問女何所思，問女何所憶

Sorry, My Nubbage Is Sticking Out

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:44:26 GMT

weather	:	sunny
outside	:	18.4°C
mood	:	amused

Whee! I was invited to my first pick-up group in WoW and we nearly wiped trying to summon. It wasn't my fault, but my nubbage was all kinds of sticking out. XD

My Warlock Girl was fishing at Thunder Bluff when I was whispered and offered money to help summon a Mage.

"Sure!" I say. I had never done this before, so I was curious enough even before I had the money. I figured if they were going to rip me off, I'm only out one Soul Shard which is easily replaced and I learn how to summon people.

My first question was "So, where's the Summoning Stone at TB?" Buh. Yeah, I'm a Warlock. I _AM_ THE SUMMONING STONE. =D I tried to save it by saying that I'd never played a Warlock before, which is entirely true, I've just never played much of any class before either... I don't think that convinced anyone, anyway.

So, she's walking me through what to do. I have the Summon spell, I have a Soul Shard. It's all ready to go. I need to be grouped with her and two others. Okay, we're all partied up and ready.

I don't see the others around. Do I cast the portal, then wait around? Or do I wait until everyone's gathered first? ... Ah, there's a time limit on the portal, so I should wait until everyone's here before I start.

Okay, I cast the portal. The second person clicks on it. A bystander says to us "Do you need a third?" ROFL! He was thanked kindly, but told that we already have a third.

The third person disappeared, either dropped the connection or went AFK. That left the two of us standing there looking like git-fish, straining to hold up a big black hole in mid-air, with the clock running down, right in front of the Thunder Bluff mailbox.

"Arms getting tired... LOL", I type into Party Chat. Lawls all around. Some other bystanders start gathering around us, staring, pointing and laughing at us.

We're starting to get desparate that we're going to wipe. =D

I see a confusion of messages go by in Party Chat and General Chat, yelled in red and dully roared in white and mauve. The flurry of messages were both asking for help from someone in the crowd and loudly imploring our last person in the party to "OMG CLICK IT!!!! NOWNOWNOW1111111111"

By this time, we've drawn a much bigger crowd. They're probably wondering what the hell we're doing and why it's such an unusually long summon.

At nearly the last possible second, our third person finally reappeared and clicks the portal. The summon was successful, but I was informed that it doesn't usually involve THAT much drama. XD

She did pay me which was great, but the entertainment value was well worth it. =D

Holiday Week Update

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:18:57 GMT

weather	:	sunny
outside	:	24°C
mood	:	content

Thus ends a nice holiday week. *bittersweet* =) W and I took the week off together. We didn't go anywhere, just caught up with errands and did random stuff that we wished we had more time to do during the week.

Girl: Finished Mansfield Park.

The fascinating thing about Jane Austen, I find, is that she's made the same plot tell six entirely different stories. They're all nearly the same, but you see very different themes and social commentary in each one.

It's like looking into several different bowls of water. They're all only slightly different bowls and, water is water. But you scry a different universal truth in every one.

Geek: I went scabbing as a hobo healer in Alterac Valley.

English: I played WoW.

At 64/m/shammy/cow, I can't do a whole lot. So, I don my Int gear and go heal the tank or any other DPS who has aggro. And I'm not overhealing as much anymore.

The Summer Solstice Festival is on in the WoW, so we're constantly ribbon dancing and doing the festival dailies. The torch catching is the bane of my existence. I have to get Husband Guy to do that one for me. =P The most infuriating thing is that I can see exactly what to do, but I still fail before I can do 10 in a row. I can even describe to someone how to do it and they succeeded with the first 4, but I get to about 6 or 7 and then wipe. Gaaaaaahhhhh...

We're quickly running out of alt character slots to make pack mules... =) Because I don't play nearly as many characters as W does, I have all the pack mule alts: one auction house alt and another food alt that's named after a large grocery store chain =D When the food alt ran out of bag space AND bank space AND bank BAG space, we had to form a guild to get the guild bank.

We have a whole tab of just seafood. XD

Geek: I also ran around as my own little party with my 25/f/lock/blood-elf, blueberry and netherwhelp out.

English: I played WoW some more.

It's fun to be my own party of three =) Although, it's annoying that your pet gets dismissed when you use public transportation.

I get questions about my Netherwhelp and where I got him (Limited Edition Burning Crusade) =D Sooooo looking forward to 40 when I get my felsteed and felpuppy.

Geek: On a different server, I started another character, 17/f/shammy/cow.

English: I played WoW... even more.

I'd been harrassed =) into starting a character on a different server where a co-worker is a 70 Priest. I swear, Husband Guy and I are only there to watch the guild drama scroll by in gchat XD LOL =)

It's been painful levelling with no Main to help with money, mats, bags or anything. When you're used to having your backpack with four 16-slot Netherweave bags right from level 1, having to scrimp and save and sell all the greys you get, then hemming and hawing at the Auction House for even that stupid 6-slotter, you realize how spoiled you were.

I've been all WHEN THE HELL DO I GET MY GHOST WOLF?!?!? for the last 10 levels now.

Girl: I got a professional French manicure.

I went to a spa so that someone could do it once while I watched. Square nails are not as good as oval nails for scratching itches.

As much of a hassle as it is to do my own French manicure, I bought a kit and re-did it myself because I'm just never really happy with the results _anywhere_. I tend to have a very fussy eye for detail and the reality is, I know my own nails better and I know how I want them done.

I also got nail jewels =) I don't put them on every nail, I just put the smallest pinky pattern on the two thumbs.

