome) survival skills.

I was more thinking along the lines of the church won't marry you because you've been divorced ( I know this has changed recently) but then you pay them off and suddenly they don't care about your broken vows from before. 

This is reminding me of another weirdness. Didn't one of the Kennedy's (Teddy?) look to get an anullment so he could marry in the church? He'd been married to the first wife for 20 years and they had a few kids. That just seems like a horrible slap in the face. To annul a longstanding marriage that begat a family. I can't remember if the church "approved" it or not.

Dallas - your story is unsurprising to me. My attitude about the Catholic Church is that if it were a friend of yours. It would be the annoying one that's always just a pain in the butt about things. Nothing's ever easy and you feel like you have to question their motives.

I should qualify that as my experience with the Catholic church. I think if they loosened the reins on some of the archaic stuff, they might potentially be able to attract well-rounded clergy genuine in their beliefs and desire to teach.

This is reminding me of another weirdness.

It's like in the middle ages when they sold papal indulgences to people before they committed the sin so they'd be covered!  It made no sense then, and it, among other things, prompted the reformation.  It's what happens when you try to turn having faith into a bureaucracy and control peoples lives to the nth degree so as to gain power.  It is focusing on the letter of the law instead of the spirit of it.

I'm anti organized religion if you can't tell!  lol  

Me too! I posted this here instead of the other post b/c I feel like I'm a collosal "Off topic" poster , LOL. Then I posted more on the other thread anyway!

Yeah, I feel like I'm being naughty, but I can't move the entire convo over here myself, and if I just move my post it won't make any sense!  At least you tried.  

Kennedy got his "annulment." These "annulments" are one of the more hypocritical moves by the Catholic Church. That is in addition to the ugly quagmire of the molestation issue.

And it always irked me that people still eat fish on Fridays I mean come on! Fish is flesh.  Yes even fish sticks.  But I am not catholic so I really have no idea what the rules are.   I just remember a coworker that would not eat meat on Fridays and there she was going to McDonalds for a Fillet-o-Fish.

Fillet-o-Fish is next to Godliness. 

My dad's a bit of a whacked out born-again type. Horrible to my mom. But absolutely certain he's making it through the pearly gates.

I was wondering about something.  Was Bill suppose to die in DAG?  And AB said something to CH and that's why he's still alive or I should say existing.  So here is the hope... Maybe CH will have S/E  HEA   in the books because of the way TB is all about S/B.  Hopefully CH still has control over it. and to get back at AB.   wishful thinking...  It is true I have never felt this way about books before I read these.. Eric is just amazing..

Before DAG came out, she made a comment saying she changed a major plot in the book based on the suggestion of her editor. She never revealed what the major change was, but after reading DAG, it's pretty obvious what that ending was leading up to originally.

During one of his interviews, AB revealed what her original plan was. He said something along the lines of: "I know Charlaine Harris had to be talked out of killing Bill..." Of course, CH later made comments in an attempt to calm the backlash by saying that it was just a consideration/alternate ending. But, honestly, if she obviously planned to kill Bill at this point in the series, he isn't "the one."

She was pretty tight lipped about what she had changed, so I'm sure he knew that wasn't common knowledge. AB is just a manipulative asshole.

So it seems.   thanks for clearing that up for me.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am getting very confused.  We're all talking about the same things but it's all over the place. I don't know where to go.  Help please

I know this has been previously discussed... are vampires supposed to have free entrance to other vampires' lairs? Example, FM just entered Bill's house. I'm sure he wasn't given permission to enter by either Jessica or Bill. Or Eric when he arrived RE's mansion. Though he had 7 guards with him...

Yes, Franklin told Jessica that a vampire doesn't need an invitation to enter another vampire's home.

Thanks, Ashley!

Mary - what are you getting confused about & what wold you like help with?

And guys - topic thread please - this is Random Thoughts.....let's keep TB discussion in TB.

It's nothing  just new to this.  Just trying to keep up that's  all.  Not sure if I'm putting things in the right threads.  That sort of thing.  Different threads have the same ideas in them. So I shall take a break and read through all these great ideas, and gather my thoughts. I really like it here.  thanks

Mary, I think the issue you are having is caused by us all not being too careful about where we are posting our comments, me included. It is difficult enough to keep all the thoughts straight, but if they aren't in the appropriate threads it's even harder.  It's not you at all!  We all need to be just a bit more cognizant of which thread we are actually in, and then write that we're moving our response to another thread, and do so, if we feel we will go off topic. I know I've been a bit lazy in that department myself lately.  Hopefully, we'll all pick up our socks and it will get easier to follow.   

I just burned my last bag of microwave kettle corn.  Now I am being taunted by the smell coming from my kitchen. The smell starts out so nice and sweet, then I get the undertone of horrid burnt popcorn.    I only walked away for a second...  It really is a tragedy.

KC, I love your description of the kettlecorn tragedy.  When I was in college, I tried cooking a bag of popcorn Simple right?  No, I burned the hell out of it and then had to walk it out of the dorm down three stories(there was no trash shute in that dorm building) and the whole place stunk to high heaven.  Did I give up? Of course not, because I am stubborn as a mule  So I tried again.  I burned it again. LOL  Everyone in the dorm was gagging, wanted to kill me.  To this day I get nervous when cooking popcorn and stand there and watch it and try not to burn it.  I don't burn so many nowadays.  Wow that was a long rant about nothing.

I say go with "Jiffy Pop"!  You have to watch it cause it's on the stove, you get the fun of the whole "tin foil mushroom" thing, and you get perfect popcorn every time ... least it works for me!

One time I made popcorn it started to go on fire!   I always watch it now.

Here is a story of odd serendipity. Somehow I managed to get some permanent ink on one of pillowcases. I had been writing labels for some things I put in storage in my walk-in closet. My hands are spastic because of my illness, so they do random things like tremble and jerk and twitch. I sat on the side of my bed facing the closet, and I had been very careful (or so I thought). Anyway, I used one of my laundry pre-treaters on it. I use this same one on all my clothes and have used it on my pillowcases before. This time the ink didn't fade, but the pillowcase did. I guess I got too enthusiastic in my rubbing.

So I went online to get another one from the store I got it from before. They had carried this style for several years now. Of course, now they had a new set of color-matched coordinates. Parts, but not all, of my linen coordinates were online as a outlet sale, but not the pattern I needed.

There's an manufacturer's outlet mall around 65 miles from me, and I was resigned to going there to see if they still had the pillowcases there, since it was a recent change. I have vertigo and long drives aren't such a good idea (massive car sickness). Also, I'm weak and tire easily. And the walking around, even if I brought my walker, would have been an ordeal due to pain and weakness. Maybe there would have been electric go-carts, but maybe not. However, it seemed smart to take advantage and look for bargains by several manufacturers while there. I was resigned to the nasty exertion, even though I was worried about my endurance for the trip back.

Now for the serendipity. Yesterday, I spilled an orange soda all over another pillowcase and had some trouble getting it all out. However this pattern was there the other night when I had looked. For the hell of it, I looked for my other pattern, and low and behold it was there. Had I not spilled the soda, I would have been driving all the way to the mall today.

Ah, the mystical powers of Orange Soda.

I know.

Who would have thought that destroying a pillowcase with orange sode would be a good thing?

I have 6-8 people living in my home(little 3 bedroom thing) at all times now as we are currently helping out family. I clean and I clean and it is never clean.  But last week, I was on a mission to find the floor in my bedroom around all the laundry.  I decided that I had to clean the closet too.  I was pulling out random boxes that my lovely husband had jammed into the corner of the closet to get them out of the way and found a shirt that I thought I had lost. I felt like I had just won the freaking lottery.  I was dancing.  Joy can come in the simplest package. LOL

My prior apartment was like that. I had to give up my house when I got ill (couldn't afford it anymore). I moved from a large 3 bedroom. with lots of closets and cabinets, a huge family room, and a garage to a smallish two-bedroom apartment. So when we moved we felt a bit like refugees and never got around to unpacking some things or organizing others. Things were so cluttered we couldn't even walk in some places.

Then my daughter moved out to live with her boyfriend, and I moved into a smaller apartment somewhat near his house (so they could help me if I needed it). It took me a year to feel like tearing though all the boxes of stuff. I did find all kinds of lost things, and I gave and threw away so much more. I now have the odd experience of being completely organized and uncluttered. I feel a little lost at times.

We live in a small two bedroom semi; 2 adults and 2 kids.  Clutter is a constant battle.  Sometimes I feel like going into a room with a shovel and just chucking everything out the window and starting again!!  My dream is to have one of those home organization shows turn up one morning and just force us to go through everything and then install more storage options for us.  *sigh*

So we went to see "Jersey Boys" last night.  It's a well written musical and all the performers were very strong.  However, that style of music gets grating pretty quickly for me.  I just wanted to ask them if they could lower it an octave from time to time!  The real show, though, was the woman sitting next to my husband.  The music was obviously something from her generation and she was in heaven which was great.  However, she stank of perfume mixed with garlic and onions, and couldn't keep still in her seat.  Actually, I think she and her friend were drunk as they kept speaking loudly throughout the show.  She also had NO sense of rhythm so her clapping and gyrating were way out of sync with the music! lol   At one point, she got so excited I was afraid she was going to turn around and try to make out with my husband!

Also, on our way home, we were talking, and I realized that there were quite a few shows and books I could think of where the villain or darker character was called Bill or William.  I thought of "Oliver Twist" where Bill is the thief who murders Nancy, "The Pillars of the Earth" has a William who rapes the main female character, the is a Bill in "Show Boat" but I can't remember if he ditches Julie or they're forced apart ... it just struck me as funny.  Incidentally, I can only think of one other Eric in literature off the top of my head.  It's the real name of the "Phantom of the Opera"!!  lol

Just saw Inception! Whooooaaaa. Genius. What a mind to have written & directed that.

Hmm, maybe I'll get my offspring to accompany me to see it.

Haven't seen the movie yet, but just want to say that Mr. DiCaprio has grown up since Titanic.  He looks like a man now. LOL

have you seen "The Departed"? THat was an excellent movie. First time I ever liked Leo in a movie. I don't go for babyface look.

The Departed was quite good. I've never liked Leo, but as he ages I can just think of him as another character actor.

oh i LOVED Inception also!! suuuch a good movie!! my brain was still running an hour after i watched it! ....and i also liked the Departed, i just saw a bout 3 months ago

LOVED LOVED LOVED The Departed.  And yes he was nuts in it.  I saw Shutter Island last week. Really good movie. Makes you think and guess and then doubt yourself and then try again.

talk about character actors and The Departed, Jack Nicholson is such a character! I don't think he acts. I think thats just him. Reminds me of funny NYC subway graffiti...the movie poster for The BUcket List a few years back it was Jack and Morgon Freeman and they're laughing.  Folks always scrawl stuff on the NYC subway posters. Sometimes they're hilarious. I should make more of an effort to take pix.

ANyway...someone scribbled MF saying "hey why're we laughing?" JN " "we just made millions for this stupid movie"

LOL

Yes, and Jack Nicholson has to be ugliest little toad of a man, but his characters always do what they intend to do.

My son gave me his old laptop.  Now I know why he hated it.  It doesn't keep a charge and it the plug falls out it stops. I have to start all over again.  He did warn me though.

Is it a Dell? Both my old Dell laptops had that problem (one for me and one for my progeny). And one of my online friends also had that problem with a Dell. I had an extended warranty and they had to replace the motherboard to fix it.

I had the opportunity to use the phrase flying fuck in another thread, and it just occurred to me that Eric can really do that. Now I've been having visions of implementing that procedure.

hahaha! oh no Judy! you have a way of placing visuals in our imaginations! but i must say, w/ the exception of the hairy man (ick), theyre usually great visuals! lol

hmm...im not sure i even made sense there! my mind seems to be in the air...(hah!)

We're writers in my family. So yeah, I can do the visuals. My daughter is better at dialog, but my descriptions are better than hers.

I can still see the hairy man. He has a unibrow and his beard almost grows to below his eyes.

*loans a razor to Ap* "there go shave your mental eyes"

Thanks my mental electric shaver wasn't doing the trick.

I just broke down and bought a black iPhone 4. I had been holding out for a white one since they look nicer if the phone has a translucent skin or case on it. First, they were only going to be delayed for a month, and now it's opened-end and several months away. My iPhone 3G is barely holding on. The OS 4 upgrade (coinciding with with the new iPhone 4) did bring in some nice features, but it has become balky. It keeps hanging when awakening from hibernation, and then I have to do a reset. Every so often it just freezes while I'm using it. I'm thinking it might be a memory problem (i.e. the new OS making too many demands on the system). Also, it is getting obnoxiously slow, even in the iPod app, another clue to memory problems.

I suspect that the 3GS phones (one generation newer than mine) are doing better under OS 4 since they received a richer feature set with the new OS, which implies more base memory and a faster (and more sophisticated) processor. I'm not going to look up the specs to be sure, because I've managed to shake my addiction to all things tech since I "retired" from the field. Yes, obviously, I still spew technobabble, but I no longer feel it necessary to immerse myself in the minutia.

My new phone will have 32G which will hold more audiobooks than the 16G I have now. I have to keep swapping the books out so I can have some room for music on the thing too. And audiobooks are the prime use for the phone. I'm always plugged in listening to a book. I don't really talk to many people on it. But it is always with me in case of car problems. The last time I had a car breakdown was pre-cell era (or rather they had those hilariously huge first-generation cell phones that looked like military field walkie talkies) and people now make fun of. I had to walk in the rain (and it never rains in LA) in a hideous scary part of downtown at night. Downtown LA is ringed by some of the worst poverty in the city.

Is it a Dell?   Why yes it is.  It is a 3 year refurbished Dell.   My son had gotten  it  as a graduation gift.    

fffbone, my Masters in Teaching program gave me a free laptop for the program for free and I loved it for a while. But then it started having problems with the plug falling out or going out. I think I have had 6 power plugs for it and I have to replace the keyboard as several of my keys have popped off.

INCASE some of you haven't ordered your copy of "Death's Excellent Vacation", I am taking orders on my site- and I do ship internationally.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Deaths-Excellent-Vacation-SOOKIE-TRUE-BLOOD-HARRIS-/270598764636?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Fiction_Books&hash=item3f00f1785c

Okay, shameless plug over and done with LOL

Contiuning conversation from another thread with Ancient Pythosness...

Wow 1000 is alot of words for 1min!!! I doubt I can do that! I seam to only be intrested in vamprie books which started with Buffy when I was about 5 or 6! Watching them got me hooked on all things Vamp!

I could only read that fast with fiction. I was much slower with my college texts, which was when I got my reading speed tested. I was a teenage mother working three parttime jobs while caring for a hyperactive toddler when I was in college. Reading fast was a survival trait.

Fiction is much more intresting to me  books based on true event tend to be sad and depressing. oh wow so you a busy teen! I just work and havent yet had any children even tho nearly all of my friends have or are having babys at the moment. It takes me about a week to finish one of the Sookie books lol!

I didn't exactly plan on having the kid. My kid is now 44 (I'm 62). I've been in "retirement" for 7 years (I got ill). So when I letch over AS, it's kind of funny since he is 10 years younger than my daughter.

But I'm not dead yet and can still appreciate a fine piece of manflesh.

Yeah neither of my friends planned there pregnances either, just happends. My mum had me young im 18 and she is 37. Lol it might be funny but nothing wrong with it only 18 and letch over him too!!

I was 13 days past my 18th birthday when I gave bith. My fervent wish at the time was to not be a 17-year-old mother. I made it by less than two weeks.

Atleast you made it!  My mum did the same thing with my sister who is soon to be 20! lol

I've just got to post how deliriously happy I am. My surprises started out unpleasant when I got a note on my door saying they wouldn't be taking credit cards anymore to automatically pay the rent each month. Not earthshaking, but a potential inconvenience since there can be times I'm not well enough to walk over to the apt. complex office to deliver a check. My vertigo spells can keep me flat on back for days at a time.

But I quickly decided I can just set up my bank to automatically mail a check to them as I already do for another payment. I had a secret hope that this change meant something I've been hoping for. And it turned out it did. The apartment grapevine had already been buzzing about the fact that the complex was up for sale. So I wasn't shocked when I got a second note on the door stating we had new owners.

Now here's the good part. They have new onsite managers. The old ones were worst than useless. Things would go for months without repair. It took repeated requests and literally latching onto the manager and dragging him into the apartment to fix anything. If he didn't come in when the request was made, it was as if you had never asked at all. There was no recourse since the owner was unreachable.

The old managers are still living upstairs from me, so maybe they won't be moving out. I don't care since maybe I can get my toilet fixed now. It flushes every 10 minutes and is costing me maybe $20 in water. And maybe they can finally put my name on the intercom list at the front gate. It took me a year to get them to put my name on my mailbox. Hell I didn't even have a key to my mailbox for two months. In fact they didn't even program the front gate intercom to my phone (that's how it rings my apartment) for two months, and I had a broken foot and had to run out and open the gate when I had any deliveries or visitors.

All the tenants hate the old managers because nothing ever got done. Half the washers and dryers in the laundry room were broken for four months. And our security gate was stuck wide open for two months. Not very secure.

Good managers are key!  I grew up in apartments, and my parents never bought, they still rent a  townhouse.  I can't count the times my mum has had me write a letter for her to the owners/management to request or "inform" them about something.  They seem to come in waves - good then bad.  My mum actually had one manager show up at her door and scream at her for daring to complain about her washer breaking down to the owner - of course this manager hadn't acutally done anything about it for a month!

Glad your manager situation is looking up!  

I was afraid they keep the old managers when the complex was sold, but luckily not. My last place would fix things the same day or next day at the latest. They did have one manager that didn't get to fixing broken things in the complex right away, but at least I could flag down the maintenance man for apartment repairs. There were broken washers for months on end, and the exercise equipment never got fixed. But then they fired her for embezzling and things got fixed promptly by the new manager.

I had one other place where repairs took a few days, but they would get fixed. This is the first place I've ever been with such bad managers. I think it's because the owner was so disengaged and the managers (husband and wife) felt they had free rein. They had been the managers for the 6 years since this place was built. It was the only thing I hated about this place, otherwise I like my apartment.

