Friday, October 31, 2008

To Rocky or not to Rocky? That is the question.

I'm stuck home alone on Halloween. Seeing as how I have no friends to hang out with in the Glens Falls area, I'm pretty bummed. I love Halloween parties and getting dressed up. But that doesn't work when you've got no where to go.

Yesterday I heard an ad on the radio that the Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing in Saratoga tonight. I've seen the movie a gazillion times (I first saw it in second grade, and performed a couple songs with a group in a talent show once - at a church summer camp of all places!), but I've never been to the live show or theatre screening. I had a friend who played Frank in Niagara Falls, and they had a showing at RIT every year, but I never actually went. Something always came up.

So now I'm considering driving down to Saratoga (about 20 minutes away) to go to the show. But I won't know anyone there. I mentioned it on facebook, and a friend told me I had two options: stay home, or wear a corset and make a bunch of new friends.

The problem is, I don't have anything particularly good to wear. The only corset I have doesn't fit properly - the back criss-cross has to be tightened to the point of overlapping - and I don't own any shiny hotpants or fishnets. The corset wouldn't be much good without those anyway. So I'd have to make do with moderately gothy dress I found in the back of my closet. Paired with knee-high leather boots and gowdy jewelry I should at least be passibly dressed for the event. I'd end up spending over a hundred bucks if I went out shopping for a proper costume, so that's not an option.

Basically, I'm posting this to psych myself up to go on my own. If I tell you all I'm going, I can't just wimp out and not bother. So wish me luck!

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Less than a week til election day!

Even if you're confident your favorite candidate(s) are goin to win, show up to help set a voter turn-out record. They really do keep track of those things. I don't care if you back the same candidates I do, it's still important that you take the time to cast a vote. And you should do it even if the candidate you're backing doesn't stand a chance of winning. Did you know that public funding for future campaigns is partly tied to the results of past elections? Meaning more votes for a minor candidate can help their party out next time around.

And it's not all about the Presidential election! Frankly, the President doesn't have that much power over your life (unless he sends us to war or something *cough* *cough*). Most of the real power is in the legislature. That's why representatives only have two year terms. Or you might have a high and mighty senate race this year. Those are the people who actually write and vote on the laws and taxes and rediculous bail-out bills. 

Do federal politics piss you off to the point you don't even want to think about them? Then forget about it and focus on the state and local races. Think City Council and County Coroner and Police Chief. Tuesday is about a lot more than just Obama vs. McCain!

Those of you who've never voted before may not realize that elections aren't the only thing on the ballot. You could have state ballot initiatives (if you're in Cali, vote no on prop 8!), local ordinances, and boring stuff like the library budget.

Don't know where to go to cast your vote? Look it up! www.vote411.org

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hubby's out of town for a week... and I went shopping

I took Billy to the airport yesterday. He's going to visit his family in Huntsville for a few days then out to Vegas to see a college buddy. It was a 6 AM flight, which meant getting up at 4 AM to go to the airport.

I decided to stay awake afterward to go shopping when JCPenneys opened. I had a Penny's gift card from cashing out some Discover Card cashback rewards, and a couple American Express gift cards we earned from our American Express Clear cashback rewards. I love free money. I tried a million things on that I mostly ended up hating, but came home with some great deals. My primary mission was the find a super-comfy, yet not completely dorky, travel outfit. I flew to Australia last time in my fabulous but skin-tight jeans from Brazil. That is so not happening again.

There's whole categories of clothing known as 'track suits' and 'loungewear' that I've never previously owned. I was determined, but couldn't bring myself to actually purchase an all-velour outfit. They were available in a dozen colors and 2 different styles. But I just couldn't do it. Head to toe Adidas was tempting, but was quickly ruled out by super-scratchy seams on the inside of the jacket.

My requirements were fairly straightforward. I needed a color-coordinated three-piece outfit: a sleeveless layer, a long-sleeved layer, and long pants. The sleeved layer had to open down the front and not have a hood (for comfort and ease of taking on and off in-flight). The shell had to have a self-contained bra or be designed in such a way that my bra straps would not be showing. The pants had to make my ass look good (this concession must be made so Billy doesn't wine about me buying new clothes).

I ended up with a torquoise shell and a torquoise/marine blue/gray pants and jacket. It's all super comfy, not trendy enough to make me look like one of those girls I can't stand, but still more presentable than just wearing pajamas.

