I'm not exactly sure when it started, but I have definitely come to view this time of year as the "Season of More."
More lights.
More decorations.
More sparkly.
More frantic.
More love.
More hate.
More awesomeness.
Just basically "more" in general.
This isn't to say that the other seasons or holidays aren't full of their own kind of energy, but there just seems to be something about this time of year that makes everything extra intense, at least to me.
Maybe it's the way so many major religious & cultural celebrations all converge at once, or the fact that the weather around these parts (Pacific Northwest) is particularity wet & dreary (thereby forcing one to "think" more, as it's too damn crappy to go outside & frolic) but whatever the reason, it often seems that this particular time of year brings with it the ability to amplify actions & feelings to levels the other times of year just can't touch, which is both good & not-so-good.
It's not-so-good in that few things are more heartrending than reading about a family loosing their home or a loved one just days before they were all going to go to grandma's house (or wherever) to sit down to a warm holiday dinner with family & friends.
But it's good in that there is something about this time of year when every so often the stars aline, energy is created & something happens to turn what was initially a deep sadness into a time for unexpected joy.
I want to tell you a little Christmas story.
Not the kind where a town council decides to outlaw Santa & group of orphans manage to change their minds. Or where a little puppy with a limp is picked out of the litter by a young boy with a lame leg of his own. Or how a reindeer with no friends & a nasal condition saves the day, or even the one where a bitter old curmudgeon learns the "true meaning" of Christmas.
The story I am talking about is one about an English woman, a Dutch man & an American gal who found themselves faced with the terrible news that a little website they all frequented & had become good friends on was going to be closing in the New Year, as the site's owner had decided to move on to other things, as so often happens in this game we call "life." So after they had all posted their sad & shocked "good bye/good luck" posts they began to ponder what to do (and where to "go") next...& this is when the stars alined just right & that elusive holiday magic glimmered for just a moment, making the English woman send a PM (private message) to the Dutch man & the American gal saying that she had just sent a PM to the site owner asking him if he would be willing to let her take over the cost & such of running the site & if they would be interested in helping her.
So the Dutch man & the American gal (the latter of which had been just about to ask the site owner the very same thing) both said "yes" & the English woman relayed this to the site owner & asked the Dutch man & the American gal to do the same (which they did) prompting the site owner to reply that he was not opposed to their proposal & in fact another woman (who I think may also be American but I am not certain) had contacted him about the same thing.
So after many crossed PMs, the English woman, the Dutch man, the American gal & the other American (??) lady all got together & posted their plan "in the open" & received much advice & other help from other people who frequented the same site, included the offer to host many of the downloads from another Netherlands native. More advice followed, along with more posts of encouragement & what was once a "tragedy" was suddenly an unexpected "joy."
In short, sometime this coming January (by the 11th unless we decided to get a month "extension" on the current server) it seems that these 4 folks will find themselves the proud "owners" of a little website about a little game that brought them all together in the first place.
So here's another huge "thanks" to zephyerzodiac (the English woman), BoilingOil (the Dutch man), dark_author (a woman I am almost positive is from America), Leefish (the Netherlands woman) & TwoJeffs (the founder of the Simbology site) from me- Zirconia Wolf (the American gal) for making this holiday a lot less crappy than it was a few short days ago. Without you guys (& all you other Simbology fans) this holiday story would never have had the happy ending it does now.
It may not have the heart-tugging power of that puppy with a limp or that reindeer with the sinus problem, but to me it means a hell of a lot more.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Merry Fucking Christmas
Sorry 'bout the not-so-friendly post title, but it's how I'm
feeling at the moment so it's what I went with. That's the whole point of
having a Blog in the first place, isn't it? To have someplace you can freely
spout whatever drivel/sentimental crap you want to without any fear of *retribution*
or getting yourself banned from someplace. It's hard to get banned when you're
the one in charge!
So anyway, on with the post:
As I write this, I feel like I've almost literally been
punched in the gut.