Hey all. I'm helping to promote my brother in law's band called "The Neckties". It's actually kind of cute really. These are kids, mind you. He's the one in red and is 14 years old, the bass player. The music is bluesy rock. The vocalist is really young but he has promise.
http://www.myspace.com/necktiesmusic

Death's Excellent Vacation has shipped and will be here tomorrow. I'm also going to get the Kindle eBook tonight at midnight. And I'll see if Audible has it tomorrow. I'll refrain from getting it from iTunes at midnight, since I can read (actually using my eyes, no less) a short story without too much trouble. I really need an audiobook for a novel. And my iPhone 4 will also arrive tomorrow!

I'll probably be offline while I configure and port all my stuff to the new phone (and apply its new skin and screen protector). It's going to be great to have twice as much disk storage. Then I can get a free case from Apple. I had actually bought two sets of bumpers last month in anticipation of getting the phone, and Apple automatically refunded my money for them. But I can still get a free case, too. I already bought a case in advance when I got the bumpers, but it's not one of the ones Apple is giving away.

I got all my iPhone accessories early, so when I got the phone it wouldn't have to be naked while I acquire accessories. In the past my iPods and iPhone got a few scratches on them because I got the protective gear a few days after the purchase. The Gelaskin skin comes from Canada and always takes two weeks. I have Gelaskins on my two Kindles (I gave my DX to my daughter--it's just too heavy for me), my laptop, and my iPhone. They're great. I have Monet on my computer and the iPhone 3G and Van Gogh on my two Kindles (four different works of art). See, I have culture.

This is funny! They do look alike!

Haha.  Now I am totally over on that site when I have so much to do.  LOL

anyone else up waiting for d.e.v. to download to kindles?

Well, I just bought the audio from iTunes, but I should get my eBook download in 10 minutes. Once I got the audio I was less excited about the Kindle. I use my Kindle for reference when I'm reading. Then I got sidetracked and did a major re-org on my audiobooks for Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, and Lilian Jackson Braun. It's way too boring to detail here, but it conforms with a structure I've use for other authors who have story collections and series novels.

I should have done it in the first place and saved all this trouble. That took me two hours (the iTunes related changes took the most time--no way to automate it). Now I'm done and can listen to the story while I propagate my changes to my backup systems. I'm kind of anal and very organized on my computer. Hell, this kind of architecture development is what I did for a living (on a much larger scale) when I could work. Once a geek, always a geek.

Well, DEV isn't ready for download yet. I'm going to listen to it right now.

DEV is on my kindle now!

Must be the timezone thing. Amazon says my order is processing.

I am listening to it right now.

Ok it's on my Kindle now.

About Hugh Jackman I though I read that somewhere oh well.  But he's still fine by me.. I did like the movie Someone Like Me.

I know a guy who is 7' 3.   When my son was a 3yr old he would  pick him up over his head.  The look on his face, he didn't know what to do.

He was wonderful in Kate & Leopold.

I liked that one too.  It was just on recently too.

I finally got the right TV guide   yeah.

Whew, I just finished setting up and transferring all my stuff from one iPhone to another. Now I can add more audiobooks and music to the doubled capacity. And I will probably play with the multitasking just to thrill myself. I have limited excitement in my life.

Oh, and for the first time in almost a year my toilet isn't flushing every 10 minutes. Actually it wasn't flushing, it was refilling itself due to lost water. I had to keep my bathroom door closed at night because of the noise. I asked the new management to fix it. They asked the old manager / maintenance guy to do it. He looked very annoyed at me since I essentially went over his head. But frankly, I had already asked him 10 or more times and he never fixed it.

It took him ten minutes to fix. It was the flapper. I almost replaced it myself since I thought that might be why it was losing water, but I didn't want to have him bitch at me if that wasn't the problem.

You should have seen the hateful way he looked at me a few months ago when the outdoor light burned out and I asked him to fix it. It was not only a safety/security problem, but I don't see all that well at night and didn't want to trip over my own feet.

And now even the parking lot lights are fixed.

Ding dong the witch is dead. You should see how the longstanding tenants are all celebrating.

Wow. Score one for a faster processor and more memory. I can even display the longest threads here on the iPhone 4. Before, the larger threads would crap out on me. Now I can surf from my bed. Of course typing with the touch screen is still annoying, but this is nice.

That must of been very fustrating..every 10mins!! Glad you got it sorted!  As for the iphone4 it sounds pretty cool!! ive got an Andriod phone which does everything I need it too  

Just wanted to add that I miss my friend whos on Holiday in florida for 3 weeks   only got 2 more weeks left!! Cant wait to see him!

I just wanted to share something that made me giggle today.  On monday my husband and I took our kids to great adventure (theme park here in NJ) and on the very first ride, I lost my cell phone.  I didn't have time yesterday to go get a replacement.  This morning, the Fed-ex guy shows up with a new cell phone for me and it was red!  I had such a Sookie/Eric moment.  My husband has no clue why I thought it was so funny!  So I thought I would share with people who might find it as funny as I did.

Aww, did your husband unknowingly pull an Eric?  So cute.

He never read the books, so it was all coincidence, I just thought it was so funny!

That is funny.  My husband has never read the books either but he knows I am obsessed and he tends to be an over the shoulder reader.  He has actually used "lover" on me at times, usually to make me smile, once to make me shut up.  He is my big Italian Viking. LOL

Guys, I just have to say that with work and going to school for my master's, this forum makes my crazy life better.  After two VERY stressful days, reading all your insightful comments is pure stress relief. Thank you all. 

Dallas and Ronni, you are two lucky ladies with your men. Enjoy your Vikings!

Hi Ava, me too. This is the one thing (well my kid is a human, haha) that really takes my mind off work and all other stressors in my life. That's why I'm very thankful that I have this forum to share my thoughts with.  

This is a great place because of the intelligence and the humor. Couldn't ask for more.

Originally, I gave my iPhone 4 the same name I had given my iPhone 3G since I had to deactivate the old one anyway. That was PrettyBaby. My prior iPod 5th gen had been BlackBeauty (this was when black was the new black). My Kindle DX was named BigBertha for obvious reasons. And when I bought a Kindle 2 since the DX was too huge to be portable, I called it PortaPatty. Well now that I have a really cool skin on my new iPhone along with a pretty blue bumper, I've decided to rename it SexyBeast.

Ooh. I like SexyBeast. It reminds me of Jericho Z. Barrons. LOL!

That was my first thought too, Judy (LL). It reminded me of those sexy times in Dreamfever.

Now that I have that nice Jericho Barrons image, I'm going off to crawl into bed with my SexyBeast.

It reminded me of those sexy times in Dreamfever.

Damn, shit, fuck!!!!!  I thought I was safe reading the Random Thoughts thread.  should have known better!!  lol  (I'm halfway through BloodFever)

Shit. Sorry. That was my bad. Any way you can block that out?

Totally wasn't thinking about possible spoilers there. I'm so sorry.

Doh!

Ok. I'll take responsibility for that one, since I did bring it up.

No, guys, it's my bad.  (hence the lol after)  It is Random Thoughts, so that's a good indication that it could go anywhere.  Not too huge a spoiler; I bought it in the romance section after all!  Right now things are kind of intense/dark between them so I'm even more intrigued.  

One last thing on my SexyBeast. I look at my iPhone as a iPod Touch that I can make occasional phone calls on. It saves me carrying around two devices. And I'm always plugged into an audiobook no matter where I go or what I do (except when I'm online), home and away.

Oh yeah. I love my iphone. Did you ever download the audible app for your phone? It's awesome that you can download right from your audible library now instead of connecting it through itunes to transfer!

Does anyone know how much money CH has made so far from the books and TB?

I have indeed downloaded the Audible app. My new iPhone has 32G of storage. Of course my last iPod had 60G. So I still have to swap out books more often then I'd like, but it sure beats the 16G on my now retired iPhone. My daughter's iPod had 30G and it was quite manageable, so I think I'll do fine with my SexyBeast.

I don't think any of us know how much money CH's made, but it would be mostly from book sales. I'll bet there was a fixed price for the rights to the books for TB. Maybe they've included a bonus for additional seasons it runs. And she might have trademark/royalty rights on character marketing. We do know that her book sales have gone through the roof because of it. And they've even issued a new set of paperbacks with TB covers. And they are ugly and crass. And sometimes they are almost irrelevant to the plot, like putting Maryann on the cover of LDID.

Hey, AP, your SexyBeast is popular!

http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/08/05/sexy-true-blood-twilight-underworld-doctor-who-v/ 

Let's all vote for Eric!

I have an older sister (by a year) who has always slated me for reading about Vamps and when I first read twilight i was so obsessed I talked about it 24/7 anyway ive finally managed to get her to read them and OMG its so funny cause she is soo hooked and wants to ask me so many questions but is to stubbon! so instead she trys to do it slyly! makes me laugh so much! Now she kinda started being more open about it as she has finished the first one but watching her walk in my room and ask if she can read the next one was just a highlight of my night! Im def going to try and get her to read the Sookie Books!! Haha wish me luck!!

Whoah. Lightning just hit the roof of our neighbor's house and some weird electric charge went through ours causing my baby's toys to make noises and light up.  Freaky...

I always hated the toys that make noise and talk.  I have 2 little girls, 7 and 4 so I have plenty of talking dolls.  I know just how you feel.  I hope the weather gets better for you.

Totally Poltergeist.

On the topic of talking about vamps/vampire books 24/7: OMG no one wants to talk to me anymore because all I ever talk about is the SVM or True Blood, or vampires in general. And everything in life relates. I saw a woman in a store today and when she spoke I noticed she had great teeth - like fangs! But I did not mention it, of course, LOL.

G-Vegas = Gainesville Fl and yes O-Town=Orlando. I have been to p'cola since one of my best friends grew up there. Being from Vegas must be cool. It is nice to meet you Jessica

hey! i fixed my profile

It's nice to meet you!!

Vegas is definitely different. For the most part it's like a small town unless you go on the strip. Besides the strip it's like living anywhere else.

How do you like G Vegas and O-Town?

Oh crap now I have the "Little Hitler!" stuck in my head. Grrr.

G Vegas was a total college town. In fact I believe 80% of the town were involved in University of Florida in some way. It was fun but I'm glad to have graduated and moved on. O-Town is cool, it is very diverse. I love the little hitler skit too.

I haven't been down there in years. Last I remember it was nice. I have friends down there that love it. How hot was it down there today? it hit 100 here. ugh...

It was around 98 but with no wind and all the humidity it felt like it was over 100 easy.

Tonight is such a lazy night. Can't wait for Sunday!

Hi Jessica!

I started loving vampires when Interview with the Vampire came out. I was in high school then, I think.=)

Brad Pitt as Louis and Tom Cruise as Lestat? I was hooked. Went on to reading the books. For me Anne Rice is the queen of all vampire writers. I would forever be thankful to her for creating this world we are now obsessing in. =)

I loved Anne Rice, too. Interview With A Vampire is one of the best stories I have ever read. Really well done. I went back and re-read it a few summers ago, and it was just as delicious as the first time:)

Whoah. Lightning just hit the roof of our neighbor's house and some weird electric charge went through ours causing my baby's toys to make noises and light up.  Freaky...

I once had lightning hit right outside my bedroom. Either the lightning or my adrenalin made me fly across the room and land on my dresser. The bed was right under the window with the side along the window wall, and the dresser was on the other wall. The room was 12 feet wide. I must have flown 8 feet in the air.

Ouch! You didn't get hurt did you?

BTW..who is Chele? Whenever I I would come sneak a peak here I noticed some comments got deleted between you (AP) and Chele. Laura mentions her on her rant about 2 blondes.

Judy (LL) - I'll PM you...

Great. I didn't want to go there again.

Regarding the lightning: I was in my teens and quite flexible. I didn't get hurt (maybe a bruise or two), but I was certainly freaked out.

I know the feeling. The hair all over my body was standing on ends! I was working on my laptop and jumped back a couple of feet to avoid getting shocked.

I could imagine AP leaping in the air! Ala Eric Northman. LOL. =)

Lightning recently hit near our house. We lost electricity for a while. When it came back, our TV and two DVDs were busted, even if they weren't on. However, they were plugged in the sockets so the electrical wirings inside the appliances still got burned. Such a waste.

Man that is a waste. Luckily all of our major appliances are connected via surge protectors so they were spared. I think our cordless phone may be hosed though. I jumped instinctively because of the sound and light. It was my husband who saw the actual lightning hit the house behind ours. They now have a hole in their roof.

I have most of my stuff on surge protectors but not my small kitchen appliances. I think I better do something about the stuff that is unprotected.

We are having storms tonight and my kids cable went off for a while.  My three year old told me about eleven times, my five year old told me four more times.  I had to explain it rrrreeeeaaaaalllll slow cause they were convinced that I broke the tv.  But it is 1000 degrees here so we needed it.

It has been so hot and humid in KC this summer.  Half of my son's summer camp outing were canceled due to the heat.  My hubbie is a commercial and industrial heating and air guy so he has been working a lot and taking changes of clothes because he is drenched within an hour of being on a rooftop.  I have even resorted to cooking the backup fish sticks in the freezer because I don't want to go the store in this heat.  With the heat index it has been 105 and is only supposed to go up.  Blech.

Yuck...it's been in the 100 range where I live now.  God, I hate it. I am just not equipped to deal with heat like this, so I spend most of my time indoors, sadly.

I live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles, AKA The Valley. The temperature frequently gets into 3 figures, but it is usually a dry heat. I have central air and remain oblivious to the heat until I go to my mailbox. And then it's like walking into a blast furnace.

Dry heat really is better because of the evaporative nature of sweat.  Here the sweat just clings, walking outside feels like walking into a bathroom full of steam.  You don't breath it, you swallow it.  I have been staying inside myself.

Judy, how long have you been a valley girl? (Which is my very favorite Nick Cage movie btw!)

I am from Texas and grew up in dry heat, and I thought I would complain to my Arkansas friends about how hot it was where I grew up.  THEN I experienced Arkansas "wet" heat and it can kill.  My kids want to be outside all the time and I used to love it, now I'm like maybe in October.

I lived in West LA (various locales) for most of my 30 or so years here. West LA is the best part of Los Angeles. But my daughter's BF lives in the Valley so when she moved in with him I relocated to Valley--five miles away from them. The idea was that they could help me if I needed it. I've been here for 1 1/2 years now.

I grew up in Miami. I know all about humidity, and rain, and thunderstorms. I can fill an encyclopedia describing it. I lived there for 20 years. We had to be careful what we put in the hamper because if it was damp it would develop mildew. I went back to visit after living here for a few years and I couldn't even inhale the air since it was so thick. When I would get out of a car to walk into a building I would almost pass out from the oppressive humidity and heat.

I lived in the Gulf until I was 6.  We could go shrimping in our ditch after a heavy rain.  Then I lived in Wichita, KS until my late 20's.  It is hot and humid there but really windy so it is not too bad.  Here in Kansas City there is no wind to speak of, just hot wet smog.

In the winter we get clobbered with snow ans ice storms.  I bet is is about the same in where you live in Arkansas, huh Dallas?

My son always wants to go to Disney World and all I can think of is the heat and humidity.  I know Florida would not be the place for me!  I have never been there but I have always imagined I would like to live in Oregon or Washington.  It just seems so beautiful and natural.  But I know it rains a lot too. Humph, I guess no place is perfect.  And if we did manage to live somewhere with perfect weather than my husband would be out of work;.

In the winter we get clobbered with snow ans ice storms.  I bet is is about the same in where you live in Arkansas, huh Dallas?

Yep. I had never even seen real snow until I moved to Arkansas and I am in the southern part(went to college in Magnolia which is where CH lives).  I remember making a slush man one winter from the ice that was on my mom's car.  I put twigs on it for arms, and the twigs already had flowers on them.  Ha.  I am in Southeast AR now and we don't really get snow persay but ice and wet slushy nastiness.  

I have driven up through western Arkansas and it is just gorgeous.  Isn't that the beginning of some mountain range of some sort?  I am terrible at geography but I remember it being quite hilly and beautiful  Lots of trees and winding roads.

Just reading all your weather talk!  I grew up in Vancouver - very temperate, mild summer with ocean breezes, mild winter with gray drizzle more often than snow, but we did get some snow.  Then, at the age of 25, I moved to Toronto.  OMG, I moved in summer and was hit with a humidex of 40 celcius which I think is something like 110 fahrenheit.  Good for nothing but sitting on a patio drinking, or hiding inside.  Then along comes winter.  Minus 31 celcius with the windchill.  I'm not sure what that is fahrenheit, but it's frickin' freezing!!!  I came outside in my cute little boots with no traction, was hit by a wind and promptly slammed into the wall of the building I was walking next to... course that was back in the day when I was pretty tiny!    There are such huge temperature swings that our roads and highways are constantly in need of repair from all the cracks and potholes ... remind me why I live here, again?!!

There are such huge temperature swings that our roads and highways are constantly in need of repair from all the cracks and potholes ... remind me why I live here, again?!!

Oh, yes.  It swings so dramatically here that the streets are all veined with tar and pothole filler.  Then the salt they use on the roads.  Cars don't look pretty for long around here.   Yep, we have 100 plus summers and negative 5 degree winters.  Spring and Autumn seem to last a week each.  I could take the extreme weather if the breaks between them lasted a bit longer! It will be Halloween before it will get down to the 80's.  And then the rain storms will be starting.  It seems that it rains every Halloween here.  I'm moving to Vancouver!

I lived in NY for around six months when I was pregnant. And the switch from Miami to NY was a shock. Of course I was born in NY, but I left when I was 7. Then I lived in Illinois for two years and it was very cold with lots of snow. It took like two hours to get out of our house and get the cars into operation (even though we had a garage). Again it was a shock from Miami to Illinois. Then we lived in Birmingham for a couple of years and it is remarkably hilly there. There wasn't much snow but when we got ice the city just about shut down.

Wow,  Judy.  You have lived in more states that I have visited.  I look at my son and I think that I missed out on seeing so much as a kid.  We never traveled.  I want to tour the US with him so we can see these things together.  I've seen all the amber waves of grain that I care to see. I am ready to check out the mountains and the Redwood forests too.

I also lived in New Jersey for a while when we were up in NY.

I think I've visited most of the states except the NW and parts of the upper Midwest.

AP, Birmingham, Alabama? That's my neck of the woods!

It's nice read about someone getting hot weather! I'm in Scotland and this is what is laughingly called 'Summer'.

Usually we get a good mix of weather, warm, a little rain, a nice breeze from the sea, etc. and we do get very low temps and snow in the 'Winter' but not usually extreme amounts where I live down by the coast. This year we got hammered with snow for weeks and now we have got 12-15'C and no sign of the sun with rain most days (and torrential rain on the others). The local farmers have got faces just as 'dreich'  - local word for miserable wet weather. You've got too much heat/sun and we haven't got enough.

