Another metaverse...

If you have been reading here for a while, you know that I have an obsessive personality. I get completely into different things and throw my whole being, heart, soul, back, everything into it. The latest is Second Life.

I am WAY into it. From a developer’s standpoint, it is a phenomenal concept. This world was created and then the users of the world expanded it. Unlike other online “games” where the creators need to do development to expand it, these guys created the platform to allow anyone – of almost any level of tech ability (or inability) – to create new land, new buildings, new objects, new actions. This is mindblowing.

From a user’s perspective – it’s damn good fun. Now…if I can just keep a grip on my First Life.

To color or not to color...

I have decided to embrace my natural color and quit coloring my hair. I've grown tired of the ritual. In addition, my natural color now is quite streaked with gray. It's a pretty bright silver gray, but gray nonetheless.

I have seen people as they let go of the color and let themselves go gray, but too often they stop too late. They are like athletes who continue with their sport two seasons too long. The once great athletes are noticeably slower, older, and less talented. Hair that goes too long has an obvious "growing out" period. The real hair color slowly descends down the head like a spreading ooze, obvious to all around.

I hope I have made the decision at the right time. My gray is starting to ooze, but it's not really a full-on assault. It's a trickling. If people say, "Wow she's going gray," I can deal with it. What I don't want to people to say, "Wow, she's looks like a mutant with that two-toned hair!"

Bingo...

The bingo gods hate me. We got dumped on with another winter storm. I braved the snowy roads and slush flinging semis to get to Tama. They had $5000 bingo today. For those of you who think bingo is just that thing that the little old ladies at church do, let me enlighten you.

They have serious bingo at Tama. Serious! Sixteen games paying out $5000 each. That's worth the snow and slush. It kept away some buses (yes, they bus in people from the far reaches). It wasn't too busy. I had my troll. I had a new dauber. I had a aisle seat reservation. I ordered my chicken strips. I had my beverage. I was raring to go.

I got a big nothing. I was down to one number twice and was down to two numbers for the jackpot blackout that would have paid $13,000. I had SEVEN chances at getting the two numbers for the jackpot. Nothing.

I packed up my dauber and my troll and headed home. The roads were perfect coming home. Irony sucks.

Winter is here!

Winter finally arrived in Iowa. I am actually not a snow hater. Ice - we have a different relationship. Snow is pretty, fluffy, and for short visits, very welcome.

I am lucky because I can work from home with all the access of my desktop (and the added benefits of working in my jammies and enjoying a fire in the fireplace). I decided to exercise this option since my luck is not great right now. No sense in tempting fate!

School started two hours late. We only live a block from school, so no weather truly impedes my kids, but they never turn down a snow day! Right up until the last minute, they eagerly watched the news ticker waiting for a complete close rather than a late start. The winds are supposed to kick in and if we have white out, they might end up home shortly anyway.

Time to warm up my coffee and get back to work. Stay warm, everyone!

Bad luck...

So far 2007 has proven to be the Year of Horseshit.

My clothes dryer bit the dust. It was replaced the other day.

My oven hood/microwave combo started acting up with the digital readout not working. You always had to trust that what you thought you put in for cooking time was accurate. Now the push-in handle that pops the door open quit working. I have to open my microwave with a pencil.

The clutch went out on my husband's truck. It will be replaced on Monday - and we'll get a really pretty bill for our efforts.

That was three - you would think it was over. Oh no. 2007 is going to be very lucky, apparently.

I had to work late Tuesday. I also had a meeting scheduled nearby at 4:30. I took an hour and went to the meeting. On the way back to work, I'm at a stop sign and got rear-ended.

I guess a complete optimist would say that there was no damage to my car (other than some paint ruboff from the other car) and that we weren't hurt. At this point, I'm thinking that this was number 4 in the hit parade.

Am I on a new set of three disasters? Not cool.

Back to the grind...

Vacation ended for me this week. As usual, it felt too short. I love my job, but I could SO love being a lottery winner. I could actually embrace my own sleep cycle instead of forcing myself to adhere to this one.

I have a confession to make. I'm a pack rat. I will be moving to a new office in a week or so and it is ridiculous the stuff that I have in my drawers in my current office. I do mean ridiculous. The sad part is that when it comes time to actually ditch the stuff, I will likely choose to move it instead. Is there a group? Steps? A pill? Something?

I'm not just like that at work. It invades my personal life too. I'm especially pack rattish about any arts and crafts supplies. Left over snippets of paper from scrapbooking get saved (hey-they make good photo corners). Little scraps of fabric get saved (you never know when I'll get a wild hair to make a quilt).

Clean Sweep on TLC is my motivator. If I can watch two or three of those shows, I'm more inclined to throw away things and organize. My house looks nothing like those on the show. They are just unbelievably gross. My stuff is all put away - crammed in closets, drawers, and under bed storage. I protect my dirty little secret well. You could stop by for dinner and never know - just don't hang your coat in the closet.

Eragon

What a huge disappointment. The twins and I all read the book, discussed at great length the parallels to Star Wars and LOTR (along with some Dragonriders of Pern, which the boys haven't read yet), and eagerly awaited what we thought would be a great movie. The pre-release reviews were promising - great effects, yada, yada. The effects were good - especially the flying sequences, but nothing we haven't seen before. The rest - pure crap.

The twins devoured the book and absolutely loved it. I was okay with the book, admiring the fact that it had been written by a teen and appreciating the concept while recognizing too easily the characters and some of the scenes. Using universal literary themes and formulas is one thing - blatantly "borrowing" the details is another. Still, I thought it held promise for a decent fantasy movie.

Where the book succeeded with creating characters that were full and detailed (albiet, familiar), the movie completely failed. Several of the characters that appeared in the book were either flat and undeveloped (Murtagh) in the movie, or not even there (dwarf king). Having read the book, I recognized some characters like Orik, who didn't even get called by name in the movie. I'm not one of the freaks that thinks that every detail from a book should be in the movie. I do think that this movie (clocking in at 1:40), cut itself short by having flat characters with no back story.