s'blog

Toilets, Fish, and Foolishness

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:19:50 -0400

Happy July, folks!

I am alternating between being tired and cranky and neither makes for uplifting and entertaining bloggage. So I have been practicing avoidance therapy. It works!

What have I been doing lately?

Fixing toilets... check... so proud of myself!

Finding a new home for my fish tank. Here it is at my place and in process of being dismantled...

Tank

And in its new home... GORGEOUS!

Tank new home

And going to good bye parties and social gatherings. Some of the shenanigans...

Since I was silly enough to let it slip that I did synchronized swimming in college, my colleagues honored me with a routine of their own... This was truly one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. The best part is how serious they all are.

Fallopian Tube Synchronized team

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Uploading New Banners...

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 22:46:18 -0400

...from the Vox Banners group. Steal away!

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A Way to Help the Midwest Flood Victims

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:31:46 -0400

There is an artist named Brian Andreas. He does colorful, rough, kind of childlike posters and sculptures that always look at life a wee bit differently than the rest of us.

Well, Brian to he rescue! He created a poster (18"x24") to benefit the Hurricane Katrina victims and is re-releasing it to support the midwest flood victims. It is $20 and $19 goes directly to the people. Take a look, if you like what you see it's a way to help.

Promiseposter

It says:

the water washed away everything
but the chance to begin again

so we came from cities & towns,
from long golden fields
& we stood side by side
until we made a bridge to dry land,

back to a place
we have promised to hold safe
for each other's children,

back to a place
called America

To order:
http://www.storypeople.com/storypeople/WebStory.do?storyID=2959&action=product&productCategoryID=1011

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Need Cat Transition Advice

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:10:22 -0400

So... this one is going out to my cat-loving hoodies and to cat groups because I need some advice.

I am about to move to another state to pursue a PhD. I currently live in cat paradise - lots of trees, lots of wildlife, very few people and cars - and my cats have a cat-door so they can come and go as the please. They are living the very best cat life possible, in my opinion.

cat paradise

living the good life

My new place has a HUGE backyard and a few trees but unfortunately is on a very busy road which will mean my cats will now need to be indoor-only and I am seeking advice from folks on how to help them transition from being indoor-outdoor as they please to indoor-only.

new yard

I expect it's going to be pretty rough on them. Going from having so much freedom and being able to be outside any time they want to having to be inside all the time. The whole world as their bathroom & scratching post to litter boxes and fake trees. Any things I can do on this end before the move to make things easier, like making them indoor-only now? Anything I could do on the other end to make the indoor-only life more satisfying?

Any thoughts, experiences, suggestions, words of wisdom are welcome!

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NeighborhoodFriends.com Instantly Plugs You Into Your Community

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 09:56:34 -0400

There is a really cool new social networking site that is launching from right here in my area - squee! We actually DO have more than cows! We have cows and computer geeks! Ha ha.

Anyway, it's really cool. It uses Google maps as the connecting tool. Have I mentioned that I have a crush on Google? I do. Is that weird?

Here's more info and a screenshot of what it will look like. It is launching on July 1 but you can pre-register now if you're interested.

Do you know your next door neighbor? Chances are you don’t, and it’s often not until a time of tragedy that we come together to overcome something terrible. Ronnie Rodes says, “One of the main causes for not knowing our neighbors is the invention of the garage door opener. We drive off to work and then come home without ever having to get out of the car so we never see or get to know who’s around us.”

July 1^st was the launch date for what Ronnie claims to be the world’s most advanced social networking system, NeighborhoodFriends.com. Throughout the world millions of people are enrolled into social networking sites and most of them enrolled while still in their teens. The only thing that NeighborhoodFriends.com will have in common with these other sites is that it too will be free, paid for by advertisers who want to target their products to a specific type of audience.

NeighborhoodFriends.com is a ground-breaking approach to meeting your neighbors on line that is now available throughout the United States and Canada. By utilizing a one-of-a-kind mapping feature, the user is able to quickly identify how close or how far they are to someone who they share something of common with. Here are just a few of the ways NeighborhoodFriends.com could help neighbors connect and find a…

jogging partner who is male, 35-45, and has children
person who works near where you work to carpool with
other first-time parents or special needs parents to bond with
babysitter, handyman, housekeeper, mechanic or yardman nearby
zealous sports fan to discuss your favorite teams
Girl Scout cookie salesperson or Avon representative
local business owner to do business with that’s nearby
small group from your church or a support group that is convenient
competitor who enjoys playing the same board game or sport that you do
missing pet or child through the special alerts that go out to each neighbor online

The possibilities are limitless, and in addition there will be community discussion boards, photo galleries, blogs, emailing and more.”The website is secure and will truly change many lives by encouraging us to know our neighbors”, says Rodes. The mission of NeighborhoodFriends.com is to encourage every neighbor to seek out new friendships within their community in an effort to help protect one another, thus improving the quality of life for all.