Geek: I learned to drive stick.

The Brother Boy taught The Husband and me to drive stick shift with his car.

I've always hated sitting in a standard. I could never stand the herky-jerky-ness and I've always attributed that to standard transmission cars. I found out in the last few years that it's actually the drivers, themselves, being buttheads.

So, the Brother Boy has grown up to be a huge car buff and instructed us both on how to start the car, drive, shift, and rev matching. Neither of us stalled although we made his car very unhappy a few times.

Driving standard is extraordinarily busy. There were so many other things to deal with. Clutch down. Make sure it's in Neutral. Put it in first gear. Let go of the clutch. BUT SLOWLY. And step on the gas pedal at the same time. Make sure the clutch isn't halfway up for too long. Don't hold the clutch down too long... aaaaiiiieeeeeeggghhh...

Several times, I forgot to signal and shoulder check. I know it's only because it was my first session. I'm sure it will get better with practice.

My left leg and my left butt cheek were super sore the next day. =D I'd like to be able to practice, but we can't afford an extra car. I think we'd have to get a fairly nice 2-3 year old standard for it to be a good practice car. Gas prices in the state that they are and insurance make it completely out of the question.

And I'm not sure if we'd be willing to switch to a standard entirely.

Girl: I tried on dresses.

There's another wedding in the family coming up. =) No, it will never end. =)

We're desparately trying to convince someone to forego the hullabaloo and go with a destination wedding. But no dice this time. *sigh*

"Dear Auntie 1, if you could please make sure Cousin #5 gets engaged to a someone from Italy, that would be cool beans. We'll all be there. Thanks!"

The dress I wanted wasn't actually in the store, I had to special order it. But I did try on the same size in a different style from the same designer. I told them I wanted it for this September, just so that I wouldn't have to wait.

The designer apparently won't start manufacturing the style that I want until this September. That means I may actually not get it until possibly October.

The store staff were all worried for me, but the ladies still cracked up when I said "well, if it's not here by September, I'll have to go to the wedding naked." I said I have a back-up plan and I still wanted this dress.

色, 戒 (Lust, Caution)

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:36:46 GMT

weather	:	rainshowers
outside	:	9.2°C
mood	:	...

I saw Lust, Caution quite a while ago, but I haven't had time to write any of my thoughts down.

Let's get this bit of Captain Obvious out of the way first: Ang Lee does so much better with Chinese films.

I've had a celebrity crush on Tony Leung (梁朝偉) since 6th Grade. To see him again in a project that's successful the world over is just fantastic.

Yee's character felt very multidimensional and had a lot of depth. Even as a high level official with a pro-Japanese government, in his heart, he has an extreme dislike of the Japanese. Whether that absolves or exonerates him from some of the evil that he's being vilified for, I'm not sure. But it's something. He's very reserved, calm and collected on the outside, but is capable of both raw fire and incredible gentleness. It sounds like there's a lot of Tony, himself, in it.

And lest you think that Tony Leung is only capable of playing deep, dark and mysterious types, that's just not true.

He was one of the hosts of a children's babysitting TV program in 430 Space Shuttle. He was the bubbly, wild, trickster, gambling, rambunctious street urchin and incorrigible womanizer turned royal advisor to the Emperor Kang Xi in The Duke of Mount Deer. He was a righteous, talented cop and all around hero in Police Cadet I (1984).

One of the things I found most intriguing of Lust, Caution were the mahjong plays. They really provided that much background and added that much to the richness of the context. It was almost as though the mahjong plays were a whole other set of subtitles that laid out the entire plot bluntly for the especially thick (by which, I mean me). I'm imagining that it's just ruined the whole movie for someone who knows and is observant enough to see it. But the cleverness just added to the experience for me.

One, in particular, close to the beginning was most memorable to me. It's the scene where Yee is playing with his wife, the apparent Mrs. Mak and one other lady.

Mr. and Mrs. Yee were sitting opposite with Mrs. Mak in between them.

Yee discarded a 7 of circles, which Mrs. Mak needed to make a consecutive three. Mrs. Yee calls pong and since a pong has precedence, Mrs. Yee took it instead. In his next turn, Mr. Yee purposely discards another one to allow Mrs. Mak to make her consecutive three.

Mrs. Yee, being the first wife, has precedence over the other woman.

The fact that Mrs. Yee could pong meant that she already had two of the 7 of circles tiles. It also means that Mr. Yee had two 7 circles tiles. This situation is what we call 對死 which is akin to a stalemate. Both are stuck with the pair, unknowingly waiting to draw the third, which would never happen because there are only four of them in play. Since there's a good chance a 7 of anything would give someone else a win, no one would discard it without seriously thinking over the risk. The stalemate felt pretty metaphoric of the Yees' relationship.

Mr. Yee is the one who breaks the stalemate, both in the game and in his life by taking a mistress. It's obviously not a coincidence that his second 7 of circles went to Mrs. Mak. But even though he did love and trust Mrs. Mak on some level, he always treated her like a prostitute in many ways.

There does seem to be a long-standing commitment of some sort between the Yees though. He's still very respectful to his wife. He doesn't fly off the handle at her even in incredible stressful times. In the scene at the end where he's reeling at the gravity of almost fatally letting his guard down and the inner turmoil of being betrayed someone he loved and trusted, he calmly tells her to just "go back downstairs".

I also love the pun in the title.

色 is literally colour, but it could also be "lust" or "pornography".

戒 is "to guard against", "to give up" especially cold turkey. It also means "ring", as in the diamong ring that is the whirlwind unravelling demise of everything.