Nearest lightening strike to me was when I was visiting my parents and I looked out of the window and saw it hit my dad's car parked outside the house. It set off the alarms and melted a channel across the metallic paint on the roof  of the car. Not too often we get electrical damage here though (perhaps it's our electrical system, we have three core wiring earthed to ground).

If I ever win money I'd love to travel for a couple of months in the US.

If I ever win money I'd love to travel for a couple of months in the US.

Avoid Alabama from May to November. I swear, it stays hot and humid here. Last year, I was wearing denim shorts on Christmas Eve. I would have loved to have snow!

I'll get you all to help with the itinerary

My husband I got married in December and were going to have the ceremony in the outdoor  Greek Theatre on campus. But they said the weather would be too cold and wet. Yeah, well December 20, 2002 was 80 degrees and breezy. I crossed the street in my wedding dress barefoot. LOL  Weather in the south of U.S.  is a joke.

We got married in December too - it was beautifully sunny but cold and windy - my DH bought me an ultra fine wool cami with hearts on it to wear under my dress (he's always very thoughtful and practical ).

I don't know if any of you or your families have Celiac disease or gluten intolerance, but I am so excited I have to share! I just found gluten-free Bisquick Pancake and Baking Mix at my local grocery store. I brought it home and made wonderful fried chicken tenders. I fed one to my roomie, and he said they were so good, he wouldn't have known they were GF if I hadn't told him. I haven't eaten anything fried or breaded since my diagnosis, so this was a huge treat to me!

That sounds like great news for you.

It definitely is. I was never really big on fried foods, but I do miss cakes and breads.  I can't wait to try the blueberry scones recipe. I just feel compelled to spread the word around! I'd like to make sure this product is successful enough that they keep it on the market.

I actually have Celiac disease Ava. All these new gluten free products...it so, so exciting. How long have you known you've had it & how long did it take for you to get diagnosed?

When I was 14 we were living in SE Virginia and my dad got orders to Iceland. That was a change in weather. I'll tell you what I'd take cold over hot anyday!!!!! The hubby and I were in hawaii, but the problem with Hawaii is that they really only have 1 season and I can't take that.

I found out just before I turned 21, so I've known for about 3 1/2 years now. The diagnosis process was a nightmare to me, but compared with others I've talked to, I lucked out.  I had been having joint pain and mouth ulcers for about two years prior to my diagnosis, but the really awful stuff didn't start until about year before (or at least that's when I started noticing). Luckily, I was in nursing school and working as a MA for a doctor who recognized the symptoms. I am so grateful I got a relatively quick diagnosis. Did it take you a long time to find out? Some people wait years for a proper diagnosis!

Yeah it took me a long time. I was sick on & off my whole life. I was always diagnosed w/something but then it turned out not to be what they thought. It started to get really bad in my mid to late 20's. When I turned 30, my symptoms went off the charts. As a whole - it took about 5-6 years for me to get diagnosed from the onset of the really bad symptoms in my 30's. I was desperate after about my 4th time in the ER. It was me ..after that desperation made me just try to figure out what was wrong with me - who randomly found out about Celiac. So I read about it & it just clicked. I tried going wheat free 1st to be sure. It helped but I still had these agonizing stomach attacks (though not as much). Then I knew. I begged...begged the doctors to finally agree to give me the intestinal biopsy to be sure. They wouldn't do it. Didn't want to believe it b'c guess what? Can't be treated by a drug. Only diet.

They final agreed after I just demanded it b'c they really were at a loss & I was so sick of constantly being sick & in the hospital. When I was diagnosed, it wasn't a known thing. Now it's like so much more accessible in the matter of a few years. Crazy.

In the UK - it only takes about 2-3 weeks from the onset of symptoms to get diagnosed. When I got diagnosed (about 3.5 years ago too) it took an average of either 9 or 15 years in the US. Something crazy like that I don't know what it is now.

I was referred to an online support group for recipes and places to shop. One guy in my group, it took more than eleven years for a diagnosis for him. I think why it takes so long is because a lot of doctors here aren't familiar with it, so they mis-diagnose. I'm so lucky that the doctor I worked for pushed me through with the specialist, otherwise I might still be miserable.

It's great that they are picking up on things a lot faster!! I know dealing with all that must be difficult and quite frustrating for you! I am so sorry!!

I was very sick a few years back with stomach and digestive tract issues.  It was like getting full blown stomch flu every two weeks.  I was tested for intestinal parasites and given a scope where they took a biopsy of my intestine.  Do you think they were checking for Celiac?  They never mentioned it, but said everything was ok and healthy when I asked for the results.  It was incredibly frustrating as I was still as sick as a dog and losing weight more and more quickly.  I went from a size 12 to a size 4 in under a year.  Like you, Laura, I tried to figure it out myself when the medical profession threw their collective hands in the air and said "we don't know."  I cut out alcohol and caffeine, reasoning that I could live without them.  The nausea got better, but not the other.  Then I went on an anti-inflammatory diet a naturopath gave me.  No wheat, dairy, alcohol, caffeine or sugar.  I was also supposed to avoid a few other things and take a strong pro-biotic.  I did that for 3 months and felt much better.  Two years later I felt almost normal.  I still don't know what it was!!!

Jessica--frustrating yes, but completely manageable. And as long as I know what's in my food, I don't ever get sick. It keeps me motivated, and my MD says I'm healthier because I don't eat any junk!

Liann, biopsies are the only way to 100% confirm Celiac disease, so they may have been checking for it. I'm glad you're better!

Thanks, AvaCate.  It was really weird, because there was no diagnosis, but I have heard from so many woman who have experienced similar symptoms.  I'm really glad you got a diagnosis that you can use to keep those symptoms at bay!

Do you think they were checking for Celiac?

I would ask them if they were if you can go back. i know I had to specifically ask them to test for Celiac.   They checked for other things too (they did down my throat & bottom) like Crohns, diverticulitis etc...

If it was a few years back - they might not have thought to check for that but if you can pull your file I will b'c honestly, if you do have it you should start going gluten free asap. People w/it are susceptible to certain diseases b'c of it. And you can be asymptomatic your whole life & have it. That's the real crazy part of it.

Yikes!  I will definitely ask my doctor about it.  I have been symptom free ever since I got pregnant with my second son.  Actually, just prior to that.  I think that's why my body accepted getting pregnant.  We had trouble before, I think because my body knew it couldn't handle any extra stress at the time.

Thanks for the info and the "heads up".  

I'm off to Niagara Falls with my mum and boys for two days!  I have never actually stayed there before.  I've been to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the Shaw Festival but not the Falls themselves.  Should be fun!!  "See" you all when I get back.  

Have fun!

Ok... so I went to check my bank transactions. I do everything online and check my bankcards and my Amex several times a month. On rare occasions I've found outright fraud, as well as the infrequent goof up (and I've always gotten all my money back). Somehow last year AT&T billed me for someone else's charges. I wasn't sure if it was a mistake but the name at the end of the long charge code wasn't mine. So I asked Wells Fargo and sure enough it was a goof. And on one occasion Rite-Aid billed me twice. Today, I found that I ate $77.49 worth of chicken at Popeye's. Well, maybe it was really $7.49 and they fumble-fingered the charge. I didn't notice, since I was in a drive-through and just took the bag and headed home.

The most insidious fraud was a company that only charged around $20 at a time. They even used several different names and slightly different amounts throughout the month. The bank refunded that too. I researched them a bit and the company was under indictment in multiple states for this fraud, and then it made it on Dateline or 60 Minutes. They were very successful at cheating since people didn't pay attention to the small charges.

I check out all charges. When my daughter lived with me, it was always a question and answer session since she might have had cryptic eBay purchases. She never minded since she knew about the times we actually found fraud.

My progeny and I are going to see Inception tomorrow. We have Laura's rave review and one from a family friend who works in The Biz. He writes/creates movie trailers. And he sees almost every movie out there. He's not much for fantasy or SciFi, but his complaints about the movie rang true. He didn't like the constant head games. He said after awhile he didn't give a shit anymore. I don't like being jerked around by stories either, since I lack the patience (Lost eventually lost me for that reason). So we'll see how well they execute. I told the kid (BTW, my kid is 44) about the head game complaint, and she said she knew it was a possibility but figured it was worth it anyway.

AP its good you noticed and checked your bank,i guess i dont really do that often! then again i dont no many people who have be a victim of fraud. Glad you got all ya money back on them occasions Hope the inception was good! I wana see that too!

I missed you girls! My daughter was admitted Sunday night for early pneumonia and bronchial asthma.  We just got home today, and I'm off to work in a bit...

The hospital's WiFi couldn't reach our room since it was in the corner, so I couldn't access the net!

I'll try to catch up with all the discussions... Hope I didn't miss a lot (wishful thinking, hehe).

I Hope your daugher is alot better now. Best wishes to your family

Thanks, Sarah! She has a lot of medicines to take, but she's a lot better. Best wishes to yours, too!

I hope she's fine. My daughter had a nasty bout of pneumonia when she was 11.

Thanks a lot, AP. She's already up and about, dancing to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. 

I don't wish this on anyone's kid, but I'm glad to know there are moms out there who knows what I'm going through. Here she is:

Your Welcome! and thank you too! ...She is very cute Bless her

Ok so im going to moan a bit now but im extremly fustrated! I work 8-4 mon-fri and now ive got to do 8-6 for the next two weeks b'coz my colleage is on hoilday! I havent been taught how to do his job properly so im most likely going to fuk it up! Ive also only been working here a month! Im my hardest to keep calm and carry on!! (Wish me luck)

She is adorable!   My youngest had pneumonia at 11 months old.  Just glad I got him to the Doctors in time, we had a blizzard the next two days.  Glad to hear she is doing better. Sucks when your kids get sick.

My husband  was asking me last week what I was doing with all the books I just bought,and how I watch TB.   He's like are you really that obsessed with that blond vampire, I just give him a smile and say yes I can't help it.  So now all he does when he see's me is sing that I'm addicted to Blood.  So funny.  He use to have his own business with the word Viking in it.  Ah maybe it's fate.  The HS football team is the Vikings also.  But I did notice he said the Blond vampire  he he

Karla, I hope your daughter is feeling better.  By the way, she is beautiful!

Other than my emergency TV replacement, which necessitated a new Blu-ray--a big fancy TV and a 15-year-old DVD player with poor resolution are a sad combo, which then necessitated a new TV stand and a bunch of new cables and surge protectors, my expenditures for the year had been planned out. A new iPhone in June when it came out, and a new computer when the back to school sales began in August. Well, the white iPhone was pushed to July. And then it was canceled. So I broke down and got the black one. I've got a skin on it, and you can't see the color anyway. My prior objection had been that translucent cases in pretty colors look better on white. But lately I use Gelaskins since I can switch off when bored. And since the bumpers protect it when dropped, I don't use a case (I ordered a free transparent one from Apple anyway). So black is fine. My 3G has been acting very odd ever since iOS 4 came out, lots of hanging and erratic behavior. And that only made it more imperative to upgrade.

However, that meant that my iPhone would be purchased one month and the computer the next. Oh well, who needs savings accounts? I talked it over with my offspring and she felt the $350 in discounts (which is what it came to) was worth taking the hit, which was my feeling too. My laptop needs a larger hard drive and a new CD/DVD drive, and by the time I replaced both of those, I figured I'd rather get a new machine, especially since my extended warranty just ran out.

So my new laptop will be here next week. I told my daughter that it cost a little more because I wanted a Blu-ray drive and she said that I didn't need it since I had a Blu-ray player. I told her I had to have it so I could do screen caps from my discs, but I didn't tell her it was to make screen caps of naked Alex. Anyway, now that she's not living at home anymore, I don't have to make it a democratic decision with her vote. Nor do I have to spend equally on her or compensate her for my indulgence. Hoorary for freewill.

I'm coming into a bunch of money in a few months. The short description is that it's a class action settlement for a company I freelanced for in the past. They didn't give contractors any benefits or vacation but did use us as if we were employees, so there's a huge settlement and I get a piece. I don't know how much, but it will more than pay for the TV, Blu-ray, iPhone, and computer. And the money will be coming in two months. They first said we would have it three-four years ago, but always hedged. Now they are certain it's coming and when, which is something they never said before.

My other planned expenditure this year will be at the end of the year. A new car. My car is 10 years old. It only has 35,000 miles on it since I don't drive much. In fact the first 20,000 miles came in the year I worked after buying it. Then I stopped working. I wouldn't buy a new car, but I can't get my scooter easily into it myself, and my daughter's not living with me to help. So I need to get a minivan or CUV. I have a power lift on my small car now, but it is a struggle to assemble the motor and lift components (that sit on a trailer hitch) and maneuver the scooter onto the lift and into the car. Some of the parts are too heavy for me to lift. And it's a tight squeeze, requiring a lot of effort to get lined up right. I need one of those powered fold out lifts that require no assembly or intervention. And that means a bigger car.

I need to get the car now since my income will drop when I switch from disability insurance to my pension at age 66. In fact, I probably should have brought it last year, assuming a four or five-year loan. Maybe whatever is left over from my legal settlement will float me through that last year or so of car payments.

Ancient Pythoness, I have a 3G, and have been noticing that it's taking forever to load pages since the iOS4 came out. I've been thinking of upgrading to the iOS4, or just getting an ipad and using the phone for calls and ipod only.

Pages were slow; it would leap out out apps while running them; it would freeze and not come back from hibernation; it would lock up randomly. I think the 3G just doesn't have the CPU power and memory to handle iOS4. My new iPhone 4 is fast and is not experiencing any of those problems. I considered an iPad instead of a new laptop, but it doesn't do Flash and I can't connect external storage to it, and I have several hundred gigabytes of audiobooks (I have trouble reading). So I got another Compaq. I already have a Kindle anyway. So the iPad, while sexy, doesn't seem to serve a purpose for me. My iPhone is lightweight and saves me carrying a phone and an iPod.

I saw an intelligent critique about the iPad which pointed out that it is awkward to type on since a laptop has a screen that sits in front of you so you can read, while the keyboard sits in your lap for typing. The iPad doesn't have that convenience. If it's in your lap you have to scrunch over to read it and type on it. So it isn't all that ergonomic. The ads all show someone with one knee up to balance it. That's ok for reading, but how do you type on it? There are some stands but they aren't practical if you put the thing in your lap.

Thanks, good to know. I didn't realize that the ipad doesn't do flash. I'm in Canada and they haven't been here that long. Maybe I should talk myself into a new phone - haha

Without Flash, half the stuff on the web doesn't work right. It's annoying enough now on the iPhone.

Karla, I hope your baby gets better real soon. I have a 2 year old and it's tough watching them get sick. She is super adorable btw.

I don't know about the ipad but I use this leather case/stand combo for my kindle. The company makes a version for the ipad so I'm thinking they just adjusted the size. I simply love this case for my kindle.
http://www.medgestore.com/products/ipad-platform.psp

I use several M-edge products, but the real difference is that most users don't type on a Kindle as much as they would while surfing on an iPad. I have the leather case stand for my Kindle. But I have to lay it flat to type on it. They also make a flexible leg stand for both the iPad and Kindle, but again, the issue is how do you type on it? It would just fall over or scoot backwards when you touched the screen. I think the iPad is just a huge iPod Touch. If you don't have an eReader already it would be ok for that. And I guess it would be ok on a desk, but you would still crane your neck or hunch over if it is flat, and any other position would just slide around as you typed on it.

I may have mentioned that ive recently started my new job, well an arlam is going off on my desk and I have no idea what it id for!!! ive pressed Mute to shut it up but seriously no one has come running to sort it out so im a bit confused !!

Awww. Thanks, girls. I've told her all your compliments and she says, "Tenchu (Thank you)." She's a lot better now, just a cough here and there. Really sucks (and tiring) when they get sick...

Mary, you're lucky your husband understands your obsession, and that he's not insecure with our Viking! Haha!

Sarah, breathe. You'll be fine. =)

Glad Shes getting better Karla and Thank you, they came and shut it off after about 20mins! Lol  

Oh I am so annoyed,  My lawn mower keeps shutting down in the middle of cutting the grass (It had bad gas last time).  So I would wait  to restart it blah blah now the cord just  broke off !!  I only had just a little bit left.   Now I have to wait till husband dear can fix it yet again.

I'm not sure that this is the appropriate thread but wanted to pass on a link for a Sam Trammell Funny or Die video that hubby emailed to me. The link is http://m.funnyordie.com/videos/bba52a8ca3/pizza-training-w-sam-trammell

I just wanted to follow up on what Judy (LL) and I (also Judy) said about the iPad. I think it's a great device for surfing, reading, photos, audiobooks, music, email (with a caveat). But it isn't good for actually typing on for anything but shot spurts. So if a person is actively posting on forums or sending a lot of email or doing a lot of texting, it is awkward, because it is kind of heavy to hold in one hand for extended periods of time. So then it has to be laid flat and you hunch over it awkwardly.

I went to check out the iOS4 today and the store that I went to today was sold out. So, I will have to wait until they have more in 

And to be completely fair to the iPad, you can attach an external keyboard. But still no Flash, and therefore not a perfect alternative to computers for complete internet use.

Ok so I really need tell someone about my dream and I thought the only people who wuld understand the slightest bit would be you lot....

Well I had the most realist dream that I was marrying Edward Cullen....Weird Huh? It was so real tho, one of them dreams you wake and feel a bit dazed from coming back to reality Lol. Even Jacob was there pretending to be all jealous, but it had all of my family in it not the Cullens or Blacks was def dodgy!!...Not alot of people would confess to having such a dream but I guess im not like alot of people  

Sarah, they say dreams are the expression of your unconscious and subconscious. This must mean that you're really a Twihard!!! The wedding scene is from Breaking Dawn! Which will be showing in November, by the way. LOL!!!

Speaking of sleep and dreaming. Someone else on this forum mentioned having sleep paralysis. I've had sporadic occurrences since my late teens and just experienced one again last night. It's really freaky for the ones who have this sleep disorder.

Sometimes the visions and sounds are so real it's hard to tell if it's a dream or reality. It's very much like lucid dreaming. Other times it's straight out of your worst nightmare when you can see things but can't move or say anything.

