Marvel widgets, that is.

This is my new YouTube Player. I'm doing some playing with online video to expand my mad skillz. ;)

O.K., I finally broke down and became the last person in the known universe to join MySpace.



Find me on MySpace and be my friend!

...I've just finished my first week at my new job. #whew#

I'm the new Production System Administrator at Fortius One, a Geographic Information Systems company that is looking to become the Google of GIS. We've just recently started work on the product-level release of GeoCommons, a geographic data mining tool, and GeoCommons Appliance, a standalone rackable computer system that companies needing GIS data in a closed system setting can install and use much like companies that use the Google appliance for their in-house search platforms.

Our company's founder often blogs about the latest developments in the GIS world. Check out Off The Map for more details.

I'm loving my job. Great place to work. :)

gacked from Facebook...

It was a bust.

Well, sort of.

My trip to Wichita on 2/14, for a job interview with Cargill Meat Services as their #2 IT person, was already off to an inauspicious start due to my car accident on 2/12, but I was trying to view the accident as a positive sign. After all, if I hadn't had the accident, I would have still needed to schedule a doctor's appointment w/ my GP because I was out of pain meds; the ER doc prescribed pain meds, so that was one positive outcome. If I hadn't had the accident, I'd have had to have paid for parking; now, with my car in the AA police impound lot, no BWI parking fees would be owed. See, a positive thing.

( Always look on the bright side of life... )

Sometimes, after experimenting with new choices, it's best to go back to old standbys. Though I love trying out the new brands on the market--AWAKE, Napoleon Perdis, InsertHotMakeupBrandHere--I'm reminded every so often that the reason such brands as Estée Lauder are still around is that they make really quality products. I've almost never been disappointed by an Estée Lauder lipstick, and been very surprised by several as to their high quality and lasting nature. Here's a look at one of Estée's more recent line changes, the "Electric Intense" lipsticks, in color #726, "Fury".

The short version: The name's right on--this is a bright, furious red. It's electric, intense, long-lasting, and darned attractive to boot.

(Off to my beauty blog for more...)

When purchasing Christmas gifts, I usually tried to take advantage of sales going on to pick up brands of cosmetics I might not have tried previously. Such was the case in this purchase, a gift-boxed collection of AWAKE Cosmetics' Stardom Color series. The box, a fiberboard box with a slab of cedar in the base, covered with metallic red and silver cardstock covering and light padding, with a sheet of etched plexiglass (with the AWAKE logo, an unfurling fern leaf) in the lid. The box is gorgeous. The items in it are quite pretty, though rather small, even for samples. In the sample selection is a tube of AWAKE's Lip Gloss Brilliance in "Fairly Pink".

The short version: Don't bother. Pretty exterior, lacking product.

(Follow the (fake) jump cut to my beauty blog...)

I've become something of a lipstick snob during this hunting process, I'll admit. I miss the old days when I thought of "lipstick" as just something you pick up in aisle 15 along with the rest of the health/beauty supplies. There are some great lipsticks in the aisles of Target, Walmart, grocery stores, etc. But most of them can't hold a candle to their counterparts at department stores.

Case in point: This quintet from Maybelline New York. They're not bad lipsticks, but they're also not good lipsticks, and for the money I spent to buy these five tubes, I could have gotten a tube or two of my favorite M-A-C colors. I remember wearing Maybelline as a kid. But I don't remember the heavy cucumber taste or the distinct lack of appreciable weartime.

Anyway, onto the reviews...

(Click here to follow the (fake) jumpcut...)

It's been a while since I've updated. Much has happened in my life since the last update.

My last update was two days before I headed out for a job interview, probably the most important event in my unemployed life to that point.

Things got a little weird after that.

Actually, they got a lot weird.

( Click here to see how weird that day itself was... )

120 days into my life as an ex-AOL programmer, I'm two days away from an interview as an IT Applications Manager with a major U.S. corporation (not saying more than that right now). Wish me luck. :)

Yes, I do.

I make art with yarn.

I create art through silly plotline stories involving Spider-Man rescuing Asian fashion dolls or Picking up chicks, superhero style.

I make word-art with fanfiction I've written solo and with others.

I make art more accessible by writing, rewriting, cleaning up, etc. various Wikipedia articles. My most recent article rescue is a practically-complete rewrite of the entry for TV Cooking Show Host Lidia Bastianich.

I used to turn 60 GB of raw data from a 3-letter ISP per day into 1.5 GB of formatted and reported data, many referred to by others as my "art with perl".

I used to work sci-fi conventions and create artistic makeup. Today, I continue the tradition with my wonderful model for my adult-sized knits.

Does that make me an artist? Maybe.

...a new replacement TiVo remote.

# reclines to watch TV #

Gacked from htbthomas...

IF YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!

BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT THEN, REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS.

1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?

2) What was your dream growing up?

3) What talent do you wish you had?

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

5) Favorite vegetable?

6) What was the last book you read?

7) What zodiac sign are you?

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.

9) Worst Habit?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

11) What is your favorite sport?

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.

16) Do you have any pets?

17) What if i showed up at your house unexpectedly?

18) What was your first impression of me?

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have?

23) Ever been arrested?

24) Bottle or can soda?

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?

28) Do you believe in ghosts?

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30) Do you swear a lot?

31) Biggest pet peeve?

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?

35) Do you believe in God?