Repost: Fido Cancellation Number

Thu, 22 May 2008 03:33:12 GMT

weather	:	partially sunny
outside	:	14.2°C
mood	:	glad

Every time this phone number helps someone, I re-post it to the top of my journal.

This is Fido's Super Secret Hotline for cancelling their cell phone plans. It's not published anywhere. It's not on their website. It's not on the invoices. It's nowhere to be found. None of the call-takers who answer the phone at any of their other numbers can cancel your plan.

1-888-259-3436

I got it ~~five~~ ~~six~~ seven years ago after jumping flaming hoops like you wouldn't believe. I was trying to cancel my Mother-In-Law's stupid phone for her because she was so frustrated with it. I was so pissed off that I immediately posted the number to my journal as soon as I was done with it.

I'm just glad to have helped somebody else with this. When you get sick and bloody tired of losing your signal every time a butterfly farts on its migratory path in Southern Chile, there's the cancellation hotline up there.

Oh, and if you get a French dude named Christian, please be nice to him. I think poor Christian is the only person manning this line and, in all likelihood, it's not his fault that Fido sucks.

And if it helps you, pay it forward. Post it to your own webspace and help someone else. =)

For increased Google indexing/pagerank:

CANCEL FIDO. FIDO CANCEL.

NUMBER TO CANCEL FIDO.

FIDO CANCELLATION NUMBER.

HOW THE HELL DO I CANCEL MY FIDO PLAN?

CANCEL CANCEL CANCEL. FIDO FIDO FIDO.

Children's Week - Grunth and Grunth

Thu, 08 May 2008 02:31:44 GMT

weather	:	mainly sunny
outside	:	12.2°C
mood	:	amused

I'm such a n00b that this year was my first Children's Week. I took pictures of us and the two boys we had with us... Grunth and Grunth =} It was great fun and a very endearing quest... I actually cried when I read the last quest text from Grunth as I was handing him back to the Matron.

The pics are all in this gallery =)

We picked up the kids from the orphanage in Orgrimmar from Orphan Matron Battlewail. I think I will refer to all children as "Non-Combat Pets" from now on. Let's see how many friends, family and cow-orkers I can offend with that one... XD

We hung around the orphanage for a while just to get acquainted with the boys. They wanted to show us something and took us over to the waterfall. It's A Secret™ so I can't tell you what it is. But it was REALLY COOL. =)

We brought the boys down to the docks at Ratchet to watch the boat come in. They were delighted to see the ship that goes from here to and from Booty Bay on the other continent. We would have brought them over there, but couldn't risk them getting hurt in a gank-fight.

There was another tourist there who couldn't get a clue and wound up in the foreground of our picture =P We had to be a good example for the boys, otherwise we would have pounded his ass so far into the ground.

We then took the boys to Crossroads on the way to Mor'shan Rampart. At Crossroads, we suitably annoyed the hell out of Apothecary Helbrim by using his tarp like a trampoline. The four of us were in a serious fit of giggles from climbing, running and jumping all over it.

From there, we walked with them to Mor'shan Rampart. They had to run to keep up with us and stumbled every once in a while. That was so cute =D They were very keen on learning about it being a strategic location defending against Alliance forces from Ashenvale to the North.

Then, it was off to see the Throne of Lordaeron. It took us a few tries to get a good picture. They're boys. They're not always going to look at the camera when you're taking the picture, they're not always going to be standing still for you. That's the way it goes =)

As a matter of Horde Pride, we had to tell them all about ousting the Alliance. And this throne was where the human king sat in his reign.

It was the most appropriate place to teach the boys how to do the Chicken Dance (cheep-cheep-cheep, flap-flap-flap, wiggle-wiggle-wiggle, clap-clap-clap). We taught them to make rude gestures and generally taunt their enemies. Because all warriors know that it's not how well you fight, it's the rudest gestures that win battles and wars.

They promised not to tell the Matron about this =)

The boys had never seen rocket racing, so we went out to the Mirage Raceway in Shimmering Flats. They were so cute with their wide eye, open mouthed gaping at the Goblins jetting down the path. One of them seemed to have an aptitude for engineering. I could tell by the way he looked at the race car parts strewn about.

But nothing made them happier than getting ice cream =D We took them to Brivelthwerp for strawberry ice cream.

Seeing Cairne Bloodhoof over in Thunderbluff was a little boring for them. I guess it was getting late and they were a bit tired after all that excitement, but they were still very respectful and being exceptionally good nonetheless. We didn't stay too long. Just long enough to get a picture, and a hoofprint, then headed back to the Orphanage at Orgrimmar. Here's a view on the Wind Rider just over Red Rocks with Husband Guy and Grunth in front. Grunth and I are behind them.

We got a few more pictures with Orphan Matron Battlewail before saying our final goodbyes. One of the other kids was running around and got in our way just as the picture was taken =D

We were given two pets as a Thank You - Speedy the turtle and Mr. Wiggles the piglet.

Pics: Husband Guy and I On A Date

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:04:32 GMT

weather	:	mostly cloudy
outside	:	7.2°C
mood	:	...

You know how they say that married folks need to do "Date Nights" every once in a while?

So, we decided to try it. We had a really great time. I put the pics up in the gallery.

Go take a look =)

I like taking pictures now. =D I think I'll take more pictures wherever we go. =D

Re: Is My Violin A Real Stradivarius?

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:04:46 GMT

weather	:	light rain
outside	:	11.8°C
mood	:	...