The scariest instance was the time I woke up to the black cloaked shadow staring at me. I was only able to move my eyes and saw it kind of floating there, hovering back and forth slightly. The light was on in my room because I fell asleep reading that night so it wasn't a trick of the shadows in the dark. The thing was all black but somehow the eyes were really hollow and darker. I swear my heart almost jumped out of my skin. Of course I closed my eyes and tried to scream but I my vocal chord was paralyzed still. After I reopened my eyes, it was gone. Luckily I haven't seen that same shadow since but I have had paralysis issues every once in a while. Sometimes I can hear strange sounds as I'm falling asleep. When that happens I force myself to wake up.  The one I had last night was more like a heavy feeling on my chest and my head/body felt like it was vibrating. I heard whirring sounds, like helicopter wings.

I work a lot at night so I don't have a consistent sleep schedule, which is a factor for this sleep disorder. I find it somewhat fascinating at the same time I wish it didn't happen. However, it doesn't happen enough for me to find therapy. Just on those rare occasions when I'm sleep deprived or stressed out.

That's scary, Judy. Do you have someone to wake you up who's aware of this condition of yours?

Since we're into dreaming, did you guys see the meteors last night? http://framework.latimes.com/2010/08/13/perseid-meteor-shower-2/#/0 

I know..freaky huh? I haven't had any issues waking myself up though. The longest episode being less than a minute. My husband is a heavy sleeper and hasn't once fully woken up when I would shake him after an episode. He'd just make sleepy noises, which I find adorable, and mumble "it's ok, go back to sleep" or something to that effect. It's not very scary when you tell yourself, "this is just a sleep disorder". I don't necessarily believe in ghosts so that helps.
BTW, here's a video link of the meteor shower. I wish I got to see it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XTBrYWrey0

Holy cr@P! This woman is crazy. My husband sent me this video. I have no idea what she's on but she needs her nuggets!

"Don't make me assume my ultimate form" actually took 1st place - overtaking the "special cunt" line. Wow that was brilliant!!! I was crying with laughter.

Yeah I know. I'm still chuckling.

Terrifying. And I'm gasping for air.

What is super saiyan?

I believe it's a reference to Dragon Ball Z. LOL.

OK, I looked it up it is from Dragon Ball. And I guess that's her ultimate form. I think she was out without her keeper. Or maybe she flushed her meds.

Judy I got the info just as you typed it.

She would have made a really good Debbie.

My son asked me a question" If Sam was to bite someone over and over in dog form would that person change into a dog?"  or would that person be able to shift into anything like Sam or almost since he's bitten not born.  Any thoughts on this?

This is totally from left field, but I got it on Huffington Post as part of a bad yearbook picture collection. I can't stop laughing. Their caption was: "OK... Is this guy feeling all right? Because he looks like he wants to murder someone."

And this other one at Huffington Post is just hysterical. It is the most homoerotic photos in vintage ads (unintentional, of course). http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/13/the-most-homoerotic-vinta_n_663796.html

"OK... Is this guy feeling all right? Because he looks like he wants to murder someone."

Dont' let AB see that picture. He'll find the guy and cast him as Quinn with our luck.

Oh my gosh those ads were so funny! thanks for the link

Dont' let AB see that picture. He'll find the guy and cast him as Quinn with our luck.

LMAO.  But today I was cleaning my boys' room and had my music playing.  I was listening to "I'm too Sexy" by Right Said Fred and I started thinking about Quinn. Big muscular, obnoxious bald guys in that video   LOL  hahahahahhaha 

Hey everyone.  I have been away for a few days.  My mom passed away Monday.  I've been back in Wichita tending to everything.  As sad as I have been seeing the last few posts in this thread actually made me laugh. So thanks everyone.

On a side note, my mom was a hoarder and her house literally killed her (toxic mold).  If you know anyone with the same problem I ask that you reach out to them and offer some help.  Even though they will probably refuse, it is better for them to know you care.  I don't want to turn this thread sad so that is all I will post for now.

Peace

Oh Kim, I am so sorry. My thoughts and best wishes are with you.

My daughter is a hoarder and so is her BF's mother. The place is loaded with books and papers and old magazines. My daughter already has severely damaged lungs.

My condolences to you for losing your mother. My Uncle just died on Tuesday. He was a pilot and his engine failed. The plane crashed and from reports, He was ejected out of the plane, and rescue crews found his body on fire when they got there. If you want you can look up the report off of google...just type in Pilot killed in plane crash Wilkes County. His name was John Leuci.

My condolences and prayers go out to your families, Kim and TBS. Hang on. Even through writing, we will be here for you.

On a lighter note, my daughter and I are watching YouTube. She keeps on asking me to replay Papparazzi by Lady Gaga. I was happy to oblige since AS is there. My daughter calls him "Papi" by the way. Haha.

Did you realize how smooth his skin was and how straight his teeth were in that video? That man is so yummy.

My condolences out to familes too! Hope you are all ok xx

I'm so sorry .  My condolences are with you and your families too.  I just lost my dad in June and my 19 yr old nephew last October, Due to marfan syndrome.  My thoughts are with you both.

My condolences to all of you. Losing a close family member like that is so painful.

Mary, Marfan is so rare. I'm sorry it's in your family.

My nephew was going to go have open heart surgery  the next week too.  He died from a aortic dissection.  So they  rushed his 23 yr old brother for the surgery.  2 weeks later.    When they opened him up they found out he only had 2 weeks to live.  Then in January they did the surgery on Their 17 yr old sister. she wasn't as bad as her brothers.  As of now both my neice and nephew are doing great.  It was a real shock though, still is.  He came home from school and just died with His mom and sister and a friend was  there.  So was glad that it didn't happen when he was driving home from college.      OK I'm just rambling now.  sorry.

This is just so tragic. Mary, I'm so sorry for the pain your family has been experiencing.

aw thanks.  That's why I love this site so much.  everyone is just so funny with all the comments on everything.  Just laughing at what people write is great.

 That's awful, Mary. How are you holding up?

My dad just got out of the hospital last Friday, after my daughter was hospitalized as well. His stool was full of fresh blood, and it came to a point where it was just blood coming out of him. We're still in the process of ruling out colon cancer since it runs in the family.

That's why I love this site, too. It takes my mind off things that are currently happening, even for just a little while. Ranting against Bill and AB makes me feel good. All the frustrations coming out. 

My mom has diverticulitis found out many years ago.  But that was how it started.  the bleeding.  After many surgery's and a colostomy she's doing fine.  She can't eat anything with seeds.  I think the shock of losing my father is wearing off on my mom now.  They just had their 50th wedding anniversary a month before.    I would be lost.  I hope your dad and daughter will feel better. As for me I'm good.

AB should go back to reading the books and get some very important things right.

Thanks, Mary. Diverticulosis was the initial finding, too. If there's no bleeding in two weeks, he'll undergo Barium Edema to confirm. My daughter's great as well, no more asthma. Glad to know your mom is doing well. And you, too.

Yeah, AB should stop contradicting whatever's written in the books. He should also stop making a hero out of Bill.

AB must be secretly  in love with SM/B.

SM seems really nice and funny  in interviews and he's not so bad to look at either.  I love the English accent.

I love British humor Benny Hill,   Monty Python it's great

Oh my goodness!  Kim, I'm so sorry for your loss.  That must have been such a shock.  My own mum was just here for a visit.  She is 83 now, so this hits especially close to home as I watched her with her grandsons and how much they love each other.  Please know I am thinking of you and your family.

Karla, my youngest had pneumonia twice when he was a baby.  Both times he was right as rain after the antibiotics kicked in.  Really, I think it's more traumatic for the parents because we're so scared.  They are uncomfortable, but heal very quickly.  Glad your daughter is better now - she's absolutely gorgeous, BTW!!

Mary, that is a large weight your family is carrying right now.  I'm so sorry about your nephew, but glad to hear he died with friends a family around him.  That's the way I would want to go.  Glad his siblings are doing much better.

I truly think laughter and camaraderie are the best medicine!  Venting is pretty good, too!!  I know this site has helped me feel better on many an occassion.  Happy to hear it works for you, too.  As a matter of fact, I think I'm just going to concentrate on sending out some white light and positive energy to everyone one here.... it sounds like we could all use some.  

Yes, it's more trauma to the parents, and grandparents when the kids get sick. Thanks a lot, Liann! *absorbing your white light and positive energy*

Feeling that white light and energy now... thanks

My condolences to everyone who has had a recent loss in your families. I know exactly how tragic it feels, since I'm going through it now. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your families.

I have my mum here staying with me for a couple of weeks, driving me daft in a fun sort of way. I'm so glad she's here. I'm sending a big hug to all of you.

I'll have to go into radio silence in a few days, maybe as late as next week (Monday or Tuesday). I'll be getting my new laptop. I'm a retired tech who has rolled out literally tens of thousands of PCs in huge network deployments and integration/migration projects for large corporate clients, so this should be a piece of cake for me... except I haven't seen Windows 7 before. But when I did work, I was hired specifically for mastering new platforms, applications, network devices, and operating systems.

I may not be able to see straight or type properly anymore, but I can still figure out new systems. It will be fun. This is the practical use for my analytical nature. Of course my impractical, but pruriently useful, analytical skill helps me figure out that AS is a lefty.

Of course installing and configuring all my software and reloading all my data will be tedious. I'm not going to use the migration utility and cable for porting between Windows systems, since it also brings over a lot of useless crap and then some stuff won't run anyway because it isn't perfect and it misses things. It's better to start from scratch.

Enjoy your new laptop!

We'll miss you AP. Good luck in your Windows 7 endeavor! Give us the details once your back. 

Wow. I'm sorry about everyone's loss. I can't imagine losing a family member. I know it's inevitable, but it's still very tragic.

Judy, have fun w/ your new laptop. Which model did you decide to go with? I'm starting to look around myself. My Vaio is starting to flake out on me. My display is already gone so I've been permanently attached to a monitor now. I want another laptop for portability but I do have my iphone and a work laptop to browse freely throughout the house. Maybe another laptop will be overkill? LOL. The only problem w/ the iphone is the lack of FLASH, like you said. It's very very annoying. I also have a work blackberry but the screen on it is so tiny I don't browse on it if it's not necessary. Let us know for sure how you like Windows 7.

Also, for your enjoyment:

LMFAO!!!! God, this is so true. Men will really put cars first before women. Or they treat them like how women should be treated. Not all of them, but most of them.

LOL. I totally put my husband in that category...The most of them category.

When I was very very pregnant, he'd still park our car at the end of the parking lot to avoid and dings and scratches on the paint. Not that I couldn't use the exercise, I was very round by then, but still...You can totally see where his priorities were. He'd offer to drop me off at the front first but I always rolled my eyes.

Yesterday he almost had a conniption when my son accidentally dropped his toy car and scratched the paint. The scratch was about 2mm long and as thin as a strand of hair. Of course the words that left his mouth were repeated immediately and multiple times in the restaurant by my 2 year old son...tsk tsk.

I'm having all kinds of odd little things going on and my extended warranty just ran out.

I got another Compaq Presario. I was looking at Sony, Toshiba, Dell, HP Pavilion, Acer, Asus. I've had Dell, Toshiba, and Acer before. The Acer is also a good price, but they have the worst customer service on the face of the earth. My last Dell lasted five years and was in pathetic shape by the time I put it out to pasture. It had a four-year warranty which I used heavily in the fourth year. This Presario has lasted three years and might hang around for another year... or might not. That means the two machines were of similar quality. Only the Dell cost twice as much when I bought it (prices have dropped), hence the rationale for the longer extended warranty.

In fact, of the reliable brand names, only the Presario and maybe a Pavilion would suit my pocketbook. And the Pavilions were $100-$200 more than the Presario, And a similar Dell was $200-300 more.

There were a couple of decently priced machines (Sony and Toshiba) at Best Buy, but I really wanted Blu-ray (to do screen caps from disc), and none of the preconfigured machines, even including Amazon, had Blu-ray So I had to build one, and then only HP was offering a decent price for a custom build.

When I bought my current Presario I took an off-the-shelf barebones machine and it cost $380. This new Presario is also $380, but then I went hog wild and added a bunch of stuff. A faster processor, bigger hard drive, more RAM, and then I added a bunch of goodies: card reader, video with HDMI, a Blu-ray combo drive, a webcam, and wireless-n with bluetooth. I've really hated not having any of those add-on goodies with the old machine. And for the hell of it, I added a modem--you never know when it might come in handy. So it was around $780 when I was done. Of course last time I had to buy two machines (for my daughter and myself--we can't share computers without bloodshed) and that came to around $760. So I'm reaping the benefits of her absence.

Last time I took advantage of back to school sales, and I did the same thing now. Sorry if this wasn't in English, but Judy will understand it.

Watching WWE RAW wrestling with my hubby tonight and Joe Maganiello was in the front row.  It was kind of cool, I think.  LOL

for your enjoyment: 

Hillarious and kinda sad!  Fortunately, my hubby is clueless when it comes to cars.  He's very happy to drive our mini-van!!!

Sorry if this wasn't in English, but Judy will understand it.  

I giggled when I read this, Judy!  The last time you two had a "tech talk" I remember feeling like Marlin in "Finding Nemo" when the little turtle dude is telling him how to make the exit jump and he says "It's like you're talking to me... I just know it!!"  lol

Dallas, can you explain to me the appeal of wrestling?  I just don't get it, though I now many people love it!  The appeal of Joe Manganiello I get... the wrestling, not so much!  

Sadly, I got hooked on wrestling in college with my husband. Have you seen some of these guys?  I promise I am not a vapid "boy crazy" thing, but the first time I watched wrestling with hubby, I saw Mr. HHH(Triple H) and Goldberg.  And that was all she wrote.  LOL

I will admit that I have an athletic nature and was SERIOUSLY contemplating going to wrestling school in 2004.  The next month though the stick turned blue and my little boy told me that wrestling was not in my future. (Well maybe not right now.) 

I giggled when I read this, Judy!  The last time you two had a "tech talk" I remember feeling like Marlin in "Finding Nemo" when the little turtle dude is telling him how to make the exit jump and he says "It's like you're talking to me... I just know it!!"  lol

It's a secret language only women named Judy can understand.

  I got hooked on wrestling in college with my husband.

My husband enjoyed watching it in his younger days.  Actually, my good friend's father-in-law was some kind of big name wrestler... maybe here in Canada.  I don't remember the stage name, but his real last name is Harms.  Anyway, my husband looked awestruck when we met them at my friend's wedding.  Truth be told, though, I haven't really ever spent any significant time watching it, so I shouldn't judge.  If someone watched only one scene of an opera and then told me they didn't like it, I'd require them to go finish it out!!

It's a secret language only women named Judy can understand.  

Seems like it, though I think "Little Lou" is a member of your "tech sisterhood", too.

That article.. My mouth is hanging open.  My husband works on cars etc.   He complained that he had to go change my son's tire the other day.  I told him if it ever happened to me I'd be calling him too.  He said he knew that.. Turns out good thing he did help the boy they found out later the jack wasn't working the spear tire only had 20 pounds of air and the bolt was frozen.

About all that computer talk. I have no clue I called my youngest son to read that.  He's jealous knew exactly what was going on. Then I told him to explain and to get lost.

It's a secret language only women named Judy can understand.

My husband is taking are sons for a blood test tomorrow.  I know better to take them.  They have  fainted in the past .  Then I would.  He calls them the floor models.   My oldest will be 21  the end of the month the other is 15 and a half.  They change colors and go white as a vampire... funny

I was just checking CH's site, you know, randomly looking for stuff, when I found this on their I Have a Question for a Board Moderator Thread:

2081

ladymelasande

2010-08-17 10:16

Here's my questiom:

With such snippy comments from moderators, why does anyone even use this board?

also, why even moderate? just keep typing "Things to Know Before you Post" -

oy vey. 
I had hoped the board had gotten better. 
Nope.

Bummer.

LOL!!! I'm so glad I didn't join that forum!!!

Also, for your enjoyment:

Oh my god that is PRICELESS! Way to avoid the subject...or maybe he was talking in metaphor...?

You know - I really think his response speaks volumes in another way. There is nothing to say to her...what does she need help on? Leave..leave...leave. She caught her hubby in their bed & then he admitted he has been having an affair for the past 6 months w/her teen neighbor & won't go for counseling! Enough said. The advice on the car though, that's seriously helpful.

With such snippy comments from moderators, why does anyone even use this board?

also, why even moderate? just keep typing "Things to Know Before you Post" -

Wow. That's fantastic. At least someone has finally said it. Hilarious.   

I am watching this European poll show about sex around the world...Sweden came in the most carefree about sex esp. women. They won the race - 64% of them have had one night stands.

The "Things to Know Before You Post" page at CH's site is undoubtably the nastiest, most unwelcoming post I've ever seen at a public forum.

Judy - I had never read that before so I had to take a look. LMAO!! Even that is totally passively aggressive in how slanted it is. Man! Just frickin admit it.

And essentially - the kinda admit they police other sites. Interesting.

Yeah, you aren't allowed to even discuss the forum or CH elsewhere or have any negative opinions about them.

Pretty much, They actually say that if you go elsewhere & have a negative opinion ...about anything....if you come back - you won't be welcome.

It's funny b'c I am reading a series now where the author has a small following - her readers ask why she doesn't join the forums & she pretty emphatically states bc it's for the reader. So if she were to pop in - she'd feel that people wouldn't be able to discuss her books..the good, bad & ugly - w/out feeling big brothered. Therefore - censoring their true thoughts.

She ends the statement by saying - she is a reader & she feels how she feels too... and that these forums are for the readers. She wouldn't want to feel edited either.

I like that philosophy. It annoys me otherwise. I say it all the time -not to sound all soap box but if you are an artist & put your shit out for public consumption of any sort what do you expect?? Majority of the time I get more critiques about my work then I do compliments, but that doesn't mean I don't strive to stay true & give the public what they want. But I fully expect - when we do a marketing launch of our product ..prepare for the onslaught.

Opinions are like assholes...everyone's got one -  but that doesn't mean that someone who doesn't agree or isn't in perfect alignment is totally wrong or off. If you can get past the ego & discern ...some of the harshest stuff has actually rung true for me. I admit - sometimes it's really hard, esp. when you know the person just gets off on being an ass & is totally aggressive but for the most part - people react a particular way for a reason. I try to pay attention to my audience & who they are & what they want in what I produce. And IMO, that's pretty much it - you create & you are striving to reach to a particular audience.