As anyone
who *knows* me already knows, I am a huge fan of the Sims 2 & derive untold
pleasure from tinkering, tweaking & toying with the *lives* of my little
pixel minions. Sitting on a shelf just above my computer monitor are four well used
3-ring binders full of information on every one of my pixel peeps, divided by
neighborhood & diligently organized in a way that would likely only make
sense in my own strange little brain. Next to the binders is a row of no less
than 26 books of "baby names" from every culture imaginable, which I
refer to frequently when either naming a new character or bestowing a new
moniker on one of the more strangely named Maxis-made Sims. On my computer itself
there are almost countless folders containing my self-made "spread
sheets" & genealogy charts & story outlines & character
overviews & "read me" files for the myriad of hacks & mods
that I have downloaded over the years. And let's not forget the programs I've
installed to do everything from meshing (MilkShape 3D) to custom content
installing (Clean Installer & Delphy's Download Organizer) to file editing
(Wardrobe Wrangler, Sims 2 Categorizer, The Sims 2 Enhancer) to graphic editing
(PaintShop Pro X3, ArtRage Studio & GIMP) to manipulating the very game
files themselves (via the awesomely awesome SimPE.)
In other words that crazy, silly game takes up not only a
rather large chunk on my hard drive, but my *life* as well.
So why am I telling you this?
Because
hand-in-hand with my obsession has been the discovery of some truly amazing
people that I have met on some truly amazing sites. People that I've come to regard
as close, personal friends even though I've never met any of them face to face
& indeed likely never will, as most of them are not only from out of state,
but reside in completely different countries than I do. People who have got
married, had babies, bought houses, lost jobs, purchased computers & a
myriad of other things, all while we shared a deep & perhaps even indescribable
(to non-Simmers) bond, all because of a strange game that many people either
don't *get* or condemn as being *stupid* despite never having played it
themselves. People I respect, people I admire, people who I look forward to
*seeing* during my near daily trips to my favorite sites...people I fear I will
soon be losing touch with. Because in the midst of this holiday season with
it's lights & it's music & it's glitter & it's bows, I have just
learned than no less than 3 sites I used to haunt will be closing for good, one
in six months & the other two this very January.
No more
Ancient Castaways, no more CrazyTown & saddest of all no more Simbology-
the site where I not only met some of my dearest friends, but the site that
gave me the courage (and the place) to try my timid hand at creating my very
own game content.
The site that became a second home for me.
The site that I finally
broke 4,000 posts & officially became a "Whippy Whippersnapper"
which made me happier than I suppose most *normal* folks would say I should
have been over such a thing.
Of course
there have been offers from some folks to come *join* their sites, which is
nice, but all the people extending such invitations are fans of the Sims 3,
which while I understand many people are enjoying it, it is NOT the game for me
& I really enjoyed having a place (Simbology) to go where I could post
questions & pictures & read stories about I game I still adore &
greatly enjoy & know that the people who I was *talking* to shared my enthusiasm,
as much as I shared theirs.
This isn't
a *dig* at the folks who owned the sites that are closing, as I totally
understand about life moving on & interest changing & I truly hope they
all find joy in whatever endeavors they are moving on to...
...but it doesn't change the fact that in the midst of this
holiday season, with it's warmth & it's joy & it's presents & it's
message of peace on earth, the only thing I'm feeling at this particular moment
is the bitter sting of reality spitting in my face as it takes yet another
source of joy from what passes for my life.
So happy holidays & have a merry fucking Christmas.
So happy holidays & have a merry fucking Christmas.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Not Dead Yet
Just wanted to pop in & say that despite any rumors to the contrary, I'm actually still alive & with luck hope to get back to a semi-regular posting schedule.
Also wanted to say that I am in the (slow) process of setting up another blog, which I will be dedicating solely to my TS2 ramblings, leaving this blog as more of the usual what-I'm-up-to type of thing.
That's it for now.
Peace out!
Also wanted to say that I am in the (slow) process of setting up another blog, which I will be dedicating solely to my TS2 ramblings, leaving this blog as more of the usual what-I'm-up-to type of thing.
That's it for now.
Peace out!
