I don't mean this in any sort of good way, either. For some reason, I seem to be the only one in my family who's gotten bugs bites so far. Currently I have five bites that are still itchy...wait...make that six, I think I just discovered another one (wince) and one that doesn't itch anymore, but is still showing up as a big red blotch on my leg.
Argh!! This is one of the reasons why I prefer cold weather to hot! Bugs survive hot temperatures so much better than cold! Darn bugs, why can't they dislike me as much as I dislike them? Don't they know better than to hold onto unrequited affections? =Þ
Well, that's my fluff for today. Oh, except that I finally got the auto'd Sakic photo that I wanted: the one that I used to make my wallpaper!! Now I don't have to buy the expensive framed one, and can save the money to buy tickets for some hockey games!! ^_~ Mwa ha ha!
Yes, this really is as silly as it sounds! ^_^ I read this in today's MetroToday:
As you know, the Pope is coming to our city [Toronto] this month, and the folks at the TTC have issued a special, commemorative, limited-edition pass for the Papal Mass on July 28th. The cost is $4.
Now you know that somewhere, someone is scooping these up with plans for selling them on e-Bay. Now imagine what kind of profit some entrepreneur could realize if they were signed. I'm still looking for his rookie card when he was with the Cardinals. (Sorry, it's the heat. Seriously.).
Maybe it's just my peculiar sense of the ridiculous, but I couldn't help but to remember this little passage all day, and each time I did, I had to laugh. To use an oft used phrase, it's funny because it's so true!!
If you don't believe me, check this out! I can't believe it's at $50 US already, and the reserve hasn't even been met yet!! Hmm, you know, I'm going to "watch this item" just so I can see how much it ends up selling for!! Expect an update in a week, when the auction ends!! I'd pick some up (to sell on eBay) myself, if I wouldn't feel so darned ridiculous doing so!
Too bad it's way past number three, bet that'd be worth a lot. Three's a big number, especially in the Catholic Church. Think about Dante's "Divine Comedy," that was intentionally jam-packed with threes. Or nines, those are good too, since they're the product of three and three. Twenty seven's also pretty good, as the cube of three... I apologize if you have no idea what I'm talking about. If you'd like to know, pick up a copy of Dante's "Inferno" translated by John Ciardi and read some of the introductory notes.
Anyway, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear this, but I'm going to briefly talk hockey now. ^_~ The 2002-2003 NHL schedule came out yesterday, and I was happy as a clam! Now it really feels like the new season's just around the corner! Anyway, there's a Colorado @ Toronto game on Sat. Jan. 25th, 2003, so as soon as I possibly can, I'm going to buy tickets for that game! There's also a Carolina @ Toronto game on Sat. Mar 1st, 2003, so if tickets aren't ridiculously expensive (there was that 10% price hike), I'd like to go to that one too! ^_^ Can't wait, can't wait!! I'm going to have a tv with me this year, so even when I'm in res for the weekend I'll be able to enjoy Hockey Night in Canada in the privacy of my own room!! =D YESS!!! I really can't wait for hockey to start again, even just the pre-season!! And yes, I know I'm certifiable! It's all a certain someone's fault!! You know who you are! =Þ
Yesterday I mentioned that in my Sunday school class we discussed the definition of a community, and today that discussion was brought back to the forefront of my mind.
In talking about virtual "communities," my friend suggested that online communities aren't real communities because they tend to lack real-time communication, like face-to-face discussions, or phone conversations. Sure, people might comment back and forth on each other's blogs, reply to messages in forums, or email back and forth, but they aren't really "talking" together, they're coming and going at various times.
I could see the point without necessarily agreeing, because of my definition of community. My friend defined a community as something requiring "real" interaction, whereas I would define it more loosely as something simply requiring common interests. The blogging community is a community because everyone who blogs shares a common interest in publishing his or her thoughts online. With this idea of a community, even though members of the blogging community might not even be aware of one another (it's highly unlikely that anyone knows about every single blog in existence), everyone who blogs can still be considered part of the community. I'm sure this definition has problems too, but for my purposes right now, it works.