To the person who asked about the 100+ year old violin from Poland:

Hi there! Welcome to my journal =) I thought I'd put this up at the top for you =)

The short story is: it would be really cool if it were, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. And you could have a very valuable violin there, even if it's not a real Stradivarius.

I'd be interested in what you find out. Do come back and let me know one way or another, if you're so inclined. =)

I'm no expert (to make an understatement =), but I do know that if this violin in your family has been played often and maintained properly in these last 100 years, it would be very very valuable anyway. If not in market value, then at least in sentimental value.

GET IT INSURED ANYWAY!! ... is my point. Make sure someone is making beautiful music with it regularly and taking good care of it. Don't let it sit idle.

As to whether it is a real Stradivarius, I'm almost certain it is not. Allowing for a little uncertainty, all real ones have been accounted for.

I don't know where you might get a proper appraisal. You could look for a violin repair shop in your area and ask to be referred to an antiques appraiser who specializes in stringed instruments. If you're in a big city, someone in your local symphony orchestra society might be able to help you out as well.

You really would want to know the market value for insurance purposes.

Good luck! =)

Memoirs of a WoW Wife

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:26:21 GMT

weather	:	clear
outside	:	8.8°C
mood	:	...

I had today off in lieu of overtime. I dropped off Sid at the vet, dropped off The Husband at work, then sat on a couch at Blenz with a no-whip mocha and read for a good while (Persuasion). Yes, Chick Lit for Fuddy-Duddies. Nevernevernevernevernever see the Hollywood movies based on these books, alwaysalwaysalways see the BBC productions, if at all... but that's a whole other rant. >K{

I ran some more errands and then, like the über-nerd that I am, I went home and played WoW. XD

I usually only play when Husband Guy plays with me, but I thought I'd catch up by clearing out some of my quests. I'm at a level where a lot of them have become green (easy) and grey (booger flickingly easy).

I had never read quest text or instructions before. The Husband had always told me exactly where to go, how to move, what to click, what to attack and was basically, in between getting annoyed at me, managing both of us along the way.

So, now I had to do this all on my own. It's like learning to drive. You'll never really know the directions unless you drive somewhere by yourself. I knew what to do from playing before, but this was the first time I had to read the quests, understand what I was supposed to do and was in charge of everything myself. It was a very different game.

I finished off a bunch of quests the help of Thottbot. I only died a few times. =D

I was up on top of Darkcloud Pinnacle doing the Arikara quest. I got lost in the maze of suspension bridges and tiny pin-point mountain peeks. I just wandered around trying to find the peek I needed, killing Grimtotem Taurens as I went. I killed Arikara and then got horribly lost trying to get back out. XD I had actually found the right peek to exit a few times but thought it was a dead end peek, turned around and went back the other way. The ramp down was on a sharp decline like the hilly streets of San Francisco. It was on the opposite side of the peek from me, so I couldn't see it until I watched something else walk down.

Of course, being me, I couldn't do a grey, booger flicking easy quest. XD

I had to go to Tarren Mill. I've actually been there before, but never having navigated it myself, I mistakenly thought the boat at Ratchet would take me there. NOPE... not by a long shot. =D It took me to Booty Bay instead where there was a huge gank-fest going on right on the dock. I tried to hearth out, but couldn't because I had already been dragged into combat and of course, died.

Then, I tried again. I found out that I needed the zeppelin outside of Orgrimmar. And I got on the wrong flight that took me to Grom'gol. LOL... XD

*sigh* At that point, I gave up. I resolved to stay on Kalimdor for a while. At least until my Hearth cool-down ended. =D I'm kinda kicking myself now that I know how close I actually came to finishing it. Ah well.

I did a few more quests, finished some, failed at others. Then I thought that if I couldn't do any more quests solo, I'd just try to find more flight paths. I got the Camp Mojache flight path, but not without being chased bears. XD

These were big mean Question Mark Bears. I didn't pay attention to what they're actually called, but when I looked at them, they were level question-mark-question-mark. Which means they're at least ten levels above me. I'd probably die if he stared at me too hard.

I kinda wish I were on a PVE server instead of a PVP server though. The Husband only ever plays on PVP, so for convenience, I'm on a PVP server too.

Anyway, I stopped after a few hours when I had to go pick up Sid from Night Owl again. =D

Perspective on Handmade Merchandise

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:45:34 GMT

weather	:	partially cloudy
outside	:	9.0°C
mood	:	...

Having been around a handmade merchandise community for a while, I had some thoughts.

The reality of it is, there is no quality control in handmade products. You can't assure quality on your own work. If it were bad or wrong, you would NEVER have done it that way to begin with.

You'll see some really well made items by some really talented people. But there are an awful lot of people out there who just think they're talented. It's very inconsistent. The buyer, customer, end user has to do their own quality control. You need to be able to tell good stitching, good wire work and generally what "well made" means in each skill category.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, per se. Being more aware and involved in the quality of your environment and what goes into the things you use, I feel, is definitely in some ways an improvement over mindlessly raking things off the shelf.

But it's exhausting for me because I do quality assurance for a living. I'm constantly checking things over, sending things back for defect resolution and improvement. I'm damned tired at the end of the day and given the choice, I would rather someone else handle that for me in other aspects of my life.

I see some very nice things. Merchants of handmade items tend to be very down to earth and practical people which is reflected in the designs of the things they make. The items are in very down to earth styles and colours. I can totally see myself wearing some of the clothes and jewellery, etc. I see a lot of things that I would love to own.

But these items are Things That I Don't Need™ and usually priced like high-end, luxury items. I can appreciate that that's how much it cost in materials, labour and they've priced it to be able to cover overhead costs and make a living. I can appreciate that they have been fair in their pricing decisions.