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
What A Difference A Day Makes
It's 1:15 PM June 7th as I begin to type & quite frankly I'm not really sure what exactly to say. The last several days have been something of a blur...but blogs were made for rambling posts, so by golly that's what I guess I'll do!
It all started the morning of June 1st when I came upstairs to consider my breakfast options & noticed that my usually easy going father seemed to be rather under the weather. As he trudged into the bathroom (again) Mom explained that he seemed to have either food poisoning or a flu as he had been trowing up for the last few hours. Flu's are nasty buggers - but hardly uncommon - so we all went about our day pretty much like always...save for Dad wearing a grove in the floor from his chair to the bathroom & complaining of a sharp, constant pain throughout his abdomen. When no improvement was seen by that evening, we decided that if he was still this sick in the morning we would take Dad to the local emergency clinic. That plan was soon replaced when Dad declared he couldn't go through another night like he was & decided to go to the clinic right then.
Turned out to be quite literally a life saving decision on his part.
See, as it turned out Dad didn't have food poisoning or a bad case of the flu, he actually had a large portion of his small intestines dead from lack of blood flow & was soon on his way to Swedish hospital in Seattle for emergency surgery. He was mere moments away from having his bowel perforated...which, incidentally is exactly what killed the wife of my Tuesday night carving teacher a couple of years ago.
In short, as of 4 AM June 2nd, Dad's survival was looking like a long shot.
Enter the power of my post title.
I don't know if it was the prayers & thoughts of the people Mom, sis & I reached out to or Dad's seriously amazing ability to tolerate pain (or a bit of both?) but he was off the ventilator a day after surgery, up an walking faster than anyone ever hoped & is actually on his way home from the hospital today, 6 days after this whole thing started.
Just so this really sinks in, the average recovery time for folks undergoing the same surgery is 10-14 days.
I think the thing that best sums up this whole ordeal is when the surgeon who preformed the operation (and gave Mom & I the less-than-optimistic prognosis) came to see Dad just after the ventilator was out.
I don't know if I have ever seen someone with a more pleasantly surprised look on their face before in my life.
"Sometimes it's nice to put a check in the win column for the good guys" he said.
No kidding, dude.
No kidding.
It all started the morning of June 1st when I came upstairs to consider my breakfast options & noticed that my usually easy going father seemed to be rather under the weather. As he trudged into the bathroom (again) Mom explained that he seemed to have either food poisoning or a flu as he had been trowing up for the last few hours. Flu's are nasty buggers - but hardly uncommon - so we all went about our day pretty much like always...save for Dad wearing a grove in the floor from his chair to the bathroom & complaining of a sharp, constant pain throughout his abdomen. When no improvement was seen by that evening, we decided that if he was still this sick in the morning we would take Dad to the local emergency clinic. That plan was soon replaced when Dad declared he couldn't go through another night like he was & decided to go to the clinic right then.
Turned out to be quite literally a life saving decision on his part.
See, as it turned out Dad didn't have food poisoning or a bad case of the flu, he actually had a large portion of his small intestines dead from lack of blood flow & was soon on his way to Swedish hospital in Seattle for emergency surgery. He was mere moments away from having his bowel perforated...which, incidentally is exactly what killed the wife of my Tuesday night carving teacher a couple of years ago.
In short, as of 4 AM June 2nd, Dad's survival was looking like a long shot.
Enter the power of my post title.
I don't know if it was the prayers & thoughts of the people Mom, sis & I reached out to or Dad's seriously amazing ability to tolerate pain (or a bit of both?) but he was off the ventilator a day after surgery, up an walking faster than anyone ever hoped & is actually on his way home from the hospital today, 6 days after this whole thing started.
Just so this really sinks in, the average recovery time for folks undergoing the same surgery is 10-14 days.
I think the thing that best sums up this whole ordeal is when the surgeon who preformed the operation (and gave Mom & I the less-than-optimistic prognosis) came to see Dad just after the ventilator was out.
I don't know if I have ever seen someone with a more pleasantly surprised look on their face before in my life.
"Sometimes it's nice to put a check in the win column for the good guys" he said.
No kidding, dude.
