Alrighty, I still need to make some tweaks, but I have a new home: http://lunapath.net. So, please update your bookmarks and links, and I'll see you over there.

I'm so excited!

I did it! I ordered a Wacom Tablet, and it should be here on Wednesday. I've been coveting one of these for a while, so I'm pretty excited.

The Intuos3 professional pen tablet makes it easy to quickly and professionally edit photos and create digital artwork by turning on the full power of Adobe® Photoshop®, Corel® Painter™, and over 100 other leading software applications. Create universal settings for your pen and tablet or alter your settings by application for maximum productivity.

I'll let you know how I like it after it arrives!

So, I haven't put up a significant post in a while, some would say ever, and I really haven't posted any photos in a while.

I'm currently trudging through a pile of magazines that seems endless. Maybe I should seek help for my magazine addiction. I'm about two chapters into The Golden Compass, and I'm finding that I really like it, but then another magazine says, "No, read ME!"

Christmas was alright, and I slept through New Years. New Years has just never been that exciting to me. Dan and I each received a ten dollar gift card to Borders, which I used online to get Wordpress for Dummies and DragonArt. I am sorely unimpressed with DHL's delivery service. I ordered both books separately (which is a whole 'nother story), and the first book arrived about 10 days late, while the second book came two days before the first one was due to arrive. Why one book needed to go from Arizona to Ohio to Utah to Montana, while the other only went from Arizona to Montana, I'll never know.

I had the distinct pleasure of restoring our computer to factory settings. The sfc /scannow command yielded a lovely corrupt file it couldn't repair which was causing software to stop running. I tried every possible fix I could find online, which included a system restore to a point saved on December 29. That was a mistake which caused I-don't-know-how-many registry errors. If I try to look on the bright side, it's almost like getting a new computer all over again. Wait, there's all that advertising to remove, Windows Vista security to turn off, patches to install, yada yada. There is no bright side. None at'all.

Ah well, it's done now. And I always have cats to entertain me.

I've had this Dendrobium for several years, and it blooms every year. This year it has three bloom spikes, and I expect them to last for several more months.

A Bozeman, MT lawyer is installing a 1000 gallon shark tank. I guess he's bringing in partners to his firm. I'm kidding. I actually don't mind lawyers, and it's nice to see one with a sense of humour. Being a fish geek, I also can't wait to see how the tanks turn out.

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) -- It started out as a joke - a lawyer putting a shark tank in his office.

"I said, 'What would it take to put a shark in a lawyer's office?'", and it kind of took off from there, said attorney Christopher Gillette.[...]

Gillette plans to fill the saltwater tank with a miniature marine ecosystem, including at least two sharks - a blacktip reef shark being flown in from the Caribbean Sea and a bamboo shark that will be hatched from eggs in the tank.

Read the full story at the Flathead Beacon

1. To not make any resolutions that I can't keep.
2. ...Hmmm.

Oh well, hope everyone has a great 2008!

Can I write a blog post using Dragon Naturally Speaking?

Why yes, yes I can. And let me tell you, it is awesome!

I think this is the height of laziness.

Merry Christmas, and all that stuff.

Presents are wrapped, envelopes have been made for gift certificates, and everything is packed and ready to go.

I did no cooking or baking this year. Maybe next year.

I have my jammies on, and I'm ready to crawl into bed, watch the last disc of Lost season 3, and wait for Santy Claws.

Dan is working night shift tonight, but will be home bright and early in the morning. I wish he were here, but OH the holiday pay!

I will not be watching the A Christmas Story 24 hour marathon. I have watched It's a Wonderful Life, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Christmas Carol more times than anyone ever should.

I have no intention of being caught at any store on December 26. I value my life too much. Although, I survived the crowds surprisingly well this holiday season. I only snapped at two people. :O

And can I wrap, or can I wrap?

I could watch this video over and over:

Keepon is a Beatbot developed by Hideki Kozima and programmed by Marek Michalowski. To be clear, Keepon is a robot, not a puppet, as some have assumed. Check out the website to see his insides: Beat Bots dot org.

The song is Spoon's I Turn My Camera On.

Human social behavior shares much in common with dance. Our speech, as well as the movement of our body, head, and hands, is periodic and rhythmic. The goal of the BeatBots project is to develop robots that can interact with people by synchronizing with these social rhythms. We believe that rhythmic synchrony is as important for establishing engagement, rapport, and comfort between a robot and a person as it is between people.

I think I'm going to lose my geek-cred here, but my electronics thumb has turned black. I can't connect my Nintendo DS through the Wi-Fi; the Wii no longer remains connected (even though I have Wii Connect 24 turned on). Our internet connection is intermittent; if I ever want to use my webcam I have to close all other applications that might want to use it (this is new -- before, I could have Yahoo and Skype open and use the webcam). My scanner doesn't want to scan, and the printer takes it's own sweet time, that is, if it's in the mood to print. And... our DVR decided it doesn't want to record anymore. :X

I'm sure I can fix everything if I just sit down and figure everything out, but it's so overwhelming. All I want for Christmas is for someone to come and make everything all better.