A gal don't spend 4 hours in JCP and just come home with a track suit though! I got a new wallet ($5), couple of lovely necklaces (buy one, get one), a full-length black/white houndstooth plaid skirt that is absolutely gorgeous, a black blouse because I own maybe 1 shirt that would go with aforementioned skirt, a pair of denim capris (for $2!!!), plus a dress and a cardigan that I'm going to return. The dress is cute, but it turned out to be $30 when I looked at the receipt (more than I'd expected) and the cardigan just looks dumb - it was in my bag when I realized it was 1 PM and had to check out (or I wouldn't get my doorbuster deals) - I'd tried it on, but not seem myself in a mirror. I'll return them tomorrow afternoon. Free money spending spree over, I'm now back in spend-thrift mode and probably won't be able to convince myself to buy anything in their place. Except maybe a different dress or other fun summer clothes on better sale. Looks like we're heading back to Australia and Brazil - winter here means it's summer there!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Doing the hundred


So far so good on hundred pushups challenge take #2. And this time I've got Billy doing it too! Of course, he's a lot stronger than me, so he got to start on week 3. I'm also not cheating  this time. Before I was doing the required pushups over the course of an evening. Now I'm doing them with as little time between sets as possible - so far never more than 5 minutes.

Click here to follow my progress on the pushups logger.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Do you click to give?

Why not?

Bookmark these sites and click every day! FYI - If you use Firefox, you can save multiple tabs to open as your 'homepage'. So just add one or all of these along with whatever you usually use. Personally, I've added them all to a folder in my bookmarks bar and just use the the 'Open all in tabs' option.

And since it's October thebreastcancersite.com is running a special challenge. If users click to fund 500 mamograms, one of their sponsors will kick in an additional 200.

The Hunger Site The Breast Cancer Site

The Child Health Site The Literacy Site

The Rainforest Site The Animal Rescue Site

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

It's here!

I've got my shiny new camera and I still love it. It really is tiny. The little camera bag it came with is a lot nicer than I expected and the 2 gig SD card seems to work just fine.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Isn't shipment tracking awesome?



I got shipping confirmation from Newegg.com. My camera has shipped. I've lucked out that it's coming from New Jersey. So even the free UPS ground shipping should have it here tomorrow.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I bought it!

I ordered my Z100fd today. And I got a fantastic deal on it! Check it out on Newegg.com.

What's even better than that? I found a coupon code for $10 more dollars off! Here's the info if you wanna grab one for yourself.

Coupon Code: EMCBABHAJ
Expires: 10/23/2008

So that's a total of only $119.99 for the camera, plus a bonus SD card and case. No tax, no shipping :) The only downside it's only available in silver.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

What everyone would do one small thing every month?

I have never experienced poverty first-hand. We always had food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our head. A lot of that food was bought in bulk, many of the clothes were from Ames (think Walmart, but junkier), and the houses were sometimes fixer-uppers. We didn't have cable until I was in high school. We ate at a restaurant about 10 times a year. But we were always comfortable. I learned to live with less, for which I am eternally grateful. If you grow up being given a bunch of stuff, you start to think that stuff is necessary. I know better. And I know that if I live frugally, I'll have more money available to help others.

But I've witnessed more poverty than I'd like to admit. Friends' whose families who couldn't afford to heat their homes. Who didn't own enough clothing to wear something different each day of the week. Whose parents were laid off or went bankrupt. I've helped give Christmas to food pantry kids who wouldn't have had anything under the tree or on the table.

And now I've been to Brazil. I grew up the country. I was fairly accustomed to run down shacks and trailers. But there you'll see true subsistence farmers with houses made of mud and salvaged metal and plastic. They are poor, but most of them are really living quite well off the land. No luxuries, mind you, but you don't need to heat or insulate your house in Brazil. You can live with a small field, some fruit trees, a few chickens, and some goats or cows. If I were to be plopped somewhere in the world with nothing, I would want to be there.

This article is not about subsistence farmers. They are making a life for themselves that might not be at yours or my standard of living. But that doesn't make it a bad life. It may technically be poverty, but world can't sustain it's full population of humans my standard of living. Personally, I think that's a huge problem and can't stand that people keep having children knowing that, but I digress.

This article is also not about the professional panhandling children in Porto Seguro. We were there so long we began to be recognized by them, and left alone. Those children who who huddled up to form a game plan on the side street, then affected a pitiful posture and sad eyes to ask for money from easy targets. For them, it was a game, it was a job, it was in fact a way to ensure they didn't fall into poverty. But I know they weren't going hungry. I happily offered one a whole boiled potato from our large dinner platter. He tried for money again, and then for the meat. I gave him the potato. But a few feet away he tripped on a chair and dropped it. He hadn't even taken a bit yet and he did not pick it up to eat it before moving on his next target. That boy was not going hungry.