I just feel, if you are putting out creatively - you have to accept criticism more than the norm. It comes with the territory b'c you are providing some sort of an escape...you are resonating. You paint...who buys your painting? You write? Who buys your books? Etc..etc...how can you edit that on your own frickin' site? Don't open one then. Or get rid of the forum & just let it be a blog.

Sorry - I am ranty tonight.

I'm with you there. You have to listen to your public. Otherwise keep it to yourself. You don't need to taylor your writing to please them, but if there are complaints, maybe there is a basis. This seems to tell me a lot about the continuity issues we've found in the books. She's turned too inward. Hell, before I post in a forum I always check my facts to be sure. It's one of the things I use my Kindle for. How hard could it be for her?

I know. There are different mediums where you can be more insular. And there are writers that are insular as well...however - if you are a writer who courts your own action & is omnipresent on your own site what did you expect?

It was small at first for her, and it probably felt good to get out of the typical anonymity most writers experience. Now things have exploded, and she gets more criticism, but she also has more hangers-on and sycophants. That latter part leads to the the nasty site warning. I don't know how anyone could tolerate that kind of ugly intro to their website. "Welcome, now sit down and shut up, or we'll yell at you and hound you off. And don't you dare have a free thought against us... anywhere."

Of course, they left off the warning about tolerating bullying and that the mods encourage it and join in.

She ends the statement by saying - she is a reader & she feels how she feels too... and that these forums are for the readers. She wouldn't want to feel edited either.

I agree with that writer's philosophy too, Laura. If you keep on reading and answering the posts of your readers, then in one way or the other their opinions of your characters will somehow affect your books in the future. Or at the very least, get you confused on why you wrote the stuff that they don't like.

 Of course, they left off the warning about tolerating bullying and that the mods encourage it and join in.

Right on, Judy. I was hovering around that forum the same time I was reading ours here, I even joined CH's site. But when I read their posts and how controlling and "policing" the mods where, I thought those threads there are totally censored. It's like there's a Movie Trailer Rating and Classification Board or something.

It's sad that CH considers them an extension of herself, and she even requests that the members respect them as they do her.

For the techie Judys: http://www.lovingtruebloodindallas.com/2010/08/true-blod-and-hbo-streaming-service.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I just got word that I am shortlisted for the job I am applying for. Please pray I get it. I'll know by Monday if I got it. Fingers crossed.

Good luck! In this economy it's much harder than usual.

Thanks, Judy! I actually have a job now, but I feel overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. Which I think how almost everyone feels. Hehe. But I am grateful that I have work. 

I think most people are feeling the same--employers aren't hiring so they just keep pressuring the ones they have.

And they're not promoting as well. Because they know their employees have nowhere to go.

Hey Chelsea. How long have you been playing? I've been playing this game since high school. But when I get to Act IV I can't kill Diablo coz I'm scared. I ask my brother to kill him for me, LOL!

I've been playing for about a year but I am scared to kill all the named people. My hands shake and I freak out. I usually ask my boyfriend to kill them (though he always refuses) I am just now on nightmare with my first character (amazon). I originally made a barbarian named Eric but then changed it to Thor cause he was too beefy for Eric. The necro def looks like Eric.

I am excited about the third one they are coming out with but I should probably beat the whole game first. I just hate to die. I know it really isn't a big deal but I can't stand it.

OMG, that's the same reaction that I have. My heart feels like it's going to jump off my chest and I could feel my BP rising. When I reach to the point of hyperventilation that's when I call my brother. He just laughs at me and sits down in front of the PC.

I was playing an amazon before too, I named her Karla. Haha. I believe myself to be an amazon, deep inside. Anyway, after she died a few times I figured I'm not the type of character who plays alone. I need help. So I switched to Necro. So I can have as many allies as possible.

When's the third one coming out, btw?

Well once you get the valkire with the amazon it is a piece of cake. I just stay out of fights and shoot. BTW decoy and valkire and a barbarian helper I never get hit and. Playing as the barbarian is rough I actually made him so I could get over my fear of being hit and even killed and to learn to switch skills and push buttons during play which I'm bad at. The necro, sorceress, and assasin have loads of help. I love the shadow but hate having to use all the different skills.

They don't have a release date yet but sometime soon I assume.

I was wondering if anyone knows when TB S3 starts in the UK its driving me mad!! I wna see how bad it is hahaha!!

You can watch it on castv.com out here.

I'll try that valkyrie thing, Chelsea. When I get the time to play. Sigh.

Sarah, you can also watch them here: http://www.fastpasstv.com/tv/true-blood Episodes 1-9 have already been uploaded. 

Thanks

Saw this comment in TB News at the Nest:

J. Ornelas

 says:

19 August 2010 at 7:34 am

Hey all,

I really wish you wouldn’t post photos like this. It feels stalker-ish and disrespectful. I frequent this site because it focuses on the public side of the show. I avoid the celeb sites for a reason. Everyone deserves their privacy.

http://www.trueblood-news.com/stephen-moyer-out-and-about-in-la 

I agree. However, if you frequent sites such as True Blood News at the Nest, then you shouldn't expect not to see stalkerish photos, Don't expect intelligent discussions as well, IMO.

IDK - don't we do the same things here? What's the difference btwn this & posting those pap pic's of AS at Cochella clearly having an argument w/KB, you know? In fact we have a whole thread purely dedicated to AS! FOUR of them....I think some people would probably call us stalkerish..we even dissect his relationship!

We are stalkerish! Obsessed even. That's why I wanted to comment re: Ornelas's comment above to not visit sites such as the nest, or ours, if s/he does check our forum out. But I think that we are one of the few forums who have intelligent discussions, even if stalkerish. I just agree that they really are invasion of privacy, but I enjoy them nonetheless. It's part of their job, anyway.

 But I think that we are one of the few forums who have intelligent discussions, even if stalkerish.

Awww! Are you defending us Karla? That's so sweet! LQTM... I agree  - when we talk about the books, we do, have done & will continue have intelligent conversation. And about lots of other things too. We have some real smarty pants over here w/wicked senses of humor's.  I know I can't keep up w/the tech talk. Well over my head.

But when we're in between books I think we look to talk about related items to the series & then it's more casual over here.

Like we're just biding time really so then we become much more loose, silly, redundant, snarky, bitchy, frank, provocative, etc...I don't see anything wrong with that though.

The last 2 books lost so much steam that I feel that we're all just hanging out here, sharing, gabbing, finding things to talk about...and it's safe. If posters that just want a place to go & hang out & discuss the books, TV show etc..& not get policed, censored, attacked or ridiculed (of course unless there is a troll - they get booted) - I think this is a decent place for that.

It's funny this internet world - even thought it's cyber it's very real in the sense that everyone is looking to find a place where they feel most comfortable & belong & a lot of times take it very seriously. I think sometimes too seriously!

That's why I wanted to comment re: Ornelas's comment above to not visit sites such as the nest, or ours, if s/he does check our forum out.

Well their structure is different so I guess it would be harder to cherry pick items she'd want to read. I think that's the good part of this format. You can pick & choose what you want to read so you have choices. But at the end of the day - it's best for everyone if people who join truly feel comfortable here b'c even though it's cyber...we all can pick up on bad or touchy energy & tone.

It's OK if she doesn't like our site though, I like it here...you like it here. You know something funny - when I started this place - I  started 2 other SVM's forums on 2 other sites & totally left them b'c I didn't like the vibe! I never post or try to get things going!   I don't think I've been to one of them in over a year. That's so bad! But my own sites..some of them ended up morphing & totally not being for me so I just focused over here b'c I feel most comfortable here. Isn't that kinda weird?

You know Laura, when I got pregnant three years ago, it was like I turned into a robot. I can be found in only two places: the office and our house. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom. But we have to love ourselves as well, right? To keep our sanity. Of course there was the occasional birthday and parties here and there, but no social life, really.

When TB came out, I got involved with SVM and eventually found this site. I was really looking for someone, in this case, somewhere I can express my thoughts without worrying that I'm tagged as crazy. My parents even thought at one time that I was escaping reality. Probably true, but what's wrong with that?

I was just really lurking in the shadows, visiting this site every now and then to feed my obsession on Eric and AS. I was checking other forums out as well, of course. But somehow when I go online it always brought me back to this forum. Call it intuition, but I really felt that I will belong here.

So when I got enough courage to voice out my thoughts, I signed up. Boy, am I glad I did. This is part of my daily routine already. This is something I look forward to when I go home, and before I leave the house. Once my daughter is asleep, I go online. If our office's internet connection isn't so slow, I'll go online there as well. I'm always excited to read new posts, share ideas and speculations, and of course obsess with our eye candy, AS.

I agree with everything you said. It's important that we feel comfortable in a forum, otherwise everything that we say will just be lies, to please everyone else. Or like our departed troll, you'll just post to defend yourself, your beliefs, and just piss everyone off. Why stay?

I think I mentioned this before in another thread, but I would like to reiterate that I'm grateful to the internet for linking intelligent ladies like us. We can be found in the four corners of the world, but this forum makes it feel like we're only a stroke of a keyboard away. It makes me feel that I'm not alone.

To quote Liann, Vamp lovers unite!

That's really cool. I know, I'm glad to have this place too b'c I don't get to talk to people from home much with the time difference and all & busy families & lives everyone has. By the time I can ring - it's dinner time etc.. I'm not on Facebook. This is my equivalent I guess & such a welcome relief from my hectic work life. I would have never guessed really that this has actually morphed into a part of my daily life too! It's just a part of it now. A thing that is normal for me to do & have met a lot of really cool people b'c of it.

Wow you ladies are deep.

Karla, I know exactly how you feel. My son will be turning 3 at the end of this year and it is a different lifestyle having a young one when you also have a full time job. I don't have the energy left to leave and meet my friends and my husband doesn't really care to be a babysitter so I can go out and play. Don't get me wrong, he's a wonderful father and a great husband but I also feel guilty about leaving him alone w/ a very energetic toddler after a full day of work. The alternate reality is a great escape for me and I love how there is a site I can come to and discuss books and series that my own friends won't touch. Oh well, I don't particularly join in on their hobbies either but I'm still pushing them to READ the series. How in the world did I make friends w/ people who don't read??
Anyways, this forum is great Laura! You go girl for setting it up!

I came here because of the intelligent free-wheeling discussion. I love the wicked sense of humor of the posters here. I love that our discussions go anywhere about virtually anything. I used to have a tight group of women at an HP (Harry Potter) forum who were also very intelligent. However, many of them were driven away by bullying by Snape nutcases. Some of the women in our group liked Snape as a character, but didn't take the extreme positions that the nutcases did.

How in the world did I make friends w/ people who don't read?? 

I've been asking myself the same thing, LOL! But I guess we share the same passion for great conversations while drinking.

I used to have a tight group of women at an HP forum who were also very intelligent.

AP, knowing the techie gal that you are, I immediately thought it was a Hewlett-Packard forum, until I read Snape! LOL!

Vampire Diaries Season 2 will be airing September 9. Judging from the preview, it's looking exciting:

Lol I love Snape actually. He was very 3D while a lot of the other characters weren't. That is funny. Don't hate me AP.

Some of the women in our discussion group also liked him. That's not the same as running around and doing coordinated group attacks on people even when they weren't posting about Snape. That's not the same as saying that the Harry and his friends were obnoxious brats that deserved all the nastiness that Snape dumped on them. That Harry and his friends were undeserving of any praise or respect. They used the same kind of distorted reasoning about Snape that the BL's used about Bill and against Eric. It made posting there torture after they banded together. Even years after the series ended, they were still doing coordinated group attacks on people. Just recently it blew up again.

Wow that's crazy. I never even thought of it like that. I just hate when people claim Snape was an evil ass. I try to defend him. I like to defend characters rather then attack others. Although Bill might be my exception, I do hate on him quite a bit.

I liked Snape too.  When you really think about HP father was a bully to Snape.  He always teased him with an audience around.  From what I can remember Snape was a skinny kid  and didn't have friends and wasn't he a half blood too.  So Snape had a grudge.  Maybe deep down he thought maybe he could have been HP father if he and Lily actually got together.  Jealous   ( haven't read the books in years,but did read them 6 times).

That's funny about the HP confusion. I think I'll go back and edit my post. Actually I was just on the HP site (the computer company) having second thoughts about which computer I should have, because they are still running new back-to-school ads. I can return my computer if I want. The old one is still working fine (well actually, there's some kind of motherboard issue, but I think it will hang on). They're offering a larger hard drive with a slightly different model, and I could really use it.

Snape wasn't evil, but he was certainly a damaged individual filled with a lot of anger and bitterness. He shouldn't have carried his grudge onto an orphan who had enough troubles as it was. He was the only three-dimensional adult in the stories. Well, maybe Dumbledore had texture.

Aww, you edited it! LOL.

I like Snape, both the book and movie characters. Very witty, sarcastic and intelligent. Insanely jealous and insecure of HP's dad, and eventually Harry, but I think he redeemed himself in the end. I cried when he died.

Since HP looked so much like his father, I guess Snape just couldn't help himself and just remebered all the crap that was done to him.  I too got confused with HP at first.  I really liked Alan Rickman playing Snape.

Can't wait till the next movies come out

You know what's really funny? The whole time I read Harry Potter, before the first film came out, I saw Alan Rickman as Snape. I'm a fan of Dogma and Galaxy Quest so I pictured him the whole time. I was floored when I found out he was cast for the greasy haired wizard. Of course I keep a roster for characters in my head so I also swapped out Gary Oldman for Snape. Funny how he ended up cast as well. LOL

Rickman's Snape is not as nasty a character as the book Snape. Rickman is a wonderful actor and he brings a wicked sense of humor to Snape. He's a curmudgeon in the movies, but he's much more bitter and broken in the books. I think the book readers confused Rickman with book Snape, especially the romantic Rickman from Sense and Sensibility or Truly Madly Deeply.

It' like the way BLs confuse SM with book Bill. Book Snape was a tragic character, but not a particularly nice one. The Snape fanatics would literally reconstruct the book and add a lot of stuff between the lines which was designed to make his overtly hateful actions into a secretly good ones. Snape's animosity for Harry was genuine. It helped him be a double agent, but he wasn't pretending.

I used to say Snape's an asshole, but he's our asshole (i.e. a good guy asshole).

No, he's not too nasty in the movies. I actually had ill feelings towards him in the books until #5 at least. I only pictured Alan Rickman because he had the right physical characteristics and thought he could play the hateful character rather well.

Galaxy Quest  and Dogma great movies.

I didn't like seeing the Marauders torment Snape, but I also felt that the animosity shouldn't have been carried to the next generation. I felt sorry for Snape, but not so sorry as to excuse his behavior to Harry and friends.

Galaxy Quest was a joy. Rickman was a treasure in that movie.

Did anyone see Toy Story 3 ?  Love the monkey.  Want one.

Mary, are you talking about the clapping monkey with the cymbals?  I shrieked aloud in the theater during a certain scene between the monkey and Woody.  That's the stuff of nightmares.

Yes.  So did I.  Thought it was great

I yelled out OMG  in the theater too

The eyes just moving  back and forth watching the security cameras  scary

Creepy, girl, just creepy.  It's the kind of toy that I, as a child, would have been worried about gutting me in the middle of the night and ripping my heart out.

That toy has been around,  In Homer Simpson head , In the movie Close Encounters, I don't know what else.  but would love to have one.Talk about scared of dolls... My sister and I had lots of dolls one really old one that had teeth and a tongue.  She had a 3 ft raggedy Ann doll ,  She had dreams the doll would go on her bed and talk to her wondering why she was shoved in the closet  Of course it was right after she saw the Exorcist.

Ok, should I spend an additional $150 for a hard drive twice as large as the one I bought last week. I think even those not in the tech sisterhood can understand the issue. I bought one with 500 gigabytes, and there is one with one terabyte (i.e. 1000 gigabytes) in a different model. I have terabyte external drives for backup and 500 gigabyte portable drives that I alternate at my daughter's house in case of disaster. It's taken me years of effort to collect my audiobooks and I really wouldn't be able to reproduce my efforts. My 500 GB drives are getting full and they don't carry all my applications and the operating system like the new computer would.

So in English it means I couldn't put everything I have on the new computer, but I would be able to if I got the one with the bigger drive. It's inconvenient to use my external drives because I have to be tethered to them by a cable. And since this is a laptop it means have a cable running to the end table, which I can and do yank and jerk when I have to jump up to answer the door.

I flinched every time the monkey appeared in the film.  It's those damn bulging eyes and that high-pitched screech (like Sookie's, only not quite as annoying).  Porcelain dolls have always given me the heebie-jeebies.

That's a great way to describe TB  Sookie the screeching monkey Gotta love it.  But she's not so bad.  Do they still make that Monkey?  I have to find it.

Judy (AP), you should def. spend the money but make sure you can get the one w/ at least 7200RPM as opposed to the 5400RPM drives that are typically offerred in the larger drives. You'll see a considerable difference in performance. Of course, as technies, more disk space is always a plus.

I Don't like clowns.. Hate them like the evil one in poltergeist.  That's why B was even more creepy with the clown tears.

The 500G drive is 7200RPM (I already paid a bit more for that), but the model on sale that I'm looking at only has 5400RPM in the 1T model.

Man drives are so much cheaper these days..The only downside I see is when you run your backups you'll see the performance drop but other than that you should be fine w/ the larger memory and processing power.

Mary, apparently it's called the Musical Jolly Chimp.  I saw a couple of them on ebay just now.

Oh and the one I just bought, that is in transit from China right now, is a Presario and this alternative one on sale is a Pavilion. I didn't like Pavilions when I used them at work. Something prosaic and boring about them.

I surf, do email, a tiny bit of word processing, and on rare occasions use a spreadsheet. I do strain my old system when I'm actually ripping, streaming, or editing audibooks, but the new machine will be much faster, regardless of the drive. The drive in my old machine is 80G and 5400RPM. My external drives are 7200RPM and I can tell the difference. I think I'll buy the Pavilion I'm looking at. I could also up the processor beyond my options I had in the new Presario, but I think it's fast enough for the stuff I do. And I've spent too much already.

I can't believe you posted the monkey. 

Some of them are really scary looking.

I wonder if my husband will get me one.  Yeah right he'd just walk away and start mumbling to himself saying that I lost it.

maybe for Christmas

Hahha...And I thought the sock monkey was creepy!

I wonder if my husband will get me one.  Yeah right he'd just walk away and start mumbling to himself saying that I lost it.

Well, I am giving you a funny look. Then again, if I ever received that as a gift, I'd throw that thing in a trunk, lock the trunk, and throw away the key.