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

(Yes, I know 26 and 34 are missing. Feel free to make up your own Q&A.)

Barbie dresses. Lots and lots of Barbie dresses.

Scarves, shawls, hair ornaments.

Cross-stitching.

Fanfiction. Lots and lots and lots of fanfiction.

A mess of my house.

I Am Legend Predicts Super Bowl XLII Score?

Unlike the supposed Back To The Future "Marlins Win World Series" prediction (which is false), this one actually stands a chance of being true--we'll know for sure by Sunday night. Barb at snopes.com does a good job of breaking it down.

My hope for a pure Conservative Republican in the White House in 2009 is dead.

Fred Thompson Announces Withdrawal From Presidential Race

Most of you know I'm a Conservative Republican, a proud Reagan Republican since my childhood days (Mom's longtime companion was state chairman of the Republican party and a personal friend of Ronald Reagan). Most of you probably know I can't stand the remaining parade of RINOs--particularly John McCain--running for the office in 2008.

Here's how much I hate McCain: If you put a gun to my head and said I had to choose between McCain or Hillary Clinton, I'd tell you to just go ahead and pull the trigger.

Mike Huckabee is Arkansasian for "John McCain Wannabe"--check his record. He may claim to be conservative, but his record paints a picture of a political triangularist who is almost more liberal than Bill Clinton, and that takes some doing.

Mitt Romney claims to be conservative, but when you come from a state where Ted Kennedy and John Kerry represent the "mainstream" position, it doesn't take much effort to be to the right of that.

Obi-Fred Thompsoni, you were my only hope.

#sigh#

I'm not dead, though sometimes I feel that way.

Christmas was hard on me emotionally this year; it was the first anniversary of my divorce. (Actually, technically, the divorce was finalized on the 27th. But I digress.) It's also hard to be out of a job this time of year. I'm hopeful that some opportunities that came up near the end of 2007 manifest in 2008. Money isn't the issue--Thank God for the WARN act and 60 days of pay--but I could do without worrying that I won't get the promised paycheck from a company that would just as soon be rid of its financial obligation to me and 2000 of my closest friends and workmates. (And I miss said workmates, including my former officemate, who kept me sane and laughing throughout even the worst moments at the company.)

Family was in town--Mom arrived on the 19th and stayed until the 2nd; Rob came up from DC on the 24th and the 31st and stayed until the evening hours on the following day both times. That meant I was going crazy trying to clean up the rest of the house after the junk folks had cleared out the basement, and my body would not let me do the work.

My body has gone into full-blown rebellion lately. My GP, Dr. AwesomelyWonderful, was concerned about the long-term effects of steroids on my system (I was on 20 mg of Prednisone per day for Polymyalgia Rheumatica), so we made a stepdown plan: Go from 20 to 15 over a weekend, then 15 to 10, take a SED rate reading after a few days at 10 (to measure if the SED rate, which measures overall inflammation in the body, changes at all on the lower dose), then go from 10 to 5 to 0 in the space of the next week. So I'm now at 0 mg prednisone and have been for 3 days. I'm already noticing the roundness of my face is starting to fade--yay, no more risk of developing Cushing's Disease--and I've dropped 3 pounds in 3 days (water retention from the 'roids), but my back and shoulders are in so much pain that it's becoming nearly impossible to be out of bed and doing anything. All I have to do is bend over to pick something up, and my back seizes (right at the place where I have the worst nerve sheath tumors) so badly that it won't stop until I lie down. Same thing for lifting anything onto my shoulders. And I have headaches, so bad that I want to put a drill through my head. Women with PR tend to have severe headaches due to the increased SED rate and the spasming of the shoulder muscles causing muscle spasms and blood vessel irritation, and I can attest to that.

And, oh-by-the-way, I took a header in Georgetown the Saturday before Christmas. Yep, I fell down like a pile of bricks--smack-dab on the sidewalk on 29th St. NW approaching K Street. As near as I can tell from the injury pattern on my body, I apparently stepped onto an uneven section of the sidewalk on my left foot, which does not flex normally. I lost my balance and tried to correct with my right leg, only to have it hit a similar uneven section, causing my right foot to completely flex 90 degrees inward, in a direction ankles don't normally bend. With both my legs unable to catch their footing, I went down hard on my left side. I was disoriented and panicked (Mom was trying to send Rob to go get the car and I was calling out, "NoNoDon'tGoNoNo..." or something like that) for about 45 seconds, then finally began to calm down. After that, I took a look around, palpated my right ankle trying to feel for a break (I have broken this one before, so I know what that feels like), figured out that the worst I'd done was sprain it like Heck, then managed to get to my knees and then to my feet. I am bruised like all-get-out on my left leg and right ankle and have deep bruises on my hips as well, but I'm alive and reasonably well. (Mom said Rob was freaked out by my fall and mentioned to her that he had no idea I'd "gotten that bad" and that he wasn't prepared for me to "be so sick...she's way too young to die..." I felt bad about scaring him. Heck, those falls scare me, and I'm used to them. I fell 4 times cleaning the house before Mom's arrival. (One time I landed hard on a grocery sack full of breakfast cereals; I looked up and said, "God, is this your way of telling me that cereal is good for me?")

Anyway, Christmas ended up being nice--Mom and Rob both worked their tails off to help me get some rest and get better. I'm glad to have my house back, but I'll miss them.

Happy New Year, All. May 2008 be a darned sight better than 2007.