I just treated myself to a Paid Account here. Woo-hoo!  Never bothered before; didn't think that the degree to which I used LJ warranted the expense. And that was even back when I used it regularly ... i.e. before I fell into my personal pit of gloom that made even passing comment on someone else's journal a labor of Hercules (albeit a previously ( Read more... )

I really missed having access to the Internet this weekend.

I thought I missed the Internet this weekend...  Apparently, I should instead be glad I was occupied with alternate activities :D

(PS: if you sent me email in the past two days, I may have inadvertently deleted it in a mass purge. Please resend.) 

( 2 minutes since the credits rolled )

Or, rather, 10-point-4, the current unemployment rate in my home county, announced with due solemnity on today's news. I'd figured we'd be there or thereabouts by summer, but summer's still a long way off . . . and this is one of those benighted boroughs that actually voted for McCain. I'm sure they'll justify that by somehow blaming this alarming ( Read more... )

After so little activity on my part this year, I was completely caught out by a nomination for the Torino Awards. Wow... Beta reader? And for as little as I ever do . . . double wow! A nice diverse group of fellow nominees there, too, I see, and I'm deeply honored to be included.

On the other hand, fic nominations appear to be few and far between, ( Read more... )

I was not born on these shores, I'm not even a naturalized Citizen.
So why does Ray Charles' "America The Beautiful" (following a speech by President Elect Obama) have me blubbering like a baby?

We're under a winter storm warning, so when the weatherman says we could see between 3 and 15 inches accumulation, is that a margin for error intended to encompass a wide geographical area, or just a wild guess?

I'm having issues with uppercase letter "I" on LJ - as soon as I've keyed it, my font loses its formatting. I haven't yet determind whether ( Read more... )

I'm so often not on LJ, I forget what fun it is, and how damn useful. But then I  wander back and wonder why I wandered in the first place. There are such amazing folks here. Wonderful fuzzy-warm folks who fill my head with joy-joy thoughts, or food for thought, or fill my fic-need and my fannish wants.

For instance, janedavitt  wrote me J/B/bicycle pr0n ( Read more... )

My dearheart aesposito , sent me this bulletin issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

It tickles me mightily that it's dated today. Could it be that someone in DC is listening? Now, if only their answers weren't quite so ambiguous. They indicate a focus now on toys, rather than clothing, saying, no, resellers don't have to test their ( Read more... )

Pretty good entry from the blogospere on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, written by someone who's got more time for research than I!

Congressman Gus Bilirakis wrote to the Consumer Product Safety Commission asking for clarification of the law, and the Florida news agency 10 Connects went to the agency themselves to get clarity on ( Read more... )