Happy Birthday Sephyroth

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My dearest and bestest friend in the universe, Sephyroth, has a birthday which was a great day for many years, until 2001 came along. Why 2001, I hear you ask. Well, his birthday happens to be September 11th. So after 2001 the birthday became a bit of a downer day for him instead of the happy occasion it ought to be..

So much so, that at some point I assigned him a totally different birthday. I forget what it was, I think it was sometime in April. I guarantee you he will pop up in the comments and paste in the actual emails or logs of our chat on this subject, because he saves these things foreverz. :)

But this year, it SHOULD BE be a very happy birthday, because September 11th happens to be the release date for a little movie I am super excited to see. It is called Triple 9, and it contains Norman Reedus – better known as Daryl from The Walking Dead – and Aaron Paul – better known as Jesse from Breaking Bad. Plus, a few other randoms, eg Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor..

Yo, best you be planning a cinema trip for your next birthday, Sephyroth.

Of course release dates can and do change, I’ll keep an eye on it.

Me personally, I don’t really do birthdays myself, nor do I tend to remember other peoples birthdays. I actually seem to remember other things, eg I have a friend whose birthday is the day after International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yes, that is a thing and it gets mentioned around the web quite a bit in the lead up to the day, so it is like a little reminder for me.

Update –

Did you guys know that Sephy has a login for my blog? No? Well, now you do. And of course you can guess that Sephyroth happened to log in on Monday, for reasons but that is another post, and he saw this post scheduled and could not help but read it. He then forwarded me the email I sent him, and here tis.

Subject: Happy Non-Birthday

On Sep 11, 2011, at 5:49, Snoskred (snip) wrote:

As I cancelled your birthday and rescheduled it to Feb 18th, today is no longer your birthday, officially.

So Happy Birthday for next Feb 18th, instead. :)

Your new birthday is the anniversary of this –

1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden “flight” on top of a Boeing 747.

It comes with a photo!

And this

1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.

Your new birthday is also the birthday of – 1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress

It is also –

Christian Feast Day:
Colmán of Lindisfarne
Flavian of Constantinople
Simeon of Jerusalem (Western Christianity)
February 18 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
Independence Day, celebrates the independence of the Gambia from the United Kingdom in 1965.

Pls to note that on almost everyone’s birthday, something not awesome happened. EG on my birthday –

1896 – The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.

Had that happened in 1996, my birthday would be quite the bummer. :(

Anyway, happy Non-Birthday. And if you don’t like Feb 18th, pick another one, There’s 363 other days you could choose. :)

So, its night to me.. :)

Blog Friends, Sephyroth, things to remember

About Templates – Moving To WordPress

A few days ago Lightening sent me an email asking about making the move to WordPress. We had quite a lot of discussion back and forth, I asked Lightening to go and look for a template which had the layout the way she wanted it and then we would be able to change the colors to suit. The template she came back to me with was almost identical to the one I had, so I suggested we use the template base that I had used – Freedom Green – and change the colors. Freedom Green looks like this –

Freedom Green

Hard to believe that forms the basis for Life In The Country which looks completely different, no? We had also used Freedom Green as the basis for the scam warning website –

Scam Warning

I asked Lightening to visit the Visibone Color Lab, and come back to me with 5 colors that she liked. The only other work she had to do was say yes or no to what we came back with. The other thing we did was create a new header graphic. I asked Lightening to find an image she liked, which she did. I then emailed off and got permission to use the image. We also changed the color of the graphic bar that goes across the page to suit the site. It ended up looking like this –

Lightening Online

Lightening now has a site that I actually like the look of better than mine. ;) I love that subscribe button, by the time you read this I’ll probably have changed mine too. And it has inspired me – I think I would like to make versions of this in different colors now. In particular I’d like to make a black one. Make sure you go over and check out Lightening Online.

All of this work is included in the $5 per month hosting price. I think it is a pretty good deal. :)

blog design, Blog Friends, blog template

I Meme You All.. Or, Free Links Here!

Anyone reading this, consider yourself tagged – if you want to be. Everyone who does this meme, I will link to you in the weekly wrap up at the end of this week. So if you have never been linked to from my site now is an excellent time to do this meme and get yourself a free link to your site.

The Actors Studio 10 Questions Meme –

1. What is your favorite word?
2. What is your least favorite word?
3. What turns you on [creatively, spiritually or emotionally]?
4. What turns you off?
5. What sound or noise do you love?
6. What sound or noise do you hate?
7. What is your favorite curse word? *
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
9. What profession would you not like to do?
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
*If you do not wish to use the curse word on your site that’s ok and understandable – try and find one not so offensive instead, if you can, or alternatively star out some of the letters.