But that doesn't change the fact that I still can't afford it.

I only occasionally find things that I both like and can afford. But it's like shopping for things on sale all over again which I really wanted to avoid because I hate shopping.

There's no advantage to me to buy handmade. It's not always more cost effective. The styles are not necessarily nicer. The quality is not necessarily better.

I have gained perspective on merchandise. Some things I will continue to buy handmade or make myself. Other things will be bought mass produced.

Whatever I decide, I'm more aware of the choices I'm making.

Buy Happiness with Money

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:54:32 GMT

weather	:	partially cloudy
outside	:	8.7°C
mood	:

I've said this to a few people and it seemed to make a significant impact on them, so I thought I'd write it down here.

In an effort to save money, I used to refrained from buying what I want and, in some cases, even refrained from buying what I need.

This usually lead to some degree of misery, disappointment or discomfort.

I have tried to completely change that. I will pay for whatever I need. I even pay for things I want — merely want, but don't really need.

But the difference is that, now, I work towards keeping my needs and wants as minimal as possible.

I'm much happier for it.

It makes a lot of sense from a modern quality management perspective too. It's less costly, less stressful to find and fix problems earlier in the process rather than later. And by "earlier", I mean in both the temporal and causal sense.

If you walk backwards within yourself and trace what causes you to spend money in the first place, you can change the cause and the "spending too much" problem takes care of itself without you having to worry about it. =)

Family Photos

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:11:29 GMT

weather	:	clear
outside	:	3.3°C
mood	:	amused

The Husband and I had some family photos taken with the birds. I'm really pleased with the results.

The photographer was awesome and was phenomenal with the birds, making them look in certain directions and generally guiding all four of us in the posing.

Take a look:

Pic 1 - from left to right: Husband Guy, myself, Sid and Skippy
Pic 2 - everybody looking out towards the horizon.
Pic 3 - a great action shot with all four of us running together, symbolic of moving through this life together. =)

And there were some funny outtakes =D

Outtake 1 - just as Husband Guy turns his head to look at Skippy doing something weird.
Outtake 2 - everything was perfect, but I got tired and as soon as I shifted my stance, *click*
Outtake 3 - Husband Guy's body language indicating that he's super annoyed with the birds.
Outtake 4 - Husband Guy wasn't supposed to run that far ahead of us. He nearly lost us =D

Fidelio - Vancouver Opera

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:39:09 GMT

weather	:	mostly sunny
outside	:	7.4°C
mood	:	...

I love the familar steady drone of the A above middle-C eminating from the pit orchestra that signals to even an inexperienced crowd to Park Your Ass and STFU™. XD

I don't think anyone would disagree with me much when I say that, on the scale of preferences, travelling to New York to see a Met production ranks a little higher than a dress rehearsal. Not that that would prevent the possibility of sitting behind someone with a fat head that just so happened to block the most important bit of the stage where most of the action was.

It's probably not entirely fair of me to say anything about the dress rehearsal, to begin with, but I'm going to anyway. =)

I was at the dress rehearsal of the Vancouver Opera production of Fidelio.

The story is timeless. Illegal detainment and torture of political prisoners for speaking the truth, disagreeing in one way or another is as front and centre to us today as it was in the World War II era, as it was when Napoleon dominated Europe, time and time before, and time and time again hereafter.

For this production, a non-descript prison in the Cold War era was chosen. Even though the Vancouver Opera website says it's an eastern European location, the multicultural nature of the ethnic backgrounds in the cast, chorus and supernumeraries makes the location very difficult to pinpoint. Well, that makes it either very easy or very difficult to pinpoint, depending on your context. =)

I still think that German is a bit abrupt and awkward for opera in certain places. At least for me, there's a tiny pause-and-hiccoughing feeling in some places that catches me. I don't get that catching feeling with French or Italian. But I find Beethoven a lot smoother than, say, Wagner.

I was very impressed that the use of the main backdrop.

There was an enormous "wall" which was a sheer-ish material on a 3 or 4 story scaffolding. The sheer-ish material was painted with a large brick pattern that was visible when the light shone on it at an angle.

There was an invisible ghoulish splatter pattern along the top that was only visible to the audience when the light came right through it from behind it. With a bright red backlight, it alluded to dried blood splatter. With a white backlight, it was a thick, heavy and miserable rain splatter.

Sometimes, there were images projected on to the wall for ambience or reminiscence. At the end, the wall came apart in two pieces, one-third and two-thirds of the length. In the scene itself, the prison doors had opened and the prisoners were freed. But it was symbolic of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The most amazing use of this wall was during Pizarro's introductory scene where he's asserting his dominance over his staff — and Tom Fox is a fantastic dramatic baritone, BTW.

The wall was at an acute angle to the edge of the stage. While he's at stage right, facing the audience with his left arm almost pointed directly out in front of him, his shadow is about ¾ the height of the wall, but facing to the left directly at the prison staff with his arm pointed directly at them. Pizarro's character was meant to intimidate and be very intimidating. His giant shadow on the wall was a really neat and very apt visual effect.

What was even more amazing was, in the same scene, when Rocco was cowering in response to Pizarro's posturing. Rocco was positioned on Pizarro's left. The wall was angled such that Rocco's shadow on the wall was ironically bigger than Pizarro's.

That nearly blew me away.

It says Rocco is A Bigger Man™, in the metaphysical sense. It alludes to the Napoleon Complex and I thought that was so very clever in the way they did that. It's true to Pizarro as a tyrant. And it's an incredibly deft homage to the original 1805 production when the French military, under the Emperor Napoleon, had its iron grip over most of Europe.

