is it a good idea to pour hot candle wax in the trash can? |standing by waiting for a fire.|

what's up with everyone changing their domain lately? i've had to update three links so far today.

the friday five

1. how long have you had a weblog? since february 2000.

2. what was your first post about? i think it was about the "dotcomguy" -- that dude that changed his name and lived in an internet only life.

3. how many changes (name, location, etc.) of your weblog have there been, if more than one? first, i started out using my old earthlink account personal homepage space. then, that moved when i got my quidnunc.org domain, where i'm still taking up space. the name's always been quidnunc. the design... too many changes to think about. although, this current one has been around the longest.

4. what cms (content management system) do you use? do you like it or do you want to try something else? i started out using the now (i think) defunt groksoup; used that one for a few months. then i just did my own thing with html, no cms involved; did that for about a year or more. then moved to blogger; did that for about a year. now i'm using movable type; been with it for about 9 months or more. i really like it, think it's pretty straight-forward to use. makes doing things, like uploading photos, really easy. i like that.

5. do you read people who have both a journal and a weblog? or do you prefer to read people who have all of their writing in one central place? i can only think of a couple people i read on a regular basis with both... it's easier to have it all bunched up in one place for reading. but, if i liked the person's writing style, i'd read both.

this is funny: thongs

here's a good view of the floral flag planted in lompoc, california. pretty impressive.

the dimensions of the flag:
- 740 feet long and 390 feet wide; maintains proper flag dimensions
- covers 6.65 acres
- each star is 24 feet in diameter
- each stripe is 30 feet wide
- estimated to contain more than 2 million flowers

vegetable egg rolls

jon showed me a link ages ago for the "peanut butter jelly" singing banana. every time i run across it i have to watch it again. you can't go wrong with a singing and dancing banana.

"catching alice" by clare naylor. i've tried to get into this book for several days, but it's not happening. so, i decided to put it on amazon to sell. the book looked intriguing, and the reviews promised a funny, light-hearted, quick read. i found it poorly written -- too hard to follow the often changing point of view (leaving me wondering who was speaking), awkward character introduction (just kind of thrown in your face), too over-written (long, long sentences that seem a little pompous on the author's part), bitchy characters i couldn't warm up to... too bad, i wanted to like the book.

anyway, i have recently read some really good books: "good in bed" (a really smart, personable story -- like your best friend wrote it) by jennifer weiner (who has her own blog), "spin cycle" (really funny and sweet -- perfect chick flick premise) by sue margolis and "the idiot girls' action adventure club" (reminds me of my wild and crazy girl friends) by laurie notaro.

tonight i'll start "underground" by tobias hill. this novel is the first mystery novel i've picked up in a long time. even through this book is about my favorite subway system, it will be a good break from all the british chick books i've been reading.

granola

my mom's bday was yesterday and my youngest-older brother turns the big 3-0 tomorrow. happy birthday times two!

my friend, kristina, celebrates her first wedding anniversary tomorrow as well... i can't believe a year ago she got married -- how time has flown since then. congrats on the first year!

the friday five

1. Where were you born? huntsville, alabama

2. If you still live there, where would you rather move to? If you don't live there, do you want to move back? Why or why not? no, i wouldn't want to live in huntsville. basically because all the people i grew up with that still lives there is over-run with "old huntsville" money... not many of the people i like live there anymore. so, the ones that do are of a different "crowd." it's a big city, but not big enough for me. the entertainment factor is nil, forcing you to search nashville, atlanta or birmingham for something exciting to do. i do, however, like the diversity of the city... and, even though i couldn't imagine myself being there anytime soon... i wouldn't discourage myself or others from raising a family there. it's a great (safe) city for that.

3. Where in the world do you feel the safest? hate to pull the "london" card, but honestly when i've been there, i've always felt "at home."

4. Do you feel you are well-traveled? i love to travel, and for the average person i'm pretty well-traveled for my age. although, i'm not well-traveled enough for me -- there's so many other places i want to go in the world.