About NeighborhoodFriends.com

Founded in 2001 (before there was MySpace and Facebook), NeighborhoodFriends.com is an idea that founder Ronnie Rodes had while searching for other joggers and first-time parents within his new neighborhood of six months. That same year, Ronnie and his wife had their first child and being concerned for their son’s future, Ronnie included a way to use this website to help protect children within their own neighborhood following the example of the Amber Alert program.”In 2002, I did a door-to-door survey in my neighborhood and found that 99% of the people I interviewed would utilize such a web site if it were available. The only problem was that the technology to drive NeighborhoodFriends.com wasn’t available until many years later, and social networking sites weren’t so common at the time”, says Rodes.

With the help of his cousin and co-founder, Mike Rodes, the company was introduced to Extreme Exposure Media, a web site design company in Harrisonburg, Virginia, In August of 2007, they were hired to develop this most unique web site, and this energetic team of designers accepted the challenge to build the very best social networking site on the internet. With the aid of new mapping technology, NeighborhoodFriends.com is now able to utilize this key feature to show the location of the closest neighbors and/or groups that share areas of common interest.

NeighborhoodFriends.com was incorporated in 2002, and there is an ongoing campaign to add additional features to the web site on a monthly basis as the user base grows into millions. For additional information, visit the web site at www.NeighborhoodFriends.com or call 281-615-8000.

Myneighborhood

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Tagged by Jean

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:49:50 -0400

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago? Finishing a job in Massachusetts and getting ready to move back to Virginia to work at JMU and live with my ex.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today? Hmmm... what WERE five things... clean up office, work on purging & organizing files, meet with moving company for quote, work on plans for office moves & reorganization, get good-bye gifts for friends

3) Snacks I enjoy: chocolate, watermelon, Cheetos (but I never eat them), mandarin oranges, yugurt

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Pay off bills, give money to family members, give money to favorite charities, stay in school to get degree after degree after degree

5) Places I have lived: North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia again, and Pennsylvania in 5 weeks

6) Jobs I have had: Several gigs working in pet stores, several retail gigs, banquet worker, several temp office gigs, couple swim coach gigs, second grade teacher, Assistant Dean of Student Life & Innovation (best title ever), In-Home Family Therapist, Associate Director for the University Unions

7) Bloggers I am tagging who I will enjoy getting to know better: Crom74, CrankyPants, Stephel, Little Maio, Bookishly Fabulous, MexidCocktail

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Flooding at the University of Iowa & in Midwest

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:13:44 -0400

Wow... my heart is breaking right now for the folks in the Midwest. There is an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that talks about the efforts of the University of Iowa staff and students to save their campus. I've seen then devastating videos and photos of the floods, but there was something about seeing it happen to something I could so dearly relate to - a university campus - that has broken my heart.

I know that if this type of flooding had happened in our area, the JMU community would have responded in just the same way: human chains moving books out of the library, people piling up sandbags over every possible opening, carrying furniture and equipment and supplies out of harms way. I have no doubt that the campus would be a sea of purple and gold t-shirts day and night as people rolled up their sleeves and did the heavy lifting. I know that the people at the University of Iowa did the same thing, but couldn't stop the river.

Man. Sometimes it takes something so depressing and so devastating to get through the cracks, hit us in the heart, and remind us that we are all human. It's so easy for me, in the mountains of Virginia, to turn the channel or click past disturbing stories online. It's so easy to think of it as an "it" and not as the people who are losing everything. It's so easy to put it aside and not be aware.

Well, I'm aware. My heart is awake. I wish I could be there to help dig the buildings out. I wish I could write a check to help with recovery efforts. I wish I could wave a wand to make it all go away. And I will probably pull out my checkbook and do at least something to help. But in the best possible way I know how, I am sending my energy and my love into the connected human cosmos to give support. And I'm trying to raise awareness. Maybe you can help too.

Chronicle story on University of Iowa

<a href="
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uinews/">Flickr account showing flood and rescue efforts

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New Glasses

nobody@vox.com(stevie) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:39:15 -0400

Love them! I told the sales clerk I essentially wanted them to disappear. She did a good job. I have a hefty prescription and these lenses are light as feathers. Technology is a wondrous thing.

new glasses

Old Glasses

Glasses ha

Hee hee... just kidding. REAL old glasses...

Old glasses

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