Very, very well done.

Minor gaffs, which I'm sure the production crew will get sorted out before opening night:

spelling errors in the subtitles... "Oh Go," for "Oh, God" and a few others I don't remember now.
the cast list on the website is "in order of vocal appearance", but Marzelline was on stage before Leonore.
the mad humming projector for the subtitles. They tried to muffle it, but they can't do too much because the muffling foam causes it to overheat too. It might be time for new quieter projector.

AppleJade Studios Promo Videos w/ Animoto

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:40:52 GMT

weather	:	cloudy
outside	:	8.0°C
mood	:	amused

I had some fun promotional videos made for AppleJade Studios, care of Animoto. =)

Congratulations! - Ah, My Goddess

Click here if you can't see the video below: AppleJade Studios 1

Swan Lake: Danse Russe, Moderato & Andante (Tchaikovsky)

Click here if you can't see the video below: AppleJade Studios 2

And the beautiful sadness of Vivaldi for my "Gallery of Sold" clip.

Four Seasons: Winter, 2nd movement "Largo" (Vivaldi)

Click here if you can't see the video below: AppleJade Studios - Gallery of Sold

Zucchini Bread

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 02:25:03 GMT

weather	:	partly cloudy
outside	:	10.2°C
mood	:	...

Husband Guy and I made zucchini bread today. It turned out awesome. The birds are also nibbling on little pieces we gave them =) The recipe makes two loaves, but we only had one bread pan, so we used that and poured the rest into muffin tins. So, now, we have a loaf of zucchini bread and a dozen zucchini muffins. =)

Two things I've learned from the few times we've tried to follow other peoples' recipes:

1. People are generally pretty retarded about what constitutes "one step" in a procedure.

One step means one action. One verb in the sentence. One. Not seven. One. Do ONE thing and that is ONE step. Don't call it an "Easy Three Step Process" if I'm doing six things in each "step". This is actually a very common and widespread problem. Technical writers, software QA folks who write bug reports, recipe writers... All across the board, I see people consistently unable to correctly count to ONE. Boggle.

2. Baking recipes use WAY too much sugar than necessary.

I always halve the sugar in all baking recipes I get. The sugar content is too overpowering if I use the amount that is written. I find that the flavours of the other ingredients are actually stronger and have more depth if there is less sugar.

GoalGoalGoalGoalGoooooooaaaal!!!!

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:54:07 GMT

weather	:	light rain
outside	:	5.7°C
mood	:

http://applejade.etsy.com

I was just pouting about how close I came to making my end-of-March goal of 60 sales by the end of February. Then I got another order on March 1... so that kinda counts as February, right?

Especially because February was a short month, technically, we should just let me have it, right? =D

Yeah, okay, whatever. I'm at 61 items sold now. =)

And I also now have more sales than items listed!

And it's a big ego boo to have something snapped up as soon as it's listed =D I listed the little smilie turtle and — bam! — it was gone. I thought I foof'ed up the listing XD

I have more smilie turtles to make and more of a buttload of other stuff that's arrived. But I'm waiting for a shipment of supplies to come in. *sigh* Any day now. =\

Sid & Skippy Yearbook Photos

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:30:30 GMT

weather	:	partly cloudy
outside	:	9.0°C
mood	:	stoked

It looks like I just asked them to "come over here" and stand on the mark so that I could take their yearbook photos.

The reality is, it took hours of painstaking, sneaky, cajoling camera work with muscle spasm inducing patience in between each of the approximately 100 shots... then more post-production work.

But I love these two pics of them. =) In case they ever, like, go to school or grow up to be on the Senior Management Team of some Fortune 500 company with a professionally designed website, they'll have photos already done. =)

Ponder, Ponder, Brood and Mull

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 03:55:25 GMT

weather	:	clear
outside	:	7.0°C
mood	:	...

Doing some reflection tonight on a difficult situation.

It's that sinking, helpless feeling you get when something you really don't want to happen is just about a done deal.

The obvious thing would be to talk to the right people about it and prevent it from happening. But it's not that simple. It's never that simple when it's you. =}

I could potentially prevent it from happening, but that's not 100% certain. It could be worse if I couldn't prevent it from happening and my feelings were made known in the process. Even if confidentiality is kept, the circumstances of the situation are unique enough that I'd be identified immediately as having spoken up.

I feel like the only thing I can do is remove myself from the situation. And I don't want to. I'm happy with where I am and I'm really angry that I've been put in the position of having to consider that.

I could just say nothing and do nothing and see how it plays out. But that's leaving a lot more up to chance than I'm comfortable with.

I don't know. I really don't know.

Sid, Crock Pot, Life In General

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:37:09 GMT

weather	:	clear
outside	:	5.5°C
mood	:	content

My Mother-In-Law has been back in Taiwan for the last month or so. Husband Guy and I have been holding our own since. It's good for her to take a nice long vacation with her sisters once in a while.

Sid was in the Animal ER last week for prolonged and extreme heavy panting and occasional wheezing. He gets himself stuck on something and gets worked up sometimes, but the heavy breathing continued for way too long, so we decided not to risk it.

He hasn't been allowed to fly since getting the collar last March, so the poor little guy hasn't had ANY exercise for almost a year now. His heart has weakened to the point that he now has heart disease. The x-rays and blood-work confirmed it last week.

He's on a round of anti-biotics at the moment. We're also giving him — and Skippy — as much leafy greens and veggies that he'll eat. I buy organic when I can, but I'm not a snob about it. I'm certainly happy with good quality vegetables no matter how they're labelled.