5. Where is the most interesting place you've been? paris, france... there's so much to see. history, art, people, food. roads and roads to wander through and discover. i'd love to go back there.

tuesday, i drove down to san diego to meet up with one of my best friends from high school. she's out west with her sister and another friend visiting family and the grand canyon. we met at this insanely confusing mall called horton plaza.

it's seven layers of stuff just coming at you from every direction. it's so distinctly different from typical malls that it kind of made my head spin as soon as i made my way from the parking deck into the outdoor plaza. (i was told it's inspired by m.c. escher... i can believe it.) you're walking on one level and see a shop across and down a little, but have no clue how to get there because it's not exactly one level down from you. there might be some stairs somewhere, a few of them, that will lead you to that level.

aside from the confusion, the horton plaza was a nice place to see. the weather was beautiful, so being outside walking between shops was nice. after dinner, we all headed to the beach around sunset. we arrived just as it turned dark, but walked down to the water anyway. the water was surprisingly perfect -- not really cold, not really warm. just right. the only downside being it was too dark to really see anything.

probably the best thing to see was the drive down on I-5. it runs right along the pacific coast, so the majority of my trip i had a hard time concentrating on the driving... too busy looking out to sea. breath-taking scenery.

marinara sauce

tonight on abc, 20/20 will focus on how the media is capable of tricking the public. sounds interesting. |link via: fark|

my parents recently went on an alaskan cruise. one of the things they brought back for my brothers and i was an ulu knife.

i haven't used it yet, but i'm really excited about it. one side of the cutting board is flat; flip it over and a hollowed out bowl is there keeping roaming foods in place while you chop.

i've seen some cooks using similar tools like this recently, although not near as cool, and i have been wanting one. it's just so darn cute, and the wood is especially nice.

the test for me is to see how long it takes before i cut myself. i've got a problem with knives (landed in the emergency room after instead of slicing through a bagel i sliced off the tip of my ring finger about 6 years ago. and, still have no feeling in my pointer finger after i made a gash through it while chopping lettuce about 8 months ago.) hopefully the ulu will be much safer for me. we'll see...

"ms. pac-man" was my game. i even had one of those miniature ms. pac-man arcade case replicas that fit perfectly in my little 6 to 7ish year old hands. the old pizza hut on south parkway had my second favorite game, "centipede," that we'd all play after our swim meets. and, the carousel skate center was the place to play "pepper."

so, in honor of all things great and arcade, today i'm wearing my newly acquired pac-man inspired jersey tee from retrocade. buy while they last. all the cool kids are wearing 'em.

one of the books i'm currently reading is "the idiot girl's action adventure club" by laurie notaro. it's full of short stories based on the author's life. every chapter makes me laugh or reminds me of my friends back home.

she writes a column for the arizona republic, which i try to check often. her personal site has an archive of a handful of writings. her attitude is smart and sassy, and i think she's becoming my favorite new writer and columnist.

titanic super slide -- wouldn't this be really authentic with a pool of water at the bottom? hmm.... there's something so wrong about this, but i bet it'd still be fun. |link via: strangebrew|

the friday five

1. where are you right now? sitting upstairs, in front of my laptop.

2. what have you lost recently? a month or so ago, i went to get my license plates. i removed my old tag and replaced it with the new one. at some point i sat my old tag on top of jon's car, and later that night, in the midst of a garbage disposal explosion/crisis, i drove his car to the store for some liquid plumber. the tag fell off the roof and landed in the middle of a semi busy intersection. the same intersection, upon realizing the tag was missing, that i walked into the middle of to retrieve my tag the next day.

3. what was the first cd you ever purchased? does that embarrass you now? i have at least 300 cd's, so i can't remember the first... the first album (vinyl) was "thriller" by michael jackson. the most embarassing cd i bought was nkotb's final "face the music" disc. it was back when it was still wrong to admit to being on the new kid train. but now, i'm not ashamed to admit that i own and listen to their "greatest hits" disc.

4. what is your favorite kind of writing pen? you can't go wrong with a "bic" medium point in black. a close second is my "zebra" jell 3. it's an updated version of those "4 colors in 1" pens.

5. what is your favorite ice cream flavor? without a doubt, mint chocolate chip, preferably from baskin robbins. we're talking green colored mint chocolate chip, not that other crap.

how fireworks work.

this new invention is pretty interesting. "dealing with angry callers" routes "winning" callers from voice-prompt hell to an actual human rep. (ny times: article requires free registration/login to access)

"The invention inserts what the inventors call a mood analyzer into the system. It gathers information from the way callers answer voice prompts or use the touch-tone buttons when asked for information like an account number, reservation code or customer number."

"Once the system has decided that a caller is angry, it tries to figure out how much. If the "annoyance level" exceeds a threshold set by the system, the call is routed to an operator trained to handle annoyed customers."