Random Samplings

Consider these as mental sticky-notes. They're things I could expand into whole essays if I really wanted to, but since I have no content today, and need a break from submission hell, I'm tossing them out randomly.

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Dinotopia: We turned on Part I just because there was nothing else to watch, and it looked amusing. I'd seen the drawings in National Geographic, of course, so was a bit curious. And really, it's an interesting story, though I'm wondering if the books are as sugary as the Hallmark/Disney production. And of course, the Pern-geek part of me can't help but lose it at times. Example, last night, one of the characters gazed into the eyes of a flyer and was told, “You have to speak his name. Find it inside of you.” His response? “His name…is…FreeFall!”

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Heard on the radio this morning: Apparently some guy is dressing up as a dog and stealing bits of rose-bushes and other plants and landscape materials from neighborhoods in Cupertino. As if a six-foot-tall dog is unobtrusive, or something.

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Nostalgia: I grew up listening to Peter, Paul & Mary, and they're still part of my rather eclectic music collection even today. So, when I found out they're playing a concert at a local winery, I was literally bouncing – which isn't easy to do when you're drugged to death on antihistamines, and still can't breathe – anyway, Fuzzy's been informed that I'm ordering tickets tomorrow, and that he could count it as my birthday present, since the concert is about a week after my birthday, in August.

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Comfort Foods: Sara Paretsky's fictional detective V. I. Warshawski once posed a theory that comfort foods begin with 'P'. (peanut butter, pizza, pasta, pudding, pepperoni, Pepperidge Farm cookies, piroshki, pannetone, etc.) It doesn't start with a 'p' unless you put it in a pita, but hummus is becoming a comfort food for me. I've always liked it; but these days I'm finding I could live on it. Well, perhaps not.

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Another radio thing: They played the humorous song 'Screwing Around at Work' during the morning show. It's vaguely ironic, I suppose, that I'm sitting here in my office updating a journal on company time. But then, I'm an independent contractor, so I can declare it NOT company time if I want.

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Earthquake: Yes, there was an earthquake last night. USGS.gov says it was 5.2-ish, and about 30 miles away. Whatever. Earthquakes don't scare me, they just piss me off when they're strong enough to wake me. I, like many Californians, have a personal game of “Guess the Richter Scale Points” – I guessed 5-ish before the newsflashes started up. And, to make this entry come full circle, I have to admit, I was so wrapped up in Dinotopia that for a moment I thought the rumbling was souped-up bass from the tv, simulating dinosaur footsteps.