It's not a big undertaking at all to do this for him. The Husband and I are having plain steamed vegetables almost every night too. I've always really liked the clean, natural flavour of unseasoned, unaltered vegetables. Some things, I like better raw (white mushrooms and red/orange peppers); some things, I like better steamed for a few minutes (broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts). They don't need salt, butter or dressing. I feel like I only need to lightly season meat.

We're eating out less too. We want to spend as much time at home with Sid as possible. He is at a very high risk of having a stroke right now. If anything happens, he needs to be back in the ER as fast as we can manage it.

But he hasn't shown any signs of problems since last weekend. He has even been climbing around on top of his cage and flying small distances. He's infinitely happier now without the collar. You can just see it in his body language. =) We still want as much time with him as possible before he leaves us for good.

We've been crock pot fiends in the last month. Our giant 6 quart slow cooker has been utterly indispensible. I will never understand how anyone can say that it's hard to cook for one or two.

The crock pot and the rice cooker are like wonderful and loyal staff in my household. =) If I want fresh food when I come home from work, the crock pot goes on in the morning. The rice cooker is timed to begin cooking the pre-washed rice so that it starts in the early evening and finishes just as I walk in the door. I come home on the bus, so I have the timing down pat =)

I bought sandwich-sized no-name brand plastic microwave/freezer containers at a dollar store for a buck each. We make a full 6 quarts of food. We eat what we want, then separate the rest into the containers and freeze them. We can make two large batches of stuff on Saturday and Sunday. Thaw and reheat, alternating dishes, throughout the week. Combined with rice and steamed vegetables, it makes for phenomenal meals.

We kept a close tab on the price of our meals done this way versus eating out. I expected it to be a lot cheaper, but I was very surprised that it was only $1.00 less per serving to make our own meals in bulk. Depending on what we make, it can end up being just a tad more to make it ourselves.

Maybe we just know how to pick'em, but we find eateries or somewhere that has large portions for under $10.00 and just get one entrée to share between the two of us.

I know we can eat really really well for about $3.00 per person, per meal, with a lot of choice and variety.

Brain vs. Gut, Round 8901253

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 03:35:50 GMT

weather	:	cloudy
outside	:	5.2°C
mood	:	...

I know that if I can't get out for lunch by 1150h, then there is no hope of avoiding the lunch throngs until about 1400h. I sometimes chance it and try going at almost 1300h, just after the first wave of lunch-goers are done and before the second wave get out.

I wandered into a nearby cafe at about two in the afternoon. They were just catching their breath. They had run out of something I wanted, so I asked for something quick. When it came out, it looked a little small.

I've come to realize that if I feel a bit of disappointment at the size of the portion I was served, then that's actually a REALLY GOOD sign.

It means it's enough and I will finish without wasting anything. More often than not, it's even slightly too much.

If I'm served and it feels like enough, then it will be too much.

If I'm served and I think, "holy crap, that's huge," then it's WAY too much.

I've learned to recalibrate the brain with the gut.

Charitable Organizations

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 04:02:52 GMT

weather	:	cloudy
outside	:	7.0°C
mood	:	...

As you may or may not know (or know and don't care =) I am a Software QA Analyst. I am also a customer of my own Work and I'd like to get more real world experience using the system that my team is working on.

Our system sends funds globally and I am looking for worthwhile, reputable charitable organizations to randomly wire donations to.

I don't guarantee a donation. I'm gathering a list that I can randomly pick from. This is my own initiative; I'm spending my own money. Work is not funding any of this.

Please comment and recommend some.

Let me know what their mission is and where they are in the world. Preferably, they'd have a website with information and complete bank account information available for me to just copy whenever I need it.

I'm a black belt at googling so I could find them myself, but I thought I'd ask here to see if there are any near and dear to you, particularly any that are smaller, lesser known but worthwhile causes that don't get the attention that they maybe deserve.

It would also be interesting to me to donate to charitable organizations in different countries around the world. I can send any currency as long as they have a bank account that will take it. If it has an ISO-4217 Currency Code, I can send it. =)

Thanks! =)

Eyesight

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 07:32:08 GMT

weather	:	flurries
outside	:	0.6°C
mood	:	tired

I'm finding that even though my vision prescription hasn't changed, even though my eyesight hasn't gotten any worse per se, I am having a bit more trouble seeing things than I used to. There's no astigmatism or anything else that wasn't there before.

I used to be able to see things in the distance just fine without corrective lenses even though I've been slightly near-sighted for the last 15+ years. I've never had problems with the license plate of the car in front of me. I've never had problems with menus on the wall of a café or street signs or my bus number from further away.

But lately, I've felt like I need to get closer to see things. I can't read the bus number and route label until it's almost at the intersection just before my stop. I used to be able to see it when it was still blocks away. And I've also started feeling like I really should wear them when I'm driving.

My glasses are quickly becoming something I need now. They're no longer just a random accessory that I can put on or take off on a whim anymore.

Work, Work and Not Work

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:25:14 GMT

weather	:	flurries
outside	:	-2°C
mood	:	...

Mah Bidnez - http://applejade.etsy.com

Business isn't exactly booming, but it's steady... well, it's not even really steady, it's just sputtering fairly regularly now. I'm averaging almost 10 sales a month. *shrug* Better than some, not as great as some and not nearly as well as I had hoped. But it's still something. =}

This has been such a delightful time as Chief Cook and Bottle Washer of my own little hobby business. Sales aren’t through the roof or anything, certainly not enough to quit the day job over. =) I’m doing much better than many, but not as great as others.