(1) WTF is that?

(2) Is there a way we can get it to kill Bill?

Someone got that for a gift?

God, I can't turn away from the photo.

Dunno. It was a random thing I found. LOL. Maybe we can get it to rape Bill instead.

Its got a gracious plenty

speechless

Ha ha ha. It does.

I bet that would chafe.

I found more info about it here. It's name is Mr. Johnson. How fitting.

That's so funny! A friend of mine knits, maybe I should show her the pic and she could start knitting those. Mari, I think it should kill Bill

Judy, ahhhhh.... need air.  Can't... stop... laughing at the update provided.  Now I have to find out if Mr. Johnson is, indeed, anatomically correct.

Musical Jolly Chimp is bearing his teeth and his eye are bugging out

I bet that would chafe.

HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Over the years, I’ve crafted dozens of sock monkeys - always making sure that they were anatomically correct. Cute as they were, I dreamt of something bigger. 

Sock monkey lady's nuts.  Why does she talk about "anatomically correct" and follow it up immediately with "I dreamt of something bigger" ? Geez lady, you need a Magic Wand not a sock monkey.

LOL! I didnt scroll down far enough! HA HA HA! YES! Menstrual calendars! This thing MUST KILL BILL !

I realize that GP on the monkey has all of you distracted. But for those of you sitting on the edge of your seats, I went for the Pavilion with the larger drive. That's means when my new Presario shows up on Monday, I have to return it to HP. But I can do that for free. I feel better about this. It's inconvenient to not have all my audiobooks and Old Time Radio tracks on my laptop. Now I can manage my iPhone from my bed. And I can keep more music on my hard drive and not just load CDs whenever I do want to update the music on my phone.

Now back to the monkey. It has to kill Bill, and Bill has to be jealous of the size since it reminds him of Eric.

Now back to the monkey. It has to kill Bill, and Bill has to be jealous of the size since it reminds him of Eric.

YES!

LMAO! Seriously you guys.  Monkey GP has to be the killer. Somehow the GP has to do the killing. Haha

I turned my sister-in-law to a Sookie-fanatic.  She borrowed my paperbacks(the hardbacks don't leave Momma's house, LOL) and is nearly done with DAG in a week.  Addicted! She likes Eric, although *gag* she is  Quinn girl.  Love my SIL, but she has never had good taste in men. So...  Anyway, so happy.

Maybe he can get staked by the GP.

Sorry, Judy.  The sock monkey and its anatomically correct parts disturbed me more than the Musical Jolly Chimp.  And, that's saying something.  (I disappeared to go clear my head, do my workout, and eat dinner.)

I'm generally pretty conservative when it comes to buying laptops and computers.  Those things are improved and updated so quickly that I don't generally buy more than I need: space for my pictures (I'm camera happy and those things can take up quite a bit of space), iTunes, the Buffy and Friday Night Lights tribute videos I download off the web, research papers, and stories I used to write.  My fiance recently bought a Toshiba laptop, but I'm still working with our 3-year-old Dell desktop.  (Sounds like you need the extra RPM though, so I think you made a good call.)

I would have had to load some but not all of my audio tracks, and that would have made iTunes all confused. Or I would have had to continue to rely on being tethered to an external drive. I not only made a good decision, but in addition to the discounts offered directly on HP's website, I found another site with a coupon for an additional $50 off. So it only cost $75 more for twice the hard drive.

I always look for coupon sites. Some of them are scams since they want your email. I avoid them. But otherwise I can usually save a 10-15% more.

Of course I was beginning to feel like a kid at xmas since the laptop I originally ordered will arrive on Monday. Now I'll have to return it and wait two weeks for the new purchase to arrive. And that's a big letdown. But otherwise I feel good about the larger drive.

My old laptop has been acting temperamental all week, since I think it knows I'm going to put it out to pasture.

My fiance's Dell Inspiron gave us the blue screen of death a little more than 4 years after he bought it for his MBA program.  We got some good use out of it, but I'm still bitter because the Hitachi laptop I used in college for countless Lit papers lasted a good 6 years before it crapped out.  That thing was built like a tank.

My motherboard has been giving me a loud piping chirping sound intermittently every few days, and that means something is failing. I hope it holds out for two weeks.

It's also locked up several times.

My two old Inspirons lasted five years, but they had extensive repairs, including motherboard, screen, CD, and hard drive failures in the fourth year. Since prices have dropped I don't see a lot of payoff in a four-year contract anymore. By the time four or so years go by, computers will be underpowered and behind the technology curve for whatever new software and operating systems are out there.

I could get a four-year contract for this new Pavilion (they didn't offer it on the Presario I will return on Monday). But I'm not sure it will be worth it. I'll think about it a bit.

That's what amazed me about the Hitachi--I might have had to "repair" it once while I had it.  My ex-boyfriend worked with computers and upgraded the RAM for me, but little else needed to be done to it.  Of course, that was before YouTube, Facebook, and iTunes.  We were still using AIM, MSN, and ICQ.  And, colleges were just starting to use web-crossing platforms for better interaction and discussion outside of class.

Haha. Pey I'm sorry to put that monkey disturbed you. I've seen a ton of really odd things online. Thanks to reddit, digg, and my husband.
Speaking of ICQ, I had 2 accounts a decade ago and I can't for the life of me remember what my id's are. I started using Gaim and Trillion a while back and just all together stopped using the accounts and now I've lost them.

I stopped using ICQ since no one I knew was using it anymore.

LOL, Judy (LL).  I don't think it was Mr. Johnson and his GP that unnerved me per se.  Did you ever see the Kia commercial where the sock monkey and other toys go joyriding in the Kia Sorento to the toon of "How You Like Me Now"?  *Shudder*

Hey Judy, I ended up only paying $75 for 500G more. I'll hope I can get past my prejudice against HP Pavilions. I've always been fond of Dell and Compaq, and since Compaq is now HP, I think my prejudice is all psychological.

Maybe he can get staked by the GP.

Now, that's what I call "sporting wood"

God, that's so cheesy. I'm ashamed and tempted to delete it but I should just suffer for my sins so I'll leave it and you all can mock me. 

I've been trying to think of a really humilating way for Bill to die...I think a GP stake through the chest fits the "bill."

Oh yeah I remember the Kia commercial. I agree, it was odd.

Judy (AP), I never actually bought a name brand computer until I purchased my first laptop and chose a Sony Vaio solely for it's video card. I considered the Alienware line because they have one of the best set up for video and gaming. My previous computers have been hand made w/ different parts purchased from swap meets, ebay, or friends.

However, all of my work laptops have been Dell, Compaq, and HP/Compaq, each going through a 2 year lease cycle so I never ran into long term issues. Of the three brands I have to say that the Dell has been the worst. I had 2 system board replacements, 2 hard drive replacements, and 1 display replacement along with a power adapter replacement. This all occurred within 2 years. The Compaq I had only had one hard disk replacement and a letter L key replaced. It was however the hottest one, nearly burning my leg. I'm currently on an HP/Compaq and it doesn't get as hot as the previous one. When I first got it I did have to get the track pad replaced on it due to some wiring getting loose during shipment.  It's only been 4 months since and has had no other issues. I think upgrading to a 1TB disk for $50 is an awesome deal. I know what you mean about offline storage, it's tedious and you lose mobility when you need access to that data. I can't wait for (reliable) wireless storage arrays to come down in price.

Mari, love you sense of humor here. Don't delete it! I hope you write something about Bill being staked w/ GP. LOL. I'd read it.

Ok. Maybe to get away from GP Sock Monkey Mr Johnson I'm posting a diversion. My husband showed me another funny video. This is for the trekkies out here. Even for the non-trekkies it's funny. It's complete nonsense and full of randomness. Nothing about it makes any sense yet it tickles your funny bones because it's just so silly. It's voice over on scenes from Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation).

Ash you there? Hola! Long time no see! Someone pointed out that maybe the GP should not be near Eric. Dunno. Its a "hard" call.

Judy, I've got 1TB connected via gigabit to my router, so I can get to it wirelessly, but it's still slow as molasses. And it tends to make the entire wireless network crap out when I do large file transfers, which is all I do because of the audiobooks.

I think that generic desktop machines can work fine, but laptops are so specialized I've never bought a homegrown one. The closest I came to owning something off-brand was with the two Acers I bought around 15 years. But their support was so bad I never went back. I've had mostly Dells and Compaqs from work and loved Compaqs as file servers--not so much Dell. I did a lot of work for clients with huge HP infrastructures (100 or so monster HP-UX machines). And my laptops were usually Dell, even when I worked for Microsoft and Price Waterhouse.

Dell has various levels of laptops and at the time I think mine was the lowest of the business line and it showed. I've seen the higher end personal laptops from Dell and have known people who like theirs and have not had any issues.  I also know a few people who have low end Dell laptops and have similar issues to the ones I've had.

That's very true of Dell. The machines I bought for home were Inspirons and were of so-so quality. Of course we were also covered by Cadillac support plans for the business laptops, but I can't remember ever needing it, even when I traveled extensively and the poor laptop led a hard life. But we also traded them in every two years.

Ash you there? Hola! Long time no see! Someone pointed out that maybe the GP should not be near Eric. Dunno. Its a "hard" call.

My interest in TB has diminished greatly and the book discussions aren't a hot topic at the moment. So, I haven't been posting much.

Bill's sense of superiority needs to be taken down a few notches. I wouldn't mind Eric being "stuck up." It's up to you.

Judy (LL) - that video is completely random, yet funny.

Hey AP - I got the job. 

Congrats Karla!

Thanks Judy!

Hey all. This is for all posters and mods who create new threads. I'd like to offer a suggestion when closing out one thread that is getting too large and creating a new one. We are already on #4 for AS but sometimes it's nice to look at the previous threads as well, so if it would be possible, could you make a link as the first line in the newer thread to the previous one?

Thanks in advance!

That makes sense, Judy. I think we all could accommodate that request. I'll ask Laura to add an addendum about that in the Posting Rules thread.

That sounds like a great idea....

Oh Karla that's great!

Congratulations, Karla!  Nothing worse than being overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated!

I actually had a nightmare that the clapping cymbal monkey was closing in on me, Mary.  No joke.  And IT WAS HUGE. God, I hate those buggy eyes. *Eek!*

Judys (AP and LL), I've been having a weird issue with my DSL modem and wireless router. My fiance and I moved to a much bigger place a few months back and replaced our 1-year-old Belkin G+ Mimo router with a Belkin Playmax because it was dual band.  The router worked great for a little over two months. A few weeks ago, our 5+-year-old DSL modem finally crapped out.  We replaced it with the Motorola High Speed DSL modem (because I desperately needed Internet service for work I bring home with me and we figured AT&T wouldn't endorse a crappy modem), but the modem had issues with our router.  It seemed like the two weren't communicating for some reason and we couldn't connect.  When we plugged the modem directly into our laptop, it was fine.  We did all the troubleshooting through Belkin and followed the steps on their site.  We managed to get our Internet to work after a day.  However, the new DSL modem would get REALLY hot and we'd have really crappy (intermittent) service.  Then, the router would go nuts.  Yesterday, we ended up getting a different off-brand DSL modem that was getting really good reviews.  It doesn't get as hot, but I'm still occasionally experiencing spotty service.  Basically, web pages start to load and then I'll get a "can't find server" message.  I can't figure out what the problem could possibly be.  Any ideas?  I'm at wit's end. I should also mention that the AT&T did a test on the line, and that's not the problem.

Wow, that sounded pretty incoherent.  Any help would be appreciated.

I would try to find out if there are any firmware updates available for both your WAP and/or your modem. Even if the product is new, the firmware software on it can be several revisions behind. Most modems probably don't have a web interface for software updates however.
Also, check to make sure none of your devices have dns hardcoded. Your wap is probably configured to use NAT and DHCP so it may be trying to assign you an IP address that's already hardcoded on another device such as a printer etc..

Pey that's really funny you had a dream of the creepy bug eyed monkey.  At least it wasn't the BIG sock monkey.

Pey, also make sure your router is set to use PPPoE. Most AT&T dsl users are dynamic ip customers unless you have a business dsl account with a static block of ip addresses.

Ah, my field exactly. Networking, yay! Here's the deal: try to keep all of your network gear from the same manufacturer. In the past that even meant the network cards in the PCs, but that part is irrelevant now since most cards are integrated into the PC. And my prejudice, since I've had real issues in the past getting updates, patches, or decent support from off-brand companies, is to get a brand name in networking devices. I've always used Linksys (now Cisco), it does cost more, but not that much, especially in the long run.

I usually hate talking to technical support since first-level techs are typically clueless, and that even includes my history with Cisco. But with a large company you can usually be assertive enough to get to second-level support where they actually know something. And a large company will usually have large user forums where issues aften resolved.

Anyway, despite the fact that devices claim to be based on a standard, the handshaking and timing (i.e how they talk to each other and link up) can be enough off in different manufacturers to make things dicey. However, you could also be having a NIC (techspeak for network card) problem. Do you have open ethernet ports on your router? If you hardwire (i.e. connect an ethernet cable) directly to the router, you will be able to test the reliablity of the line itself. Stay connected for a few hours and see if it stays stable.

Also, NIC problems can cause the entire network to slow down due to continual retries. Another suggestion is to change the channel the wireless is using both on the router and the PC, since a neighbor could be using the same channel. That's one of the benefits of dual band. Also cordless phones can mess up the channel.

While I agree with the potential for hardcoded IP making a problem, what it usually does is lock out one of the devices in conflict. In my case I have to hardcode the IP for my older printer and my network storage. So the way around that is to set the range of IP addresses available to DHCP to 10 numbers or more above what is used for hardcoded devices. However, Judy's suggestion is a good one, especially if you are possibly turning on and off some device that could be causing the conflict.

Have you selected to not broadcast your network name? That's an option in the router setup. You might have hitchhikers. Of course, properly secured with WPA or WEP that's not all that easy. I've even set up my network to only recognize the wireless cards in my PCs.

oh yeah...never broadcast your network name. Always use encryption. Hitchhikers are very common. Hell I even try to catch a wave when I'm out and about. LOL

Every once in a blue moon you can run into a mac address conflict w/ another device on the dsl network. I've seen this happen before. I'm not saying this could be your case but I wouldn't discard it as it seems you have a new piece of hardware. I used to work in the NOC for SBC's (now AT&T) internet division and handled these types of cases that could not be fixed by the first 2 groups. The support structure has changed a bit  but you still have to start somewhere. If I were you, I'd at least get a ticket open w/ the front line at AT&T. The support sucks but if you can get it escalated to the second level (not too much better) but they can then escalate it to the DHCP and Radius server admins. These gurus are aware of conflicts or issues w/ certain hardware before the public finds out because they ARE the first to find it.

Wowzers, I come back from dinner and it's like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.  Judys, you two are... *touches heart*... just awesome.  Let me start with (LL) Judy's first post...

Hopefully you can get back on track w/ AP's suggestions and mine. AP has more experience on the Windows side than I do. Also, I'm a horrible tech support person. I just don't have the patience for it.

Not even just windows. But I'm a network tech.

Judy that's good advice about perservering to get to guru level, they can also sniff out (that's a genuine techie term for network analysis) packet issues if you can get their attention.

Judy (LL), we performed a firmware update two weeks ago, when we first bought the Motorola DSL modem, because the router just wouldn't recognize or connect with it.  I'll do another one because the new reviews for that Belkin router (it was pretty new when we bought it) say that the firmware is buggy and rather crappy.  For example, on CNET: "Must run firmware, more like stinkware. I've rebooted more times than a Cowboy on a long trail. I've called tech support, useless fixes."  Of course, by the time those reviews were out, we were past the 30-day return policy.  Fiance regrets not getting a Cisco, but we were still trying to get the new place set up...   *Groan*

DNS does not seem to be hardcoded.  I'll double-check.

Sell it on Ebay and get the Cisco. Nothing you can do about stinkware. I've had a few of those before.

What's the exact model of your belkin router and your modem? You can do a google search using them to see what workarounds some people have come up with.

I thought of another way to kill Bill.  How about a version of the Odd Couple.  Oscar and Felix.  Of course Bill would be Felix.

I do like Felix though but it could be funny.

Pey, I'm finding similar issues/reviews from others about the Belkin Playmax. Is the manufacturer warranty any good? Maybe you can complain enough for them to offer you a different product.

(AP) Judy: I've always used Linksys (now Cisco), it does cost more, but not that much, especially in the long run.  You took the words right out of my mouth.  Fiance has been complaining that we should have purchased a Cisco.  At the time, we were trying to get something that was affordable and yet had good reviews.  Our previous Belkin worked really well (never had any problems and was really easy to set up), so we went with Belkin again.  Our previous NetGear router died in less than a year.  *Mutters bitterly*

We hardwired to the router using the laptop, but never for more than an hour.  I'll definitely do that this weekend and see how that works out.  What we've noticed is that things seem to work fine after we set up from scratch, BUT... after booting up both computers the next morning, it'll work fine for about an hour before things start going south again.

I'll definitely try changing the channel.  Never thought of that.  And, I can't think of any device that could be affecting the IP.

Our router is secured (although many others AREN'T), but we haven't selected not to broadcast the network name.  I'll play with that too. 

Judy, I hadn't even thought about duplicate MACs. At first my reaction was: that's not possible since each manufacturer has a unique range of addresses. But then I realized that it was. I had to manually change my MAC (physical card address) in my router since it was hardcoded at my cable provider, and when I upgraded I had to use the old MAC or face a service fee for them to change it at their headquaters.

Hell, even my brother, who was a very sharp techie, had problems with off-brand wireless products. He dumped them for Cisco and lived happily ever after.

AP, AT&T has a pretty decent monitoring setup. They send alerts to the NOC when a certain amt of packets get dropped on each router's interface and there are also scripts that check log files to parse through them and count the # of failures within a certain period of time for authentication etc to indicate a larger problem. If the Radius admins are aware of this issue, they haven' shared it the frontline because the frontline is not technically aware enough to determine whether a problem is related to the issue or another issue altogether. If you haven't noticed, the frontline always sound scripted, it's because they are. They click through a collection of webpages that help them determine the problem...if this, then that..and so on...

Pey, what you just described does sound like an addressing conflict of some kind. You can rule that out by deliberately giving your PCs static IP and see how that behaves. Or your modem or router are overheating enough to get flaky after being on for a while. Also make sure the settings for all the packet definitions are the same for both the router and the PCs. Make sure you are using the same wireless protocol selection (i.e. all wireless-N or all wireless-G). You can select mixed, especially if you have no choice (like me), but otherwise it's better to stay within one standard.