No kidding.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
58 E-Mails & Counting
NOTE: This post is ridiculously long & rambling for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is my good old ADHD kicking into overdrive. I would apologize for this, except that I'm the only one who reads this thing & I figure I deserve what I get for reading a blog by me in the first place!
********************
As I look to the lower right corner of my computer screen - the part that always seems to play host to the myriad of important (and not-so-important) update notices, "must read" messages, invasive pop-ups & so many other annoying side effects of PC ownership - I can't help but see Thunderbird gleefully reminding me that I have 247 emails (236 of which are still unread) waiting patiently for me to sift through.
**247, eh? It was only 108 when I last bothered to check. I guess I better get a move on...but then, moving on is often easier said than done, especially in your world, isn't it?**
The astute out there will likely notice that it's been a while since my last blog post. Not that it matters, but there actually is a semi-reasonable explanation for that: I haven't exactly been "home" the last couple of months.
No, I haven't moved or anything: I'm still eking out an existence in the very same Seattle area basement room that I've been nesting in for too many years to care about anymore. The "home" I'm talking about - and the one I've been skillfully avoiding these past months - is the one I was stuck with when I first made my appearance in this unsuspecting little planet some 38 years ago.
Namely, my real life.
**Real life? That's a joke! Doesn't life involve actually doing something?? Speaking of which, you really need to get your head back into "screen-shot mode" & finish those TS2 pictures you started 2 months ago. Also, you should at least get a start on sorting through those all those darned emails...**
I've never been much of a fan of reality, having always preferred the worlds I created in my head to the one in which I seem to be stuck in, which has managed to prove out to be one of those blessing/curse things you hear about in sappy poems, sentimental song lyrics & overly dramatic movies.
On the "blessing" side I like to count my ability to completely suspend belief & my knack for total immersion in all things imaginative. (In fact I actively pity folks who can go see movies like Avatar, Inception, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or How To Train Your Dragon & then just get up & leave when the credits begin to roll.) I also like to count my artistic skills (honed by years of thinking not only outside the box, but outside the room - nay, the building - the box was sitting in) as well as my ability to entertain myself virtually anywhere at a moments notice. (This I credit to an imagination so vivid that I defy any drug dealer to find a substance that can get me even half as high as I can get myself with just a few moments of solitude, my over-active mind & maybe some paper & a pen.)
All those things - combined with an at times sarcastically sharp sense of humor & a sister who doesn't always think I'm a complete & total lunatic - have helped to make my survival on this stupid rock a lot more bearable than it likely could have been.
So what's the "curse" side of all this?
Pretty much the same as the above.
See, that same total immersion ability that makes a good book, movie or TV show so engrossing for me also means I can become so lost in them that I can gleefully spend countless hours obsessing over them. (When I say I'm a TS2 addict, I am not exaggerating. In fact, I'm not really sure "addict" is a strong enough word at times!)
That artistic ability I like to lay claim to also means I keep harboring delusions of self employment- delusions that lead to fights with my inner critic & fears of failure, keeping me in a spiral of non-action, which only fuels my desire to escape into my own reality.
My "unique" brand of humor often gets me labeled as having a negative attitude when dealing with people who don't know me well (which is really further proof that self employment is the only way I'll ever find an income again) & I know there are many times when my sister seriously debates the merits of bludgeoning me to death with the nearest heavy object & burying me someplace in our backwoods.
And as for my ability to entertain myself at will...well, that brings me to what I've been doing these last few months.
**Step one: sort everything by sender so you can separate out the useless crap quicker. Who the hell are "aquitami", "asimwen" "Gretchen B" and all those other names??? Ah, another batch of folks on that TS2 Yahoo group you so cleverly signed up for. Good lord! Just how many replies to a request for help about the stupid money cheat are really needed! Urg. Okay, delete everything that isn't a challenge update...and we're down to 211 emails with 201 unread. Awesome.**
It all started when I arrived home from my Tuesday night carving class back in March, actually March 1st to be exact. As I walked through the door with my usual dinner (Taco Bell's chicken tostada salad & I have a standing engagement on Tuesdays & Thursdays) I happened to notice the light was blinking on the answering machine, so I casually asked who had called. Turn's out, the caller had been my uncle & the call had been to inform us that my 92 year old grandfather had been taken to the emergency room after suffering a massive heat stroke. It seems his sometimes temperamental furnace had malfunctioned, sending the temperature in his home to over 100 by the time my uncle walked in for his nightly visit. Uncle found grandpa passed out on his bed & had to call 911 as he tried to keep grandpa from suffocating on his own vomit. In one of those "stroke of good luck" kind of things, grandpa's house is almost literally right down the hill from the local Fire Station, so help was on the scene mere minutes after my uncle dialed his cell phone. Apparently my uncle had called from the hospital & was still waiting to see how bad grandpa's damage was going to be.
