More Quizes.. Must Be a Wednesday...

You are a Mentalist. Your magic depends on strength
of will. You could be a memory-reading
Mind-Mage, a lethally telekentic Force-Wizard,
or a helpful Transmage for your abilities are a
result of sheer stubborn will and intensely
keen intellect. Your mind has been honed by
learning and practice into the perfect tool for
examining and dissecting reality and altering
it to suit your needs. You are intelligent and
scholarly with a tendency to distance yourself
from others.


Which Magical Order Are You In?
brought to you by Quizilla

Meaningless? Hah!

You are YOU CAN'T DO THAT ON TELEVISION.
Sometimes, you wonder why you couldn't just be
Canadian. Some people say you are weird. You
have an interesting sense of humor and a
meaningless life. But, you're nearly Canadian,
so did you expect better?


Which old school Nickelodeon show are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Man Beats Speeding Ticket

This story about a Rochester-area man who fought a speeding ticket all the way up to New York State's highest court reminds me of a friend of mine. Matt (a different Matt.. this one is a Special Agent with the DOS) successfully fought several tickets he received while hanging out at the Irondequoit Bay Pier. At the time, there was a small sign that stated the park closed at 10pm. Matt and friends liked to go well after 10pm to sit at the end of the pier. I believe in Matt's case it was an Irondequoit Policeman who gave him the ticket. It sticks in my mind that he successfully argued that the Irondequoit Police did not have jurisdiction in the pier area. On a related note, I got a ticket there once too and the policeman issueing me the ticket told me I could get out of it by telling a judge that I couldn't see the hours of operation sign. It worked.

Sunny, Sweet Days

These past couple days of gorgeous, sunny, warm weather have spoiled me. Our area is now faced with weather in the low 50s and rain for the rest of the week. Give or take a few degrees. The weekend rundown:

Friday: I ran various errands including stoping at Chautauqua Works to fill out some job-search forms, dropping off a copy of The Darkness cd to our friend Kevin, and made a phone call to the future general manager of a low-power FM station to offer my volunteer services. We also finally saw Starsky & Hutch. The best part was the scene where Ben Stiller does his "Do it. Do it" lines. Otherwise, it pretty much sucked. I know many of our friends liked it, but it just wasn't my bag.

Saturday: Slept in. Washed dishes. Washed clothes. That about sums it up.

Sunday: Since we went to bed at the super early hour of 11:30pm, I woke up at 7:30am, showered at 8am and then bugged Matt to get up around 9am. We drove all the way to the bustling town of Portville to eat a hearty brunch at Sprague's Maple Farms. I had the "sugar on snow waffle" which is a belgian waffle covered with maple whipped cream with a light dusting of maple candy pieces. Very sweet but a nice treat. We walked around the grounds so our stomachs could settle before heading back to Jamestown. I decided that I had to tackle some of the weeds in our flower beds around the house. The roots on these mother's were rediculously large! I didn't even get to the bottom of one and even broke the shovel I was using. I dread when these weeds start sprouting again. After that heavy labor, I had a quick shower and then collapsed on the couch to watch tv the rest of the evening.

Monday: Matt continued doing laundry and bought me some coffee from Tim Horton's. I showered and took off for Home Depot to buy a new shovel, a little rake, and two bags of cedar mulch. After a much needed trip to Wegman's to stock up on groceries, I came home to attack the flower beds again. Satisfied that I was able to spread the mulch enough to protect the beds until the final frost, I had a cold non-alcoholic beverage, put on a mix cd, and folded some laundry. I sat on the front steps for awhile, surveying my handiwork, and enjoying the warm weather. Later on I met up with our friend, Lynda, at a local restaurant to hear some live jazz and ate too much food.

That's the run down. It was a good couple of days.

Dark magician. You love the dark because of it's
beauty and just the life that no-one else sees.
Mysterious, calm, quiet... But that doesn't
mean you're not friendly!

What kind of dark person are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Choose Your Own Adventure

Many people have been asking me what I plan to do once my job ends with the county. I don't have a real answer, but in the interest of fun I decided to put up a garden variety multiple choice of possibilities:

A. Open a Coffee Shop that is also a wireless hot spot
B. Write a Book
C. Live Off of Matt's Meager Salary
D. Become a Stay At Home Mom (requires getting pregnant and having children immediately after getting married)
E. Find Some Random Currently-Non-Existent Job in the area in Public/Media Relations
F. Go On Welfare
G. Get a Job Part-time or Full-time in Retail (AKA Bon-Ton) or the Food Industry (AKA McDonald's or Tim Horton's)
H. Go Back to School for another Bachelor's degree or Master's
I. See if the local tv or radio station would like to hire me again as a reporter despite my obvious bias and political connections
J. Teach private violin lessons
K. Other (Please Describe)

Discuss...

The Lays Potato Chip Theory

Sabrina turned me onto this article titled Heteroflexible -- or Fauxmosexual?. I went in with a sketchy attitude but decided that the studies aren't far off. I do believe there is real fluidity of sexuality, especially for women. This also goes along with that other study from a year or two back that stated that women are turned on by anything that moves basically. This study and that study basically concur with the fact that men don't seem to be as fluid as women when it comes to sexuality. Either that or pressures from peers and society are still too great for men to feel as anywhere near as comfortable as women in exploring same-sex relationships.