On the plus side, I did get The Legend of Zelda installed and running on my calculator. WooHoo! B)

Well, the votes pertaining to this post are in.

The tally is:
The Golden Compass - five votes
The Secret of Houdini - three votes
and
One write in vote of for East of the Mountain.

I'm going to stick to the votes, so after I finish How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, I will start The Golden Compass. Thanks for the help! After reading a few pages I think I'm really going to like this book.

I totally stole this, I wasn't tagged, and I'm not tagging anyone. I feel no guilt. :P

1. Wrapping or gift bags?
Mostly wrapping paper, but sometimes a gift bag just works better.

2. Real or artificial tree?
Artificial all the way. I'm terrified of house fires.

3. When do you put up the tree?
December 10, my birthday.

4. When do you take the tree down?
January 2.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yuppers! I especially like eggnog milk shakes.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Oy! I have no idea, I don't even remember them. Maybe Frosty, the Siamese cat I was given. I woke up Christmas morning and she was hanging out of my stocking.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Um, that would be a vehement 'NO'.

8. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
Fabric Softener, and a six-pack of Coke.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Snail mail, if I remember.

10. Favorite Christmas Movie?
Meet Me in St. Louis.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
Christmas Eve.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Home made noodles. Otherwise known as pure cholesterol.

13. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
My Christmas tree has clear and blue lights. The multi-coloured ones are just tacky to me.

14. Favorite Christmas song?
Maybe Deck Us All With Boston Charlie.

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
We usually go to Hungry Horse, but that's not exactly major travel.

16. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Vixen, Donner, Blitzen, Dasher, Dancer... Rudolph? I guess not.

17. Angel on the tree top or a star?
You can probably guess this one -- a star.

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?
What's the point of Christmas if you're going to open presents on Christmas Eve?

19. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Where should I start? Pushy, rude shoppers, carolers, carols, Salvation Army bell-ringers, fruit-cake, long-lines at the post office/store/bank, etc., etc.

20. Do you decorate your tree in any specific theme or color?
I suppose my tree has mostly blue ornaments.

21. What do you leave for Santa?
A warning not to drink and sleigh. 'Cause you know people leave him booze!

22. Least favorite holiday song?
That effing bells song.

23. Favorite ornament?
My stuffed Classic Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore ornaments.

Do you ever get so backlogged in your reading that you just don't know where to start? My to-be-read pile hasn't gotten so large that I'm just overwhelmed. Can you help me decide which one to read first? I've narrowed my list down to several books, they are:

1. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

2. The Secret of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman

3. The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke

4. Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue

5. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet

OR

6. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

So, which one?

1. Building: anT uHp ytE Alk tTr wRq asE Theatre
2. Kettledrum: qwT gIg hjM klP All rNq ttI Timpani
3. Image: pPo ghI kCl axT dUg nRm Eue Picture
4. Music: Sds fOf Uhk jNl Dlk Sound

The Riddles:
#1 -- The third room, it's full of dead lions.
#2 -- The woman is a photographer. She took the photo, developed it, then hung it to dry.
#3 -- Freeze the jugs, cut or break away the jugs then place the ice in the barrel.
#4 -- Charcoal
#5 -- Yesterday, today and tomorrow.
#6 -- The entire paragraph is written without the use of the letter 'E'.

How'd you do?

From Braingle

What is This?

In this teaser, I have given you 4 words. Beside each word is a series of letter groupings. Your task is to find the answer to the word on the left by choosing one letter from each of the letter groups to the right of each clue.

Example:

Statuette: fro evi gse rpu lor nai ngd rep

Answer:

Fgo evI Gse rpU loR naI Ngd rEp = FIGURINE

1. Building: ant uhp yte alk ttr wrq ase
2. Kettledrum: qwt gig hjm klp all rnq tti
3. Image: ppo ghi kcl axt dug nrm eue
4. Music: sds fof uhk jnl dlk


And just a few more riddles:

1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years - Which room is safest for him?

2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 10 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together - How can this be?

3. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?

4. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?

5. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?

6. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it! In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out! Try to do so without any coaching!

I'll post the answers tomorrow.

Today I am 30 years old. 30. %@?#$!

Courtesy of Day of Birth:

I was born on a Saturday.
My star sign is Sagittarius (it's also my moon and rising signs).
The season was Autumn.
I am 30 years, 0 months, 0 days old.
It is 366 days until my next Birthday.
I am 10,957 days old.
I am approximately 262,989 hours old.
I am approximately 946,761,692 seconds old.