*sigh* July 31, 2007 ~ 3:10 pm
Posted by Julie in : Technobabble , comments closedI am just about over WP 2.2.1. Two days of me trying to figure out why there are strange symbols on my blog posts, being told that it is in my wp-config.php file, fixing that and having other strange characters pop up, being told those are the result of me putting two spaces between sentences and that I should use a search and replace plugin, and then that not working, either…it’s starting to wear on me. As I said in my new Asides (see? over there on the sidebar? hey, at least something I did works!), this level of monkeying around with code can no longer be called tweaking. I am fisting my blog, and it don’t like it. Can’t say as I blame it.
Someday this blog will return to normal, or maybe even surpass normal. But for right now? I could use some wine. 50 more minutes of work and then I am on Malbec like white on rice.
July 30, 2007 ~ 10:50 pm
Posted by Julie in : Asides , comments closedWhat I am doing to get this damn WP update to work the way I want it can no longer be considered “tweaking.” It’s more like “fisting.”
Should do vs. Want to do July 29, 2007 ~ 10:57 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Daily Grind, Drama Queen , comments closedThing I should be doing today: reading those last 8 scripts I came home with yesterday. Of course, I should have done that yesterday as well, but didn’t. I wanted to knit or spin or read Harry Potter. Instead I sat on the couch and watched a lot of America’s Next Top Model and Rescue Me. I figured that was a good compromise.
Today, I don’t want to compromise. Part of me wants to do what I did throughout school - read a bit of what I had to, and then wing it once I got to class (the nomination meeting, in this case). However, this won’t fly because dammit, these men will want to discuss our nominations. Feh. I will have to figure out another work around.
In the meantime, cleaning the house is looking good. Oh, and going to Barnes & Noble to spend the $50 gift card I got. And going to the local fruit stand to buy fruit. And spinning and knitting and playing on Ravelry. Hmmm. I might have to compromise again.
ETA: Compromise today obviously means “screw with the blog template,” since my old Regulus one decided to crash and burn. Feh.
Mistaken Identity July 26, 2007 ~ 11:22 am
Posted by Julie in : Shorty, The Girls , comments closedRick’s birthday was a couple of weeks ago, during that time I spent off-blog in Pittsfield eagerly anticipating the new Harry Potter movie with the Oldest. The Oldest and I got a lot of quality time in that half week, but my favorite moment of it was when she found a picture of Rick and Samang. After a while she asked if it was Samang and I said it was, and then she admitted “I thought it was Dad and me at first, but I couldn’t figure out why he looked so old.”
I looked her dead in the eye and said “And Dad’s age is what tipped you off, huh? You didn’t look at the picture and wonder why you were black?”
“Actually, no.”
Her father didn’t find this nearly as funny as we did when we told him.
Reward time July 25, 2007 ~ 11:23 am
Posted by Julie in : Craftiness Is Next To Godliness, Drama Queen , comments closedI made it through two and a half scripts last night. I anticipate finishing that half and getting through another one at lunch. Which means only three scripts between now and Friday, and I’m pretty sure I can get that done tomorrow. Dude, I am so going to Stitch n Bitch tonight. All work and no drunken knitting with friends makes Julie a dull, dull girl.
Lit managment: not a good career for Julie July 24, 2007 ~ 10:05 am
Posted by Julie in : Drama Queen , comments closedI slouched into work today with seven scripts on my back. After work, I will drag my script-laden ass into the city, trade those seven in for another seven, and slump home beneath my burden. I figure I will have to do this again over the weekend, and by that point I will have read roughly 40 scripts since I started this at the beginning of July. There are 50 scripts in the pool of nominees we have to cull from, so I figure that if I read 40 of them, and someone else read 40 of them, and the third person on the nominating committee read all 50 of them because he’s the literary manager at the theater and that’s his job, we should be in good shape. Our goal is to provide the committee that actually selects the winner with nine scripts to decide from. Surely from the 40 scripts I’ve read, I should be able to find 3-5 scripts that I like, right?
I am reminded of why I was never interested in the literary management side of dramaturgy, though. New scripts are fine. (Well, some of them. Some of them are really godawful.) But if you’re the lit manager, you’ve got to read all the scripts that come in, and that is a lot more than 50. That’s hundreds of scripts, and a fair amount of them are going to blow. The 50 that I’m reading from are supposed to be the cream of what’s come in this past year. Some of them are excellent. Some of them…I wonder how they got into this pile. The past three weeks of my life have been mostly devoted to script reading. Sure, I got one weekend of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I had been re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix while reading the scripts, but the script reading has put as serious halt on my leisure time. It’s like having homework all over again: if I’m not reading scripts, I feel like I should be reading scripts, and the guilt, it hangs over me while I watch America’s Next Top Model reruns.
On August 2, we have our nomination meeting and after I get out of that I will be like a kid in a candy store. I’ll get my knitting time back! I’ll be able to sit down and read all the Harry Potter books back-to-back, notebook in hand, so that I will be able to remember exactly when in Harry’s Hogwarts career what happened. I will be able to sit down and watch everything that’s been backing up on my TiVo, including many episodes of ANTM, Rescue Me, Doctor Who, and yes, even a few episodes of Hey, Paula (I likes me a tranwreck in the making, okay?). I may even finally set up Savvy Brooklyn so that Jordana and I can sell all the damned jewelry we’ve made. And that would be awesome, because hey! More money for beads!!
So basically, August 3 is when school’s out for me. I now remember why I was so happy when I finished grad school.
Finished July 23, 2007 ~ 10:24 am
Posted by Julie in : Reviews , comments closedI spent 10 hours in the park on Saturday for Samang’s blessing, another five in the park yesterday for the “let’s get rid of some more of this food” party, and Rick came over last night. But I still managed to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by 11:30 last night.