Osama Found?

Who wants to bet that Osama Bin Laden has been found and is about to be captured or killed? CNN's breaking news banner of:

BREAKING NEWS Pakistani president tells CNN he believes troops have surrounded al Qaeda fighters protecting "high-value target." Details soon.

And the details at this time are here.

Just you see.

Green Bagels

The way our mostly Swedish/Italian community in Jamestown seems to celebrate St. Patrick's Day is by eating green bagels. Matt made a kind of gross allusion to this on his blog.

But anyway, it's just a funny thing to me I guess. In other related-news, I did end up meeting some friends for a drink last night. The group was multi-tasking their fun by celebrating a belated birthday for one of the guys and celebrating the Irish holiday. Unfortunately, the birthday boy is still under 21, so we ended up going to the local "meat market" (AKA The Rusty Nail) for our drinks since it was teen night or "tiny hiney night" as my friends in the Legislative Offices call it. A few of us couldn't figure for the life of us why we were there, but it wasn't a bad time. The one piece of excitement came when someone punched another guy in the face, causing him to fall straight back and bash his head on a brick wall as he fell. No one did anything at first and then the police and EMT's converged on the scene. We could see the action from the table we snagged along the wall. I realized that I must not be an overly squeamish type since the pool of blood that collected under this guy's head from his head wound didn't bother me much. It was a very bright red. Quite striking against the black and white tiled floor. A bouncer with a steaming hot mixture of water and bleach erased any hint of an accident soon after the drunken guy was carted out. He seemed okay other than the good bonk on his head and possibly a bitten tongue or lip. Regardless, I do not plan to go anywhere near another "teen night" event in this town.

A Little Bit of Irish From Someone Else

We have a winner in the St. Patrick's Day theme for blogs. Now, you might think that the lovely Jenny would get it since her graphics and projects are borderline obsessive when it comes to themed-holidays, but this year Patrick wins hands down. And not just because he wrote overly nice things about this blog. Lord knows I'm not clever enough to sit down and think of witty little limericks and rhymes in honor of the guy from Wales who went to Ireland to convert the Pagans. But you know... that would make him Welsh, not Irish. I do happen to be a little Welsh (and not like THAT), so maybe I'll celebrate some tonight afterall!

Queer Blink Relation

Have you noticed how much the guitarist/vocalist from Blink 182.. you know.. the one with the more nasally, higher voice.. looks like the punk version of Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame? Seriously, these guys were separated at birth. Don't believe me? Tune into Blink's latest video for "Miss You" and then catch any one of the Queer Eye shows that are constantly on Bravo! when The West Wing isn't playing.

The 27 and 1/2 Hour Party

You know it was a good party when...

- the last guests leave over 24 hours later
- the amount of alcohol consumed is astonishing, yet there's still enough to keep going for a day or two (St. Patrick's Day anyone?)
- the people who suffered from a hang-over still maintain it was great fun
- all the food is gone including 2 bottles of ranch dressing
- people actually danced to music being played
- people showed up four hours after the party started and everything was still in full swing
- the coffee made the next morning was almost as strong as espresso and people still drank it
- the people not drinking coffee the next morning started drinking bloody mary's
- one martini glass broken and one olive holder missing

I think that sums it up. God it was a lot of fun!

A Top Ten Tale of Two Cities...

It's hard to pass up a good idea for a blog. Now, courtesy of Shep, I find I must post a sort of top ten things I love about Jamestown and Rochester. Want to take bets on which one will be easier?

Rochester

1. My family and friends who live there
2. Lake Ontario and the Irondeqoit Bay Pier (general natural settings everywhere)
3. The Lilac Festival
4. Park Ave./East Ave./Monroe Ave.
5. The Clothesline Festival at the Memorial Art Gallery
6. The Best Coffee in the World at Java's on Gibbs Street
7. The cultural arts scene (Eastman School of Music, MAG, Geva, multiple arts festivals and all assortments)
8. Great restaurants (California Rollin', Tuscany's, Nick Tahoe's, Bill Grey's, The Parkside Diner, Sinbads, etc.)
9. Drive-ability. You can get anywhere in the metro area in about 30 minutes.
10. The Music Scene and..
11. The Little Theatre

Jamestown

1. Matt
2. Our friends (a lovely group)
3. Chautauqua Lake
4. The vast rural, rolling hills around us
5. The community of people (you always run into someone you know at Wegman's)
6. The variable pace (you can take it easy or go nuts with events, organizations, and activities)
7. Prices. Utilities cost isn't bad, housing is CHEAP, local restaurant prices are decent
8. Seasonal events like the Greek Festival, St. Patrick's Day event, the various Fall Festivals, I Love Lucy festivals, the Ice Castle Extravaganza, Fourth of July
9. The seasons and the extreme beauty they bring
10. There still being a few places I need to explore before I ever move away from here (Panama Rocks, the Wine Trail on Route 20, several restaurants, hiking one of the Overland Trails, attending an honest concert at Chautauqua Institution, and several other items).