By the way, when he was brought to the hospital, grandpa's internal temperature had been 109.
**Alright, what's next? Goodbye to you Amazon, Barnes & Noble, EBay & some other assorted spam. 183 emails with 173 unread. Yippee.**
The next several days were something of an unwelcome, surreal blur of car trips, hospital rooms, hand sanitizer dispensers & an oddly serene little waiting room with surprisingly comfortable chairs. At the end of the week, grandpa was released from the hospital & transferred to a local "rehabilitation center" while the rest of us started in on cleaning up the two very neglected spare bedrooms in his house. We also decided to paint his bathroom, which resulted in me managing to knock over a can of grey-blue paint & the purchase of a new toilet seat, but that's another story.
**So long Jerry's Art Supplies, Curves, Dilbert strips & Move On "dot" Org! That brings it down to 121 emails with only 111 left unread. Go me, go.**
The rehab center turned out to be...well, let's just say it's more than worthy of it's very own post, but all I'll say now is that I really feel that any place that claims to be good about working with the elderly should really bone up on their patient handling skill set in regards to dementia. And any rehab center that tosses a person aside the moment they are to sickly to "properly" participate in their rehabbing needs a swift kick in the...well, again, I think that's best left for a different day.
Grrrr.
Anyway, after his month long stay at the afore mentioned "Club Useless" grandpa is now residing in a small, privately operated "care facility" (the term nursing home conjures up too many negative images & really doesn't describe the place right anyway) where he gets 3 home-cooked meals a day & 24 hour supervision - the later of which he has actually needed for sometime now, but "family blindness" is a sneaky little bugger, isn't it?
**Sears, Rockler, Penny Press & more miscellaneous spam, be gone! 73 emails with 62 unread! Progress is mine! Boo-Ya! Take that, PC trash can!**
So just what in the holy heck does any of this crap have to do with where I've "been" the last few months? Well, remember that bit about my ability to entertain myself with little more than my obsessively overactive imagination? It seems that this latest bout of "family excitement" caused me to withdraw from my usual stress reliever (namely obsessively organizing the lives of the myriad of Sims who live in my TS2 game files) and fling myself rather unexpectedly back into an addiction that I actually hadn't thought much about for a few years now: namely my all-time favorite TV show, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. (Okay, I feel the need to clarify that I am talking about seasons 1-4 here & not the utter garbage that began in season 5 & took root in seasons 6 & beyond...but then, that's the awesome part of being me: in my world, the only seasons that "really" happened were 1-4 anyway. Gads, I simply love revisionist history!)
In short, instead of writing stories about Sims, I've been writing stories about NYPD's Major Case squad & their new semi-partners, the Extreme Victims unit.
In place re-scripting the lives of Don Lothario, Nervous Subject & Consort Capp I am re-scripting the lives of A.D.A Ron Carver, Captain James Deakins, Detective Alexandra Eames & Detective Robert Goren.
Rather than fleshing out NPCs & Townies like Kaylyn Langerak, Meadow Thayer & Goopy GilsCarbo, I have been filling in the gaps for characters like Detective Bishop (who never really got her due in the "real" world), Detective Eames (whom I have married off a second time to a child rights attorney named Jason Fisher) & Nicole Wallace (who doesn't heed the warnings of my alter ego & ends up very, very dead as it turns out that hell's real furry is actually a woman defending her man! Take that, you Australian bitch! Bwahahahah!)
Instead