At any rate, I mentioned my friend's opinon on the lack of community qualities in online communities because I think that the International Blog MEETUP Day (which is "only 8 days away!") is an excellent example of how her definition can work with mine. The event is just what it sounds like: an opportunity for bloggers in various cities to meet and talk face-to-face. She considered real-time interaction, while I considered common interests in defining a community, and this event fits both requirements where the online blogging community could not.
If you're interested, for Toronto, the possible selections for meeting places are: Starbucks Coffee, 372 Bay Street; Peel Pub, 276 King West; and Crocodile Rock, 240 Adelaide St. West. You can go vote for one of the locations (or for a place in your own city) at http://blog.meetup.com/. I don't think I would go, as I'm not particularly skilled or comfortable with meeting new people (common interests or not) and making conversation, especially if it's simply for the purpose of meeting new people and making conversation. ^^;; Still, it sounds like an interesting idea. I wonder how many people would/will actually go?
I love that word! It suits me so well: sometimes smart, often stupid (moronic)! ^_~
My Sunday school class yesterday was pretty interesting, and we had lots of discussions about what makes a community (I brought up the example of the "blogging community," of course), the phrase "resistance is futile," and good stewardship.
During the part about good stewardship I mentioned how I felt kind of bad for being such a spendthrift, buying auto'd hockey photos, anime soundtracks, etc. etc. Then someone brought up the idea that sometimes obsessing over how you're spending your money might be even worse than spending carelessly (or, at least, that's the way I interpreted his comment). That made me stop and think.
At any rate, at the end of the class, some of my friends asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with them. I did, but I had to go home and change first (I had a softball game to attend a bit later), and I had been planning on stopping by my local comic retailer to preorder the Joe Sakic figure from McFarlane's Sports Picks NHL Series 3. Then another friend, who had heard the exchange was like, "don't you remember what you were just talking about?" =Þ Boy did I feel silly--in a good way.
As I was going to preorder my Sakic figure, I had a pretty good laugh about how ridiculous I can be sometimes, talking about spending more wisely in one breath and then planning on buying another figure I don't have space for in the next! It was kind of...hypocritical, I guess, but I don't like that word. The negative connotations are too strong for what I mean. I wonder if there's a word that carries more of the "do as I say, not as I do" kind of attitude without the idea of "false virtue or religion." A word that carries more of a lighthearted, silly meaning, and acknowledges the fact that the person realizes how absurd the disparity between his/her own words and actions are...
(Edit: 18 hours after I posted this, having come home from work, I can see that the comment system is working again! Yay!)
Hopefully it'll be back up again soon, but for now, the hosted comment system that I was using is down. =/ No such thing as free lunch, I guess. After getting linked by Blogger the site was probably overwhelmed by all the people on blogspot, who can't really use any commenting system that isn't hosted, like Greymatter. Oh well. My Flooble Chatterbox thing still works, if you feel like commenting! =Þ
Anyway, haven't done one of these in a while, but I found the link on Ray's Blog and couldn't resist. ^_^ I got the same character as her, too.
You are Kusakabe Marron | Kaito Jeanne
You are generous and talented, though often widthdrawn. You tend to have just a few close friends, rather than many. You appear very cheerful and enthusiastic, but struggle to keep up with what others expect of you. In the end, your perseverance and sacrifices help you pull through.
Since I'm on the topic of anime, I must say, I'm quite happy that I've managed to burn a bunch of cds. "What's this?" you ask? No, I haven't changed my opinion on pirated stuff, I've simply burned my Marmalade Boy and Hana Yori Dango cds so that I can listen to the copies instead of the originals. I got the idea from an AnimeNation forum. Since the cds were pretty expensive and hard to get, I thought it'd be better to listen to copies and to thus avoid damaging the originals.
The burner on our shared family computer is SO much faster than the one on mine! Mine is only 16x, which would be fine, as the cds are only 16x certified anyway, except that I can't actually use the full 16x on the burner and have to use 2x instead! It took me FOREVER to make one cd in res, and that's not even taking into consideration the 3-4 coasters that I made because I didn't have enough buffer or something and the recording software crashed! I didn't realize until the coaster experience that all we seem to have are CD-Rs instead of CD-RWs. This time was much better. Copying 6 cds I only made 1 coaster, and that was simply stupidity (setting it to 20x when the cd was only 16x compatible) on my part. Ah, the joys of technology!