The biggest problem is in the cities. The folk who can't farm or build a mud hut. The ones not organized enough to profit from a panhandling racket. The disfigured and mostly blind girl shooed away from my dinner table in Vitoria. I am so sad that she was gone before I could give her our left-overs. I will always regret not running after her with them. The children in Curitiba wearing ragged t-shirts and shorts in 40 degree (F) weather. They were walking home through the very fancy neighborhood where our hotel was, probably from an afternoon of begging in one of the nicer parks. You could tell from the way they walked when they didn't see anyone around that they weren't faking it. They didn't have any shoes and the stone sidewalks were rough, cold, and wet. We don't like to give money to beggars, but we are happy to give them food. We bought these two dinner at a food stand outside the mall. They waited with excited anticipation for about 10 minutes for a meal that cost about $1 a piece. You could tell from the way they ate it that it was probably more calories than they usually got in a week.

There are too many lost souls in cities all over the world. Living in gutters. Scavenging trash for food and shelter and clothing. Unable to afford the education that might better their situation.

But what can you do about it? Honestly, not that much. But you can do some small things to ease the suffering just a little. Donate your old clothes and other household items you don't need. Give them to a group that will pass them on directly to those in need, or someplace like the Salvation Army/Goodwill who resells them - offering both an inexpensive shopping option to people in need and raising money for other programs to help those who cannot even afford thrift-store prices. You can give to your local food pantry. You can give school supplies to a school or children's orgainzation. You can give time or money to any organization that helps the truly needy in your community.

You can also give to a group like Kiva.org to make small loans to people all over the world. Those loans help people succeed and pull themselves out of poverty. The key there is that they are loans - the people are expected to pay them back. This is not some hand-out, it's assistance to improve a business or person so they can provide for themselves.

Is there anything you could give today? An extra can from your pantry, or pair of pants from your closet? Would you really miss $10 that could feed a family for a day or more? Walk around your house today and find something to give. Then do it again next week or next month. And again. And again. Make it a habit and do it for the rest of your life. You won't miss the stuff. Just think how many people you could help. Dare your friends to try it, too. How many people could you help together? What if it wasn't just you and me and our friends. What everyone would do one small thing every month? Imagine what a difference that would make. Now stop imagining and make it happen!


Tuesday, October 14, 2008

I looked up the wrong camera

That's NOT the camera I liked. I was playing with a Z200fd - the newer model. Which is, of course, more expensive. I could have sworn the sign at Best Buy said it was $199 - but I just called and they said it's $299.

**Update** There's a bright side to this! I just went through all the specs on Fujifilm's website. And there's really only three differences between the new and old model. The new one is 10MP instead of 8MP, a blog setting that will automatically resize for the web, and it has a fancy new self-time mode that knows to look for a certain number of faces, or faces in a certain position. I almost never use time mode, I don't mind resizing on my computer, and let's face it, you'll only see the difference between 8 and 10 MP at poster size. The old one has all other shooting modes - I'm an especially big fan of the dual mode that takes the same pic with and without flash with one click and museum mode that turns off the flash and the sounds effects.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Finepix Z100fd


I love this camera!



If I'm still in love later this week, I'll place an order for it and an 8 Gig SDHC card. I think I'll go for the reddish-brown color. The black/white looks cool, but would probably just get really dirty.

Shopping for a digital camera

My old digital camera was sold on eBay this morning (for $62 - yippee). So it's time to get around to buyer a new one. I'm going to play with cameras at Best Buy and Ritz Cameras tonight. Unfortunately, the ones I really one are from Sony and Olympus - neither of which use regular SD cards. Ugh! Since we don't want to deal with two sets of cards, I have to get one that uses the kind our other cameras have used. 

Any suggestions? I want something tiny, but with as much zoom as possible. I don't think I'd be able to stand anything less than 5x. I figure I'll play with them in the store, then shop online for the best price. And I'll pick up a high capacity HD while I'm at it.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Purging feels good

Finally, we've sorted through all the junk in the basement. We're selling most of it. It's in two big piles - one for eBay, one for Craigslist. Billy's in charge of posting and selling the stuff. If it were up to me, we'd donate it all and get it done with. There is a small donate pile, and a pile of kids stuff to give to our niece. She's too small for it now, but it's not like we need children's books and stuffed animals!


Click here to check out our stuff on eBay!



The bummer is we still need to finish the office. Maybe we'll attack that later this week after the rest of the stuff has been posted. When we finish that, I'll give my pile of random school supplies (notebooks, paper, binders, etc.) to some sort of organization that deals with that kind of stuff. My flute and all the practice books that go with it will be given to one of our local schools. The thing is, the flute's kind of broken (~$20 repair). Do I get it fixed before donate it, or just let the music teacher take care of it? They can probably do the repair themselves - maybe I'll just ask if that's the case and pay to have it fixed if they can't do it.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Testing Ecto

Now I'm testing Ecto, another blog software. Let's see how well it handles adding a picture. Mars Edit is prettier, but I think I like Ecto better.


Amanda_20

Now here's a fun feature - an Amazon inserter. Here's the book I'm currently reading:



"Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern" (Anne McCaffrey)



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