So, so good. I laughed, I shed copious amounts of tears, and in the end, I was right. On one count, at least (and no, I’m not going to tell you which count, but if you know me, you can guess). I think this is the best book of the seven, and Jo has done an amazing job at tying up all the loose ends in the series. You have to stand in awe of the imagination of this woman.
I can’t wait until Samang is old enough for us to read these books to her!
Way to spoil it. July 19, 2007 ~ 9:54 am
Posted by Julie in : Rants , comments closedSome complete git over at the NY Times got a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows early (some bookstore is gonna get in major-league trouble over this) and reviewed it. Complete with spoilers. I didn’t read it, but I’m a little irritated. I should not have to completely shut myself off from the media and the internet from now until I finish the book or run the risk of having all the fun taken out of my reading experience. It’s Harry Potter, for fuck’s sake, I don’t need the Cliff’s Notes version - I will be more than happy to read it myself as soon as I’m able to do so.
People who spoil books and movies for others? They’re the same kind of people who would kick a puppy for fun. Bastards.
What the fuck is a Deathly Hallow, anyway? July 17, 2007 ~ 4:18 pm
Posted by Julie in : About a Julz, Reviews , comments closedI am alternately eagerly anticipating and dreading this Friday. If you’ve been living under a rock, Friday at midnight is when the final Harry Potter book comes out. As the Oldest pointed out to me after we saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last week, “We should really appreciate these last few days because they’re the last ones we have where we don’t know what happens.” She’s right, of course. She has grown up with Harry Potter, literally. The first book came out in the US in 1998, when she was six. I’m not sure when she started reading the series (or having it read to her), but Harry has been a massive part of her life.
I found Harry Potter by accident during grad school. I was trying to juggle a heavy course load and a job, and was longing for the days when I had free time to read something other than dramatic criticism and theatre history. One night while I was up procrastinating work on a paper, I saw a book that my roommate had left out on the dining room table: Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. I picked it up and devoured it during the course of the next three nights before moving onto the next one, which my roomate also had. After that, I pre-ordered the new books on-line and spent the next however many hours it took reading them through to the finish, the last two within 24 hours so that I could hand them off to the Oldest (her summer schedule is always up in the air and we never know where she will be to pre-order them). This series of books makes me happy in a way that no other series ever has, and any children who come into my life will grow up knowing Harry the way I wish I could have as a child.
Saturday will mark the first time that I will not be home when the book is delivered, since I will be in the park for Samang’s blessing/naming ceremony. Bet your ass that when I get home, though, that book will be superglued to my hand until I have read the very last word. I’m predicting that will happen late Sunday afternoon, even if I have to stay up all night to do so. This is my last chance to race unknowingly towards the conclusion of a Harry Potter book, after all. There will be time enough to read slowly the second time through. The first read is always a full-out sprint. See you all at the finish line.
Grab bag July 10, 2007 ~ 11:05 am
Posted by Julie in : Da Cats, Daily Grind, Urban Family , comments closedI have some really deep posts rattling around in my head…well, maybe not really deep, but deeper than this is going to be. Because today I don’t have the time for a deep post. Sorry ’bout that. On to the bullet points:
- Freddie thinks he’s a dog. He has taken to gnawing on our sandals, this morning going so far as to gnaw on my Tevas while I was wearing them. All of my sandals and now Rick’s as well have tiny teeth marks in them. And yes, I do put them away when I’m not wearing them, however
FidoFreddie can open closets as well, so we are screwed. - Somewhere in my upgrade to WP 2.2.1 or whatever it is, I lost my Flickr e-z uploader application. I’m sure there is an upgrade for that as well, but the computer at work doesn’t like it when I use FTP. So I have to do it at home. And we all know how much I have been at home lately. So instead I just have to point you towards this the old-fashioned way: my LOL Cats.
- My undergrad college made news all around the planet today, judging by the number of news sites I’m getting by typing in the words “Meadville wrecking ball” on Google. Apparently a wrecking ball broke loose from a crane and rolled 3/4 of a mile down a hill, damaging cars and injuring people in its path until it came to a stop in the trunk of a Taurus. Here’s an in-depth article. (I especially like the part on the second page about the guy who was injured when he “attempted to stop the wrecking ball by throwing bricks in its path.” Only in Meadville.) Here’s a picture. Meadville in the summer is slower than slow, so I’m assuming this will provide plenty of water-cooler talk at least until August.
- It is hotter than hell here right now, so rather than let the little kitties suffer while I’m gone, I left the a/c on in my house for them. Al Gore can’t bitch, though, because the thermostat is set for 81* and they’re on energy saver mode. I can hear my mom asking me why do I even bother having the a/c on if I’m going to have it set that high, and the answer is “Well, 81* is significantly cooler than the 107* it would reach in the apartment otherwise, so there you go.”
- I got a ceiling fan on sale at Home Depot for $37. It has no lights, but as we have no ceiling light there anyway, and I just bought CFLs for all of my lamps (yeah, Live Earth, making a difference), it’s all good. The Landlady is having an electrician wire it up for me, although I told her we could just swag it over from the corner. She is apparently unconvinced of mine and Thabiso’s swagging skillz.
- Speaking of Thabs, Samang turned one month old on Sunday. Where the hell did this past month go? Now we just need to get set for her little blessing/not-christening which is going to be next Saturday. I need to figure out what I’m going to say at this shindig. Crap.
I think that’s it. Or enough, at any rate. Now to go do work for a bit until 2:30, when I leave, head into the city, grab some scripts (did I mention I’m on the nominating committee for my theater’s playwriting award? I am.), and head to the Port Authority. The bus leaves at 5 and gets in at 9:20. I’m betting I will get through at least three scripts in that time period.