I'm pretty sure the problem isn't on the AT&T end of things. Especially since Pey says that starting out in the morning things are fine. I don't always believe any ISP when they say things are good on their end, especially since I've gotten into shouting matches with them over problems that did eventually turn out to be theirs. Of course, it could just be first-level support that is the problem.

Well, not sure how far you guys want to test it out but see if you can open up access on one of your systems. Just test network connectivity between the 2 systems and exclude the internet. If you have the same issue, it's your router. If not, it's a problem w/ the router keeping the ip address assigned by AT&T.

Sorry, had to answer a phone call. (Scrolling and reading through your responses.)

The Belkin router is model F7D4301 v1.  The modem is an Actiontec High Speed DSL Modem GT701 D.

I'll be trying a few of these things tomorrow with the fiance.  I'm copying and pasting your responses and sending them to him.  (He has to work until 1am because he has close up shop after all hourly employees have gone.)

By the way, Judy, aforementioned fiance is also a Texan.  Born in Houston, raised in Irving, college in Austin.  He actually moved out to California to be with me.

All right, finished copying and pasting.  A BIG HUG and heartfelt thank you to you both, LL and AP.  I've been practically pulling my hair out.  It's just so frustrating.  You come home and don't want to deal with a temperamental system.  I'll let you know what I figure out tomorrow.

AP Judy, the frontline support are not even in the same location as the NOC or engineers. Usually they are outsourced. I haven't kept up with the internet side in 9 years but the last I heard was that support was offshored. They aren't always informed about every known issue. Turnover is very high so they really don't know what they are doing. I believe second line support are in the states still. That's the way it was before. They're the ones who are responsible for screening out the real problems w/ the ID 10 T errors.   I don't bother to call support when our dsl goes out. We just wait it out. The majority of the times it's a backbone issue and not really an AT&T issue anyways.

Pey, that's cool your fiance is from Texas. Irving huh? That's really sweet that he moved out there to be w/ you. Congrats on your engagement btw.

Thanks, Judy.  We have been engaged for a while.  Engaged 3 years, been together for 8.  Parental disapproval, in a nutshell.  (I'm Asian.  He's Caucasian.  Can you blame me?  Brit Lit was my college major.)

Hahah. I'm Asian too. Korean to be exact. My husband is Caucasian also. Our baby is a blend.

Yeah, disapproving parents--mine, not his.  I'm Chinese, Taiwanese, technically.  It was a rough few years for us.  My parents and I aren't exactly on the best of terms.  You'd think that after 8 years... well... it's silly, it's unfortunate, but what can I say?  They just won't budge.  (It's mainly my mother.)

Most of the frontline technical support are outsourced now. And it's clear they haven't a clue about anything. I know they follow a script. In fact, some of my screaming fits are with them being incapable of branching to more relevant places in the script. The more annoying part is when I explain the problem and the steps I've taken, and then they ask me to repeat all the steps I've just explained to them.

I'm actually going through this right now with Time Warner. They've got some new software for the DVR and it's buggy. I was unable to convince them of that fact. Even when I demanded to be bumped to second level, they said they couldn't.

BTW guys, I think some of the most interesting looking children come from mixed marriages (of any kind), it adds interest into the mix.

The more annoying part is when I explain the problem and the steps I've taken, and then they ask me to repeat all the steps I've just explained to them.

Gah, sounds familiar.  We had DirecTV and canceled it after we moved.  I miss the DVR, but man, do I read a lot more.

BTW guys, I think some of the most interesting looking children come from mixed marriages (of any kind), it adds interest into the mix.

It's amazing where we live, Judy (AP).  Sometimes I forget that it's not this diverse in other parts of the country.  I think we tend to take that for granted at times.

AP Judy, threaten to cancel! It always gets them to escalate. They send you off to a winback group and then from there you can get bumped to the second level. Sad that you have to do that in order to get a response.

Pey, I know what you mean. There was some resistance on my side of the family also. My husband is actually even 5 years younger than me and he's not Korean so it really bugged them. They did give in and accepted the fact that I was going to marry him no matter what and things were good. They were alright for a while, just keeping in touch here and there, then the baby came along. Now you can't keep my parents away no matter what.

Judy I agree. Mixed kids are so interesting. Do you remember that one cover of Time magazine w/ all of the different races mixed together w/ a face in the center that had every ethnic mix? Man I have to find it now.

Ok, maybe not every race but I found it.

AP Judy, threaten to cancel! It always gets them to escalate. They send you off to a winback group and then from there you can get bumped to the second level. Sad that you have to do that in order to get a response.

Hah!  A Korean friend of ours has been doing that for 2 years now, always with the intention to cancel the service.  (I think he has TimeWarner Cable.)  They keep giving him awesome perks to stay.  I think it's also because they bundle their phone and Internet service.

In a couple of hundred years we will all be kind of cafe au lait colored with slight epicanthic folds on our eyes. And you know what, I think that's how we started out looking when we went out of Africa 50,000 years ago.

(By the way, I can't believe I lurked here for almost ONE YEAR before I joined this forum.  *Shakes head*)

Koreans are notorius for trying to get the best deals. You should see the markets in Korea. You have to haggle for everything! LOL.  I learned from my mother of course.

You know, race is such an interesting topic for me. I hope I'm around long enough for geneticists to find out more about how we came to be so different from each other. There are so many physical traits that are too different to really call it evolution. I don't believe that Asians can tan better simply because we lived in warmer climates - China can be freakin cold. I want to know why the majority of Asians have monolids and shorter legs to torso ratio. I've read somewhere that the gene for blue eyes was turned on some 50,000 years ago. Prior to that, everyone was brown eyed.  How they found out? I have no clue. The furthest back they can track humans is roughly 200,000 years ago in Africa.

I think the blue-eyed gene coincided with moving into colder Europe and had to get lighter skins to absorb vitamin D more effectively from sunlight and we were all bundled up against the cold. But I don't know why we needed blue eyes. Maybe it was just part of a random mutation for lighter skin that also included blue eyes.

You know, my fiance kept a college magazine that dealt specifically with this topic.  Let me look for it.

Here's the online info.  You can actually view the issue online: The Alcalde "Father of Us All" July/August 2004 .

Awesome thanks!

Judy, it's been very useful to have your perspective on the AT&T NOC (network operations center) and their trouble escalation processes. I've worked in NOCs for large clients, but never a telecom giant, so all diagnostic efforts were turned inward, whereas a telecom provider is just as concerned with what is happening outside. Of course even for non-telecom enterprises, they did have to monitor and manage the WAN connections (wide area network). But nothing like the massive enterprise AT&T's monitoring center must be.

I actually put in an upgraded network and integrated Macs and PCs on it for PacBell in the SF Bay area (on assignment from Microsoft). But my contact with the NOC there was just to establish the mail and network servers, along with a few gateways, as well as establishing the monitoring and maintenance procedures with SLAs (service level agreements) for what were acceptable outage and maintenance windows.

Again I apologize for speaking in tongues. I've tried to define the acronyms so normal people can understand them.

Thanks, AP and Pey! 

I'm learning a lot from you techie gals.

I want this. http://truebloodnet.com/win-original-signed-kristin-bauer-van-straten-sketch-alexander-skarsgard/

Karla, I can't take any credit for being a techie here.  I know a little bit about computers, but it's the Judys who know what they're talking about.  (Judys AP and LL, my fiance was very impressed.  We'll be implementing your suggestions a little later today to see if we can pinpoint the issue.  My heartfelt gratitude for all of your help.)

I forgot KB was trained in art (painting).  That's pretty neat, Karla.

I love genetics so I am so glad you guys were talking about it a bit on here. It always seems to fasinate me. Like how I have green eyes when both my parents have blue (and 3 out of 4 of their parents have blue). Or how my mom can be as tan as a latin or native american when she is german and irish (she looks like an amazon I swear 6 ft tall and all). There is so much science has yet to discover and yet so much it has already explained. Can you tell I'm giddy as a school girl over here?  lol

In 2008, new research revealed that people with blue eyes have a single common ancestor. Scientists tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. "Originally, we all had brown eyes," said Hans Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.^[27] Eiberg and colleagues showed in a study published in Human Genetics that a mutation in the 86th intron of the HERC2 gene, which is hypothesized to interact with the OCA2 gene promoter, reduced expression of OCA2 with subsequent reduction in melanin production.^[28] The authors concluded that the mutation may have arisen in a single individual in the Near East or around the Black Sea region 6,000–10,000 years ago during the Neolithic revolution.^[27][28][29] Eiberg stated, "A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes."

It also said that green eyes were the least common.

Chelsea, in the last few years I have become fascinated by genetics. I found out a few years ago that I am adopted, and since then I've been super curious about my ethnicity.  I've considered genetic testing to find out for sure. Anyway, genetics are definitely interesting and I could spend days straight reading about it.

AP & SM got married. http://www.usmagazine.com/healthylifestyle/news/anna-paquin-and-stephen-moyer-get-married-2010198

Well let's just hope AB doesn't get carried away with this.

Congratulations to them. 

Judy(s)'s tech language really sounds alien to me, Pey. LOL!

Hey Chelsea, my major in college was genetics. But I'm not practicing it now. From what I remember, if one parent has brown eyes, then there is an almost 0% probability of producing an offspring with the other eye color.

Congratulations to AP and SM! Sure hope AB doesn't include this in TB!!!

Congratulations to Anna and Stephen.

Is it mean to hope that they will gradually stop talking endlessly about it now? I find their deliberate overlaying of their off screen personal lives over their on screen working relationships disturbing and unprofessional.

Are there other Pinays in this forum? Made me proud to be one when I watched the local news earlier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSc_3NX5Q6o

Where is everybody?

Karla I did some genetics in college but def didn't major in it. Thats really cool, I bet you like school a lot. My major was in chemical engineering so it was boring. The article I was reading yesterday was implying that any parent-child combo was possible due to the fact that 2 diff chromosomes, a gene, and a molecular density of the iris stroma were all involved in eye color. I was amazed. I always thought it was one of the more simple traits to figure out but I guess scientist are learning more every year.

Finally! I'm not alone anymore! LOL!

To be perfectly honest, no, I didn't like school. Well, I liked some of my subjects, like genetics. I just thought most of them were unnecessary, hehe.

My best friend is a chemical engineer. I bet you're good in math!

You're right about the scientists learning more every year. It seems like all the previous theories are being rebutted by new ones.

My latest finding was molecular biologists have already mapped dog genes, in relation to human diseases. I was researching about my German Shepherd's epilepsy and came across this article. http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0704-doggy_genes.htm

LOL no you are not alone. I'm pretty good at math I guess, but some of my higher classes well the math kicked my butt.

Thanks for the link is looks crazy. I'm glad they mapped out dogs though. Being a dog person it can only help as I see it.

I used to think that I like math, but I guess it doesn't like me. LOL.

I sure hope they would develop the dog genes. A lot of people will benefit from this study. And I hope they find a cure for dog diseases as well, such as my dog's epilepsy.  

This is the most stringent guidelines I have ever read for a forum: http://charlaineharris.master.com/texis/master/search/showmsg.html?id=4bdfbf2a10&Catid=49ff7a5f3#m4bdfbf2a10

Yea right those are not followed at all. I've seen some horrible stuff on that site, some of it by the mods.

However the date on it is pretty new so maybe things over there have changed.

If there's anything new, the mods are more strict. I don't really know how that can be possible. I actually joined the site so I can get a weekly update of what's going on. Who knows, we might get useful info. 

I like this shirt: 

Once I left, I kinda always thought it should just be a blog really.

It just became this totally OOC monster esp. w/CH's & the books growing popularity. It all got out of hand & I think one of the reasons the suitor choice got so crazy - is b'c it was inflamed so much on her own site which only served to justify the whole concept with her audience.

With the mods over there so clearly drawing lines in the sand & making their preferences known & championing their choices - people felt righteous to do it elsewhere, why wouldn't they if home base not only started it but continue to encourage it by taking part in various ways? It could have been nipped in the bud & it wasn't.

So, it became this known thing...I mean those Team Eric & Team Bill threads started on her own site.

So of course - those who didn't feel comfortable staying there - moved elsewhere & picked up the baton of the main debate/arguments about the book & felt OK doing it b'c they were doing it at "home base" & emphatically so, so why wouldn't they do it elsewhere in turn? It's perfectly logical.

I think they have the right intention but it's too little too late & going to be near impossible to try & control people - esp. new posters/readers who automatically want to know about Eric, Bill, etc...

Plus - you know that latest response we just posted over here where CH addresses DITF being called "cheesy"? That was in response to a new poster, who supposedly didn't speak English very well (you never know it very could well be a troll)  asking how she felt about people called DITF "cheesy"  etc..

I mean really...who does that? Having it be a forum is just asking for that kind of thing, making CH an even bigger target b'c of insensitive people bringing external criticism's to her. And this again - right there, is a perfect example of one of the many reasons the mod's are clamping down on what's allowed.

That's why I just think - get it over with let it be a freakin' blog & author info site.

If CH wants to be interactive & see what people really feel - she can read reviews on Amazon or Goodreads etc... & do those web chat back & forth's w/Bittenbybooks etc...

IDK - this just seems like not only a lot of unnecessary stress & pressure surrounding CH - but also, shows how too far gone some of her audience is in taking all this so flipping seriously that they had to just lock it down like this.

Honestly - these are fictonal books & talking about all this should be fun most of all. I know I have so much fun talking about other series - it should be the same w/SVM. It's a shame it's gotten to this point but at the same time, at least they seem to be trying to smarten up about this. Maybe it'll just be more straightforward now.

That's why I just think - get it over with let it be a freakin' blog & author info site.

True. Any statement that can be found there can be reflected as one of hers, since it's her site. She can just have a message to the author link or something.

True. Any statement that can be found there can be reflected as one of hers, since it's her site.

Completely. I mean the bottom line is CH is the one who stated on her site to take  the Mods words as her words. So what kind of message does that send to everyone involved - audience & mod's?

It gave the mod's even more of a basis for self righteousness b'c they were empowered and the more popular the site grew...the more smug & self-righteous in turn, esp. b'c the behavior was allowed to continue for so long w/CH not calling it out. It's not too surprising it's come to this, I'm just surprised CH didn't step in sooner to end the madness. But at least some sort of control on the whole thing has finally been taken.

That must be totally frustrating for those longtime posters over there that previously ran the board! Wouldn't be surprised if they come over here to stir shit up b'c they can't unleash anymore. Oh wait...that's been happening. Right, see?

Anyway, I think it could be a really good thing b'c maybe new readers that come to the site - b'c they don't have the see the old crap that was flung around they hopefully won't get caught up in  it & so in turn, can have fun with the series which really, used to provide us hours, days & months of endless fun when we'd get stuck into dissecting it etc..

I mean really - the books, they just kinda had this magic. I was 1000% joyfully excited to read each one & then when finished, was DYING to discuss them & when I finally was able to, had so much fun. That's a rare quality that so many feel the same. I feel like that light has been so dimmed b'c of the nonsense that was able to get in the way.  I know that I feel jaded about it all now. I miss that exuberance I used to feel about them.

I really hope this is the start of things getting back on track.

She can just have a message to the author link or something. 

Exactly.  

WOW!!  You stated everything I was thinking, but I am not so eloquent with my words.

AGREE 100 %.

 I know that I feel jaded about it all now. I miss that exuberance I used to feel about them.

I feel this, too. Right now I'm at a point wherein I just don't want to just leave the series because I have invested a lot of time, money, and emotions in them. Plus I'm a completer, like most of the girls in this site. And I'm also dying to know who Sookie's HEA is. I really hope that when 2013 comes I wouldn't be writing a very long hate letter to CH if it's not Eric. 'Coz if that happens then she wasted a lot of my time. I don't like being led on.

Hi Krazee!  

Even Hayley Williams of Paramore is a TB fan (Twitter):

yelyahwilliams 

  Holy man cheeks! There are so many naked bros in the new season of True Blood. #justanobservation 

The problem is that the mods have actually permitted retribution for things said on other sites. Not only from the posters, but from themselves. They actually say so in their unwelcoming "Things to know post." They could stop the bullying and retribution, but they haven't. And the team posts are continuing, but in the book threads. They're still permitting nasty Eric conspiracies. And one idiotic poster today said she couldn't think of a single fault Bill had, whereas she liked seeing Eric's flaws.

So I was just hit with a thought. When Bill and Sookie first have sex adn he heals her with his blood down there, why doesn't her hymen heal? I mean shouldn't it have healed? One more book flaw to consider I suppose.

Tomorrow, I will receive my new laptop and then I will have to turn around and call HP to return it, since I will be receiving another one in two weeks. I do owe the impetus to go ahead and buy the better one to Judy (LL), who not only gave me good computer advice this week, but she also shared great stuff with Pey for her wireless problems.

Thanks Judy. I am so much happier with the improved laptop configuration.

I just want to share my happy problem.

I just got accepted in an international company - same level, bigger salary and more benefits. So I passed my resignation to my current company, and now they are offering to promote me to the next level. Promotion = title, tenure, a little bit of extra salary, but almost the same benefits. I'm at a loss on where to go right now.

Should I stay or should I go?

Same work?

I would choose the job I thought I knew better. I mean job security and all. Also where they are located and the travel impact the decision.

Thanks Chelsea. The new job is a specialized function of my current role. I'm currently on general HR, the new company offers for me to just focus on payroll (plus accounting, finance, etc.). Hmmm... 

Karla if you like your current job but were just looking for more opportunity, then stay with the job. I'd only change if I were unhappy. It sounds like a good deal to be offered tenure. Unless of course the money is a big deal.

I think you answered it, Judy. I'm unhappy already since I'm over-stretched. We'll see how things play out.

Thanks Girls!  

Then there is also the size and financial stability of the employer. If you are overstretched it sounds like they are having some difficulties, but that's probably true of most businesses due to the lousy world economy. Would your promotion mean you would be less stretched?

My daughter's BF got a promotion to VP in the company he works for and his work doubled. He still had to perform in his old job and then he had all the responsibility of his new job, and more pressure due to more demands and expectations from his boss. He got more money, but all also much work work and stress.

Should I stay or should I go?

Well...are you happy there? Have you cultivated good working relationships?  If you are & have - I would stay, esp. if they are making you an offer that is the same. The question is ...why wouldn't you now that you received this counter offer?