On The Eve of A Party

As the snow comes down in our fair city, I try to rouse myself from the computer desk to go do some random house chores in preparation of a small shin-dig we're holding at our house tomorrow night. We haven't had a lot of get togethers at our house. It used to be that we just didn't have that kind of space at our previous dwellings, so I suppose we never got in the habit of having parties. In my case, it just took awhile to find a group of people that I really enjoyed hanging out with and could feel comfortable with in a larger-group setting.

So of course that nervous ohmygodthehouseneedstobeCLEANED feeling has overcome me. I'm trying to be casual about the whole thing, but as most of my long-time friends can tell you, I'm not much of a party girl. I'll have a drink, maybe two, grin through a buzz for a little while and immediately switch to soda or nothing. I hate feeling real off balance. Alcohol tends to make me feel more ill than good if I drink more than a couple drinks. I suppose all my worries about drinking in college before I was 21 were unfounded as I probably would have stopped before I got really drunk.

And that's just the alcohol bit.

As just mentioned, I'm not much of a large-group person. I'm not comfortable in large groups if I don't know a majority of the people there. If it's friends and family, that's different. But to go to a party where I know a few people, and no one else is not a lot of fun for me generally. When it that position, I usually try to attach myself to the person I know and talk to them or I find just one other person to talk to at the event. This runs the gamut from social parties to political events to work-related events I've had to go to in my boss' place.

But tomorrow should be fun. It's a good group of people. Much rowdiness could occur. I may just have three drinks if the spirit moves me right.

A Primer on the ETA (washingtonpost.com)

I thought this was important with all the stories you may see or read about the bombing in Madrid this morning. A Primer on the ETA (washingtonpost.com)

Sketchy Argument

I should never go down the path of arguing about religion but I can't help myself sometimes.

The Da Vinci Code and a conversation that happened at Matt's dad's birthday party prompted some thoughts. For some background: Matt's family comes from a non-denominational background. They were fairly active in the Christian church at one time, including Matt who could be classified as a born-again. For various reasons, the family left the church.

Matt's brother, Tom, still goes to church occasionally and is married to a former-Catholic. We started talking about the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. Most of this due to the fact that Matt's mom is reading our copy of the Da Vinci code.

I got to thinking about the whole discussion about the book states that the bible isn't really what was originally. That there were more books and it has been rewritten so much that it barely resembles what it was in the beginning. We talked some more and I hit upon a thought.

A sort of time line would suggest that Paganism (or various other types of religion) came about ages ago.

Then came Judaism.

Catholicism followed that. If you subscribe to the idea that Jesus was a real person, which by most accounts it seems pretty likely that he was, then you must assume that most of the books of the bible have some truth to them.

Now, despite the fact that the bible and Catholicism have been twisted by whoever has been in power or wanted certain details to go away, this religion was the next step.

Lutheran/Protestantism is a response to Catholicism. They are religions based on the ideas of Catholicism and then changed to suit what their founders believed was "true."

Thought: if the bible and Catholicism were ghosts of what they had started out as before being politicized, therefore, not "true" to begin with, how is any Christian religion that forms out of Catholicism have any shot at being "true"?

Yes, the argument has holes, but you get my drift.

Another Word For Procrastination?

I've been terrible about blogging. That's a bad way to start off a post. To you, the reader, it's obvious that I've been shirking. You're thinking, "Well, instead of writing a whole post apologizing for not updating, why don't you just post something interesting that we could care about rather than moaning about it?" Good advice.

"There's a Lot of Czech's at a Chess Game in Prague"

My parents and I had a post-dinner habit of reading the back of the Salada tea bag tags while I was growing up. If it was a particularly punny saying my dad would do what I tend to think of as GGB. Groan, Grin, Boo. Picture it this way:

Dad: (reads tea tag, groans, grins) Boooo!
Julia: What does it say?
Dad: (reads whatever witty saying Salada has come up with)
Mom: Oh that's a bad one!

This random memory came to mind this morning when I flipped over and read my tea tag as I made my breakfast cuppa tea.

Brief trivia bit coutesy of Salada: "Salada printed a few words of wit or wisdom on each tea tag beginning in the early 1960's. These tidbits were intended to provoke a smile or a thought while the tea drinker paused with a cup of Salada tea. Through the years, Salada tag lines have become a memorable part of Salada Tea."

You're A People's History of the United States!

by Howard Zinn

After years of listening to other peoples' lies, you decided you've
had enough. Now you're out to tell it like it is, with all the gory details and nothing
left out. Instead of respecting leaders, you want to know what the common people have to
offer. But this revolution still has a long way to go, and you're not against making a
little profit while you wait. Honesty is your best policy.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Big 'Ol Congrats

A big hooray and congratulations go out to Rochester Matt on his getting into University of Chicago. I call for a rousing U-S-A to that!

Heart of Gold


What is Your Heart REALLY Made of?
brought to you by Quizilla