My cell phone charms are selling decently well. Everyone that has bought one has loved it so far. All 100% feedback! YEAH! =D

I average 10 sales a month, which is decent progress. I even made my Stretch Goal of 40 sales by the end of January 2008.

My next goal is to have as many sales as items listed (I currently have 63 items listed for sale). 60 sales by February 2008 is probably too aggressive. 60 by March 2008 might be more realistic.

The latest intrigue in my shop is apples!!

Those were the cutest apple beads. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any more beads until some of my first bunch sold. Yeah, that didn’t last long.

But I’m really glad I did. The cute apples drew in buyers and, in turn, they bought all sorts of other stuff.

I have more ideas up my sleeve. Look for them later this Spring and into the Summer! =D =D

Everyone has loved what they've bought, so far. I actually had several items come right down to a race condition. Multiple people had had the exact same item of mine in their shopping carts and they were trying to check out at the exact same time.

It's such a bittersweet thing; I'm falling down thrilled that people were "fighting over my stuff" as it were, but it's sad that I only had one and they couldn't both have it. And I realize that I have lost the customer because most of the time, people only really have their eye on one thing.

Anyway, all I could do was apologize and thank them for their interest. Onwards. =)

* * *

I'm laughing my ass off at Work everyday. There's just so much that's so funny. The people are great. Everyone's just INTO it. Yes, there are still idiosyncracies. No, it's not perfect. But it's a part of us.

Most of it, I realize are situational and you just had to be there — and be too tired, as we all are — to really get it. So, as much as I would love to share the great fun that Work is, there's not much point in it.

I have been schooling some of the Developers on proper grammar though. Some of them kept saying "me and Bob fixed a bug." ... "Me and Moe figured out how to ..." ... "Me and Larry have to work on the database thing..."

It was driving me bat-shit and I actually started schooling them on it. =) It's "Bob and I...", "Moe and I...", "Larry and I..."

When you're listing a group of people, as a matter of courtesy, always list yourself last.

To determine whether you should use "me" or "I", remove the "and", split it into two sentences to see which one sounds right.

"Bob fixed a bug."

"Me fixed a bug?" No. "_I_ fixed a bug."

So, together, it's "Bob and I fixed a bug."

During the Stand-Up, I heard "me and Larry... and I... are going to move on to the next User Story." There was a sideways glance at me. XD

They're starting to get it. =)

First Post of the New Year

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 07:01:17 GMT

weather	:	mostly cloudy
outside	:	4.4°C
mood	:	tired

I'd been off Work since December 21 last year. I didn't take that many vacation days, but because of the year end, it ended up being almost two whole weeks off.

I ate too much. Slept a lot. Tried not to drink too much. And was barely motivated to scrape myself out of bed to go back to Work today. =)

I bounced, jiggled, held and rocked some newborns to sleep. I have suddenly had a few more familial titles added to my list of titles. (C) 大伯娘, (M) 大伯母 or 大媽 depending on the region/sub-culture, which is "father's elder brother's wife". I'm also (C) 妗母, (M) 舅媽 which is "mother's brother's wife".

I've missed having that back and forth "hey..." conversation with 2-3 month old babies. My brother was a baby more years ago than I care to recall =)

They look at you, point their chin at you and go "hey..." And you go "hey..." back. They'll go "hey..." again, you go "hey..." back. And on and on it goes. If they're in a particularly good mood, they grin while they're chatting.

Babies love grabbing my hair and get all tangled up in it. I don't mind it at all. I have too much hair anyway and I always say that hair grabbing is a sign of healthy reflexes in a baby. It's a survival technique innate to all primate young, including humans. The babies that could grab on and not fall off while their mother was swinging through the trees were the ones that lived.

A book I've been immersed in: October (Richard B. Wright). The distant past, the recent past and the present, all fascinatingly intertwined. The dialogue is a bit unnatural in places, but the narrative is very lovely. It winds in and out of universal themes of friendship, family, death and uncertainty with a calmness, poise and elegance. It's very much a meditation and introspective type of story that not everyone has the patience or mood for. The dustcover is a very beautiful vivid sepia park jogging path.

It is, of course, required by law that the first day back at Work after a long holiday has to go Completely Bananas™. Co-Worker Guy who had been holding down the fort while I had been gone was sick. Poor guy didn't make it in to work on Monday the 31st and he says this has probably been the most not fun New Year's of his life. =P

He was doing a lot better today. At least he could lift his head and grab the phone to call me without falling over and dying, he says =}

So, I had to prepare the release package for this Friday as quickly as I could before the noon deadline. I was given some slack for the high holiday drag coefficient, I guess. Preparing a software release is always a crazy time.

And, because someone had a panic attack because there was a regulatory change effective January 1, 2008 that required a change to the software. Half-way through the morning, I'm asked to drop everything, test it yesterday, package it up for an emergency mod midnight tonight. (!!!) And, by "drop everything", we mean "do both".

What's in this one? What's in that one? Which one is missing what and what's going to be completed when? What laws of physics can we change?

But it was then determined that it wasn't as urgent afterall. The system could be patched this weekend instead. *phew*

16th Anniversary

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:16:38 GMT

weather	:	clear
outside	:	2.5°C
mood	:	content

With this ring
I accept all that you are
And all that you will be

With open heart and open mind
I honor my love, loyalty and faith
In you as my husband

With my hand in yours
I walk this path
We create together
In brightest of days and darkest of nights

With all that I am
And all that I have
I pledge myself to you
In perfect love