For anyone interested here are some old reviews http://io9.com/tag/truebloodrecap/?p=1&replies=collapsed  

Once I discovered them I did go back and read the old reviews. It's always entertaining.

Mary you are a champ for introducing us to these hilarious reviews.

thanks, my son turned me onto this site last year.

You know, I've started doing other things while True Blood is on, so those reviews/recaps help me decide what I want to re-watch or fast-forward through.  I didn't notice Lala's expressions during his drug trip, but the screen caps they provided on the site were so funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a1nVLq-pig  Just had put this in I find it great

I have to go back and check all the ones I didn't read. Love the one with SA  Bills phone call to S.

Oh, Mary, I needed a warning for that clip! 

sorry, you had the bad dream right?

I can take it out but I don't know how.

Haha... yeah.  (Mary, don't take it out!  I can handle it.  I think it was looking through all those creepy pictures for the cymbal monkey that did me in that night.)

I get my son to help me post things because I just can't seem to remember how to do it.  I might do it right once in awhile .  But I never tried to take anything out.

I mentioned it in the Introduce yourself thread, but I'm kind of a wimp.  Scary things and bloody scenes will stay in my head for days, but I love reading about the supernatural/paranormal world.  During two summers, when I was 13 and 14, I read Dracula and Interview with a Vampire.  Both summers, I spent several nights hiding under my heavy blankets, making sure my fleshy neck and no body parts were exposed, until my mother discovered me cowering and sweating and wide awake.  She also found out why I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep.  She was pretty annoyed with me and kept asking me, "Why do you insist on doing this to yourself?"  Hehe.  My grandmother, my mother's mother, was exactly the same way.

So am I.  And my sister too.   I saw the Omen when I was 13 and my friend was 12.  When his head got cut off we ran out out of the theater.  (went back in).  I came home scare as hell. my father is giving me rosy beads and yelling at me at the same time.  But I still go back for more.  Just not so much with Devil movies

I didn't read much when I was a kid my sister did though.  She read all that stuff.  She also read a lot about witch craft and spells.

I am into Bugs Bunny and loony toons  from the late 60's early  70's when they were on Saturday mornings.

The whole hiding under the covers thing continued into my late teens every time I read or watched something scary (The Sixth Sense, for example), though I was still doing it occasionally into my 20s.  Don't know if you ever watched Buffy, but after the scene where Willow brings Buffy back, I saw Buffy's decayed, reanimated face in my head for days. 

I am so glad that I am not alone in the sweating to death under the covers in fear.  My theory is that if it can't get my toes, were good. LOL

I never saw Buffy. I didn't watch to much TV then  My sons were 8 and 2 at the time and I had a fear of vampires. I almost didn't see TB.  One night there was nothing else on so I got hooked.  But I did watch the X-files every time.

If I have bad dreams now I just grab my husbands arm and hold on for dear life.  I also wake him up to tell him I had a bad dream.

Read the Exorcist.

Oh... don't get me started on X-Files.  My best friends in college used to make me watch the show with them.  There was that episode where Mulder and Scully investigate creatures with glowing red eyes.  I don't remember much about the episode, but the last scene shows a pair of glowing red eyes staring out from beneath Scully's bed.  I not only slept in my dorm room with the lights on for a week, but I'd check underneath my bed for glowering red eyes every night.  My friends (one who lived right next door and therefore noticed the lights on ALL night) still tease me about it.

The one that got me was the creature crawling on the walls and ceiling. I think it was in an office.  They weren't really people.

Been a long time since I've seen some good ones

Would your promotion mean you would be less stretched?

Nope, Judy. That would mean they have the right to stretch me more. Kinda like what your daughter's BF is experiencing.

The question is ...why wouldn't you now that you received this counter offer?

I guess I have the feeling that they were just promoting me because I am leaving. LOL. Kidding. I am happy there, with regards to my officemates who became my friends. Except our department manager, who is like AS when he back-stabbed Talbot. But I am currently leaning towards staying since I'm considering (1) tenure in the company, (2) good career path, I rose among the ranks from associate to officer in 1 1/2 years, (3) I am well aware of the account I handle and the business I belong in, (4) I can now develop my supervisory skills.

Especially now that I haven't heard from the new company yet when I told them about my current office's offer.

Thank you for helping me think this one through.

As always, it seems like I'm the last one to watch a TB episode. It's hard to be in Asia with regards to TV episode premieres. By the way, I would like to be patriotic and say that I'm still proud to be a Filipino even after the hostage drama that happened yesterday. We shouldn't be ashamed of being Filipinos for what happened yesterday. We shouldn't be defined as a nation due to an act of one man.

As you were all on the topic of scary things..well im the biggest wimp! I cant watch anything scary! I hate scream! and refuse to watch the Omen! Lol! the strange thing is ive always love Vampires they dont scare me at all! I grew up watching buffy as i was like 6 when the first series started! so i kind of used to them!

The one thing I really really cant watch again (my sister made me watch it as a kid)  is a film called 'IT'  by Stephen King...now that freaks me out big time!!

I grew up with Dark Shadows Barnabas Collins.  My mother took us to see a double feature of Beneath the Planet of the Apes and the Dark shadow movies.  I was maybe 6 or 7 don't remember.  I had dreams of Barnabas and when the humans started taking their faces off.

I started watching X-Files when I was like 12 it was right after the movie came out. I was a chicken who hated scary things so it was a big jump for me. I will never love anything as much as I loved that show. I own all 9 seasons and both movies and watch them pretty often hehe. I worked really hard to not be paranoid and afraid of those episodes.

The red eye people was actually set in FL in a national forest and my boyfriends mom lives in that forest. The first time I went to her house I freaked out because I didn't know that before hand. lol I still am a bit uneasy while we are there visiting.

I don't like the one where Tooms can squeeze through air vents. That gets me every time.

Bela Lugosi rules! Best and Worst Vampires on Film and TV

Carlisle Cullen is the worst? Hmmm...

Any idea what this is about? Looks gross to me... http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/this_halloween_the_dead_will_walk_czZXh1jN2icLYS9y8mPBDO

The show walking Dead looks really good.   I wish I had all the X-file DVD's   Tooms wasn't he the guy that made a nest.  And wasn't he the actor in LOST.

Glad to know I'm in a sisterhood or self confessed "wimps"! lol I have actually desensitized myself to some of this stuff by just watching.  The thing is, I have a huge imagination and when the show is over I will pay for having watched it.  As a kid, maybe 7, I read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in class and couldn't sleep all night.  I'm totally down with the covers over the head, all body parts covered theory of protection.  It's the ooga, booga, creepy supernatural stuff that gets me.  There's some presence watching you, like that.  I still don't sleep all that well if my husband is out of the house.

The thing I really can't watch is torture porn - just disgusts and repels me.  I was fine watching Spartacus until he went down in the "pits" and there was a Leather Face moment when he actually carved someone's face off!  I just said "OK, I'm out!" and ran away.  My husband yelled out to me to come back when it was over.  Blech!

Talking of the Xfiles, the episode that truly creeped me out was the inbreeding family in the scary, decrepit farm house with the mom that had no limbs and slid out from under the bed on a dolly... *shudder*.  I think it's why HotShot creeps me out so severely.

That one I had to keep putting a pillow in front of me.  The mom under the bed  very creepy.

That show Walking Dead... reminded me of the movies 28 weeks and 28 days.   Those I had nightmares from.

Remember the last shot of the mom in the trunk, her son climbing in, and the car starting arockin'?  I can't remember what song they were playing, I think I blocked it, but it was so intensely disturbing!

Was it Elvis singing?  I can't think of it AHHH

Talking of the Xfiles, the episode that truly creeped me out was the inbreeding family in the scary, decrepit farm house with the mom that had no limbs and slid out from under the bed on a dolly... *shudder*.  I think it's why HotShot creeps me out so severely.

Home!! That's what it was called! So freaky!! Very Texas Chainsaw/Deliverance. There were a bunch of ep's that freaked me out.

Medium also does a good job of really spooking me a lot.

"Home" was very creepy. In fact they didn't run it a second time for years since everyone had such a strong reaction to it. The "Tooms" stories were also creepy.

Yes! The 2 Tooms ep's. Those were good...

Can I just say you guys have great taste hehe.

Home was/is super messed up. The kids playing baseball digging up the dead baby really got me. I don't even 'dig in' anymore when I'm up to bat because of it.

Crawling into the trunk with momma was a perfect ending.

You guys are creeping me out. The hairs on my arms are standing straight up!

Anyways, I had a very hectic weekend. Hubby and I celebrated our 6 yr wedding anniversary. Woo Hoo. So far so good

Judy (AP), I hope you like your new laptop. I don't think I can take any credit in your decision making. All I did was help nudge you into spending more money! That's what girls do for each other right? Seriously though..you got a great deal!

Pey, I hope you got some resolution on your connectivity issues.

Sorry to bore/confuse ppl w/ my tech talk. I tend to speak it for more hours in a day than I should because I work a LOT of hours and I never get to leave the work at the office. So Karla I know how stretched you can feel. Practically everyone I know feels the same way these days. It's sad when I play the scrabble game on my iphone called "words with friends" that I tend to try using the computer slang. Anyways, AP Judy should know what that's like. 

Also, since you guys are talking about cowering in the covers and overheating yourselves...I got more scared being under the covers than out of from that Japanese movie remake "the Grudge".

It's the last part of this clip.

Judy, you evil woman!  Now even under the covers isn't safe for me anymore.  (BTW, I had to watch that backed away from the computer screen!  lol )

Oh Sh#t!    That was ...  I backed up too.

Sorry! but if you watch the movie, it's not really that scary. It's creepy but not stay awake at night scary.

Gasp, Judy (LL), I am so NOT watching that.

Judys (AP and LL), so connectivity issue seems to have been resolved (for now, fingers crossed).  Fiance and I tried a few things on Saturday (but had the same issues that caused the Net to slow to a crawl and didn't allow me to load pages properly later in the day), but something we did on Sunday seemed to work.  I apologize in advance if I somehow massacre tech speak in my explanation.

We tried the firmware updates, but everything was up to date.  Briefly set up static IP addresses, but our system did not like that at all.  The Belkin Play Max basically gave us a big FU.

The basic issue seemed to a some kind of conflict between the router and the modem regarding DNS servers.  We kept getting "resolving host..." when trying to load web pages that sometimes did or didn't load.  Temperamental.  We then tried hard-coding the DNS servers, but that didn't work for some reason.  Hard-coding level 3 DNS servers also didn't fix the issue.  We set the modem to be a bridge (I think it's called) and ran all the routing off the Belkin but that didn't work despite fiance fiddling with every setting he could conceive of.  FINALLY, before he smashed the router to bits, the fiance set the Belkin as a wireless access point only and we used the new modem (we returned the Motorola on Saturday and are now using Actiontec High Speed DSL Modem) as a router.  Don't know why we didn't think to try this on Friday with the new modem (though it still doesn't explain what was going on with the Motorola DSL modem).  This "fix" seems to have much improved speeds.  I guess the Belkin is fine as a WAP, but crappy as a router.

Anyway, we can't thank you enough for your suggestions and the time you took to help us troubleshoot. *Hugs*

You're welcome but it sounds like your fiance did all the work and found another solution. Glad to know everything is working now.

I just realized that the ghost in the movie clip I posted needed an invitation to the girl's apartment, much like our SVM vampires. That's why it called her and pretended to be this "Matthew" person. It wasn't really stated in the movie when I watched it. I think it's Japanese folklore.

You two did sell him on the Cisco.  Apparently, that's what we're getting "next time."  I quote: "We are not, I repeat, not doing this again.  Look, Pey, we saved $35 but paid for it with month-long aggravation."  *Gives me a pointed look* "Don't tell me you think it was worth it.  Listen to the 'Judys,'" which is what he calls you now.  My favorite part?  He tries to convince me to shell out more money by saying, "Listen to the Judys."  Funny.

As an aside, it totally wasn't worth the aggravation.  But, don't tell him I said so.  *Sigh* I hate it when he's right.

It sounds like you guys did a great job of troubleshooting to get past your problems. I'm going to guess that both devices were trying to be routers and would indeed make the network go crazy as they fought for dominance. Judy (LL) was onto something when she said it might be dropping its IP address and having to re-acquire.

That's why I tend to get devices from the same manufacturers since they coexist better. And you can't beat Cisco. My routers, print servers, and cable modems are all Cisco and have lasted for years. The last time I needed to replace a router, the housekeeper had unplugged them for vacuuming, which wasn't necessary, and she had already been warned to not touch them or any plugs or electronics, for that matter. When she plugged them back in, she plugged them into the wrong AC adapters and fried the router.

Happy anniversary Judy!

Why thank you.

Did she seriously unplug everything? What a massive fail! Even ours knows not to touch our equipment.

Yes, (LL) Judy, happy anniversary.

It's ironic.  I'm working from home today because the Internet/Network in the office is completely down.  (I'm not sure how much work I'm actually getting done here.)

The maid very willful and we eventually got rid of her. The fried equipment actually happened after the following event: Network tech here, right, so I had everything routed and tied off, too. But she undid half of it and, then, instead of using my soft velcro tie-wraps to secure the cords, she wound them into small balls and then tied them into tight knots like they were cord. I went ballistic and screamed at her that there were fragile wires into those cords and they can break. She thought my loose cord loops were less tidy than her tight little balls. I had to replace all the cables (and electrical cords) since I no longer trusted them. So she had already been very firmly told not to touch them.

It's ironic.  I'm working from home today because the Internet/Network in the office is completely down.  (I'm not sure how much work I'm getting done.)

How funny! Actually I was really bad at first. I can't say I work 100% of the time. I run scripts that can take hours to run sometimes and there are low points in the days, like right now while I'm posting here. Working from home does take discipline but it also means more work sometimes. My friends think that because I work at home I get to do things like work out/ watch tv/ read books..etc... Ha! I wish!

I always worked longer hours when I worked from home. I was more focused too since the office was always in a tumult.

I miss the commadarie at the office but seriously everyone works from home now. The office is barren. You can literally see tumble weeds roll by. At least on my floor. Hopefully the company will wise up and start leasing out parts of the building and start cubicle rentals. It's a serious waste of space and money. The last time I went in, I saw only one other person on my floor.

Happy Anniversary!

I had to replace all the cables (and electrical cords) since I no longer trusted them.

Gah, I hope you charged her for the replacement costs.  That's ridiculous.

Judy, I once worked on a project that set up an entire company to work from home. Then we set up regional locales with cubicles that people could reserve, along with office equipment and meeting rooms they could rent out. Then they would phone and video conference everything else from home. Funny thing was that once they started working from home, no one ever reserved office space for anything.

It sounds exactly like what you're experiencing at your office.

Gah, I hope you charged her for the replacement costs.  That's ridiculous.

She was an inveterate liar, She claimed she had asked my daughter if she could do it. Of course, she hadn't. My daughter would never have given permission. She's too smart for that. My daughter's comment to me was, "Shit I wouldn't even touch them."

Even one time a guy got fired for tripping over a power cord that wasn't buried underneath the floorboards. It wasn't his fault the cable was just there but he tripped and out came the cable from the wall. That caused a serious outage...maybe you experienced it...heheh

Ha ha.

You guys are giving me the creeps. LOL! I never really watch scary movies since I am such a coward while watching them. I cover my face with a pillow and anticipate the parts where I would scream (but not that loud as Stoopie). I did like The Ring (Jap version). My mom and I watched the 4 movies straight into the wee hours of the morning. Then we had to go to the bathroom together and sleep beside each other for at least a week or so.

Happy anniversary to Judy (LL) and her hubby!!!  Thanks, Judy. I already decided that I would stick it out with my current company. I couldn't afford to venture out and risk the post I'm being offered since I have my family to think about. It's hard being an adult, no? 

And of course I'm skipping the YouTube clip of The Grudge. No way I am watching that alone!

If anyone is into the new Doctor Who series .    Check out the episode BLINK.   (season 3).

Judy (LL), your scary movie clip must have driven it right out of my head.  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!  Hope you and your hubby had a great time celebrating.  

This clip is funny! I like how they exaggerated AP's gap between her two front teeth. And how Bill can't finish his sentence and always ends up devouring Sookie. LOL!

Haha Liann. Thanks. It's nice to go out on a date every once in a while.
BTW, reading bits of book 4 before bed will help replace any scary thoughts you may have! It always warms me up. LOL

Holy cr@p Karla that was hilarious!

Haha! Yeah Judy! Great way to start my day! And end your nights?

Oh crap. I hate trolls, illegal posters, peddlers... FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE YOU CAN SELL YOUR SHIT! Create your own forum or something!!!

Karla, Loved it!

My new favorite line EVER: Hookah, Bitch!  It is my new loving nickname for my friends.

Karla, LMAO!!  "They cancelled Deadwood for this damn shit?!"  Too funny.

Totally! Better than Vampires Suck! Hookah, Bitch! LOL!

Who are you calling a Hookah Bitch?!!!  

NOOOOOOOOO!  Coffeemaker won't work (not pumping water) and I have a meeting in an hour!  (Judys want to help me troubleshoot that?  Just kidding.)  Well, I'm off to work in a bit.  Hope everyone's day gets off to a better start than mine.

That sucks!  Hope there's a Starbucks or something nearby.  I'm with Sookie: no morning coffee, no morning brain...

I'm with Sookie: no morning coffee, no morning brain

Liann, fiance got up in spite of my protestations and went to buy me some coffee (and an apple fritter, which I don't usually allow myself to eat).  'Twas a very SLOW morning.  I've curbed my coffee addiction to one cup in the morning.  When I was in college, I used to have 3-4 tumblerfuls of coffee every day.  Had to give it up when I got an ulcer at 23.   

I hate coffee. I hate the smell of coffee.  I don't like tea either.  I love Milk.   I just went outside to check out my moon flowers,  So many mosquito bites!   Bloodsuckers and they aren't the good kind.

Bloodsuckers and they aren't the good kind.

Is there a good kind? 

@Liann: LOL!

@Pey: You should have instant coffee in stock in emergency cases like these. LOL! I'm a coffee addict, too, and if I don't drink coffee when I wake up I get cranky. Too bad you have ulcer.

Is there a good kind?   - Eric's!!! Alex's would be even better!

Speaking of bites, these teens are taking biting to the extreme: http://www.trueblood-online.com/general-info/the-new-teen-fad-biting-like-vampires/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheVault-Trueblood-onlin