Shortly I will post my answers to these questions. Get blogging ya’all, I’m looking forward to hearing your answers.

Blog Friends

Meeting A Fellow Blogger, Ikea, Cameras, Insurance.

Yesterday we took a little trip to Sydney. Our camera lens was finally ready to pick up. Canon had called us earlier in the week and let us know.

I’ve been on the internet since 1992. Some of the best people I have ever met I originally got to know via the internet. I used to be a part of an IRC chat group in Adelaide and they had meets all the time. I met The Other Half that way. We have ICQ text logs of our early chats that go on for pages and pages.

One of the other people I met, Simon, became our house sitter. He is the most beautiful person, inside and out. He went on to meet himself a girl who is also just as beautiful inside and out. Then they would both house sit for us. When we left Adelaide, we left them a lot of our furniture – and our fish tank!

Internet VS “Real Life” –

Always whenever we moved, our internet friends were the ones who showed up to help while the “real life” friends had excellent excuses. I soon learned I would rather have an internet friend than a “real” one – especially when we went through the difficult times with the other half’s ex wife. My internet friends stuck by me, the real life friends were nowhere to be seen. Not a one of them, and I’m not joking about that.

Plane Crazy –

We also met a lot of plane spotter friends online, some of whom became very dear friends indeed. One of them was a mentor to many of the younger plane spotters and encouraged them to go after their dreams, whether it was being a pilot, whether it was photography, or working as a plane engineer. Many of his mentees now work for Qantas, Virgin Blue and other international airlines. On top of all that, he was just the best bloke, funny and great to be around. People gravitated towards him. He was a magnet.

He also had cancer but he never complained about it, in fact a lot of people had no idea. When he died, we drove all the way from Adelaide to Sydney in order to be at the funeral. We felt like we had to be there and I am so glad we made that effort. I still miss him very much. His absence is noticeable in the community. He kept the egos out of it and since he left us to go to the great airplane spotting mound in the sky complete with beer and comfortable recliners the egos have got a bit out of control, sadly.

Scambaiter = Paranoid –

Then in 2004 I became a scambaiter and I suddenly became a bit.. paranoid. Well not exactly paranoid, more like determined to be anonymous. I was happy to be friends with the internet people we knew but I became a lot less open to meeting new people, especially people who knew about the baiting. I did meet with some scambaiters here in Australia, one of whom I adore (yeah that’s you Dbest03, and when are you coming to visit us on the South Coast?) and have met again since. Since moving to New South Wales we had not met anyone from the internet at all.

But Not Anymore –

All that changed yesterday. Meg from Dipping Into The Blogpond had invited us to drop in when we went to pick up the camera so right after Canon called I sent her an email and arranged to visit on Friday. We had a lovely time and Meg and her Other Half are wonderful people. I am hopeful the visit will be returned soon – and perhaps some of the Canberra bloggers might venture over to join us as well. Facibus, that means you!

Mild Confusion Reigned At Canon –

There was one unhappy moment in the day – when we got to Canon, there was some confusion over who was supposed to pay for the lens repair. Canon had not sent an invoice to the insurance company – which the insurance company had requested in their fax when they approved the repairs to go ahead. I don’t know how they expected to get paid if they didn’t send the invoice! We had to find a couple of grand on the spot in order to take our lens home with us – I’ll take the receipt into the insurance agency on Monday to get reimbursed. Yes, you heard it right – the repair was just under $2,000 – which is why we have specified insurance for that lens, for accidental damage as well as theft. I can tell you an iron grip will be kept on that camera lens from now on. We don’t want to go through that again!

People, insure your stuff –

It’s worth it. Our policy covers us to go anywhere in Australia with that lens and be covered for any event that might happen with it. It costs us the grand total of .60 cents a day to have four items specified – two laptops, the camera and lens. On top of that our policy itself covers us for unspecified personal effects up to $2,000.

A Pit Stop @ Temporal Vortex –

That unhappy moment was soon forgotten when The Other Half announced he was taking me to Ikea. YAY! All I wanted was a timer which would sit on my desk and chime when 55 minutes was up – then I can reset it for my 10 minute break. I almost got sucked into the temporal vortex when a chandelier called my name and told me to buy it. I was drawn to it and found myself standing there, holding the price tag ($29AUD, how reasonable) looking up at its brilliance, going all deer in the headlights. The Other Half did not notice I was missing because he was looking at computer chairs. When he spotted me he knew what was going on and he rescued me quickly, gently leading me away from the brilliance I wanted to buy. Unfortunately they did not have any left to sell. :(

But he did find me a springform cake tin, and a set of in trays which I wanted. It was a cheap Ikea trip at just under $50 and it was superfast, too. We were there for less than an hour.

Music Played –

Before we left we quickly created two cds – one each. It was a lot of music we hadn’t heard in a while and we totally rocked it out in the car, singing along. Neither of us can hear each other singing in the car – now that is a sign of a good car stereo! At least I always thought it was because I used to have a friend who was totally tone deaf who liked to sing.. ;)

Happiness Reigns –

Since moving in here – both the house and the new blog – days have been joyous. I have a lot of organization going on and it feels wonderful. I’ve been cooking some great meals. We had a week of cheesecake last week. I also have some fantastic incense and new oils for my oil burner which are keeping the house smelling amazing. The chores have been cut down because I am keeping on top of them. The kitties are happy, I’m happy, the other half is happy. I know that me merely mentioning this may cause some to dislike me or be mad at me purely based on my being happy, but I figured I should share it. Those who are my real friends will be happy for me. ;)

Blog Friends, IKEA, Sydney

De-Lurk

Sephy mentioned this today. Apparently it’s de-lurking week, when you take the time and stop by the folks you read in your Google Reader or Bloglines, and say hi. So say hi today :) I’ll have about 117 Hi’s to say, I’ll try to do it by the end of the week. hehe

I managed to stop (for now) at 6 episodes. It’s like a drug, people. I’m hooked.

I spoke with Anna Falactic about The West Wing a little while ago. I do think it is easier for a non-American to watch, because there’s a big distance between me and your politics. I really don’t know what the difference between a Democrat and a Republican is over there. But I don’t think The West Wing is so much about American Politics as it is about the people involved in the process. And I really like the characters.

Blog Friends, blog housekeeping, de-lurk, The West Wing

This movie may come to you as a surprise..

The other half and I don’t have the same taste in movies at all. I like to watch movies with him from time to time but it’s a big exercise in compromise for the most part. I have no desire to spend a couple of hours watching cartoons (ie anime) and most of the stuff he likes I just can’t stand. And vice versa. So tonight it came to me as a great surprise that a movie he chose turned out to be utterly fantastic – Gattaca.

I have never understood all the fuss about Jude Law, but I do now. Ethan Hawke was as always incredible. Uma Thurman was gorgeous and tall. The surprise for me was Loren Dean – who I recognised from somewhere but could not put my finger on where from – he played John Aaron in Apollo 13, one of my favourite movies. If you have not seen Gattaca, make sure to check it out. I really enjoyed it.

Oh, you remember the 10 things about me we did a while back? Sephy, I’m Not Craig, Ms Batville, Watershedd (with two d’s) and me all did it, and now Meva who has just returned from two weeks of snorkelling has done it too.. :)

If you are reading this and you are not one of the above named people, consider yourself obliged to post 10 things we don’t know about you, and then say you did it in the comments here. I’ll link to you. And for the NaBloPoMo people, this gives you something to blog about tomorrow/today!

Blog Friends, challenges, movies

I keep forgetting to put a title.. ;)

And now Sephy has completed the 10 things.. ;)

So what’s my plan for the day? Well so far it don’t look too windy, so I might run down the street and grab the spider spray so I can dead them all. Of course now I’ve said that by the time I get back it’ll be gale force winds. If I can’t spray the spiders, I might just scroll down until the Jetphotos sidebar stuff is on my screen, and then be hypnotised by it while playing nice music. I spent at least 30 minutes watching it yesterday. The pictures change, and it is just fascinating.. Seriously, scroll down and have a look at it. :)

Blog Friends

No excuses now..

I’m Not Craig got in first with the 10 things.. :) WHO’s NEXT? :) Come on, I’ll make a special post just for you.. ;)

And with that, it’s off to bed for me. We have family visiting this weekend so I have had to try and get back onto the normal time schedule, and it’s exhausting me. I’m ready for bed at 10pm. How do people get up at a reasonable hour every day? I’m such a better vampire than a day person.

Blog Friends

Sometimes that next blog button..

leads you down a path you didn’t want to go down.. or a path you really love!

I clicked that button so many times one day and once I ended up on this blog where there were dead people! That shocked me greatly and it was the first time I hit the flag blog button.

Tonight I found a blog with the same layout as mine but a different header background, something I will investigate doing myself soon, I should just be able to put a pic back there. From there, I went here after Sue wrote a comment and from there I clicked on the (not work safe, contains images which include male nudity, don’t blame me if you click on this link!) Mutiny on the Bounty blog.

Ladies, I ask you, what can be better than hot men and beautiful pictures of greek landscapes including beaches. Guys will hate that Mutiny On The Bounty blog but women will adore it. ;)

I would really love to find blogs written by drag queens that show some of the make up work they do. I’m gonna start looking soon.. ;)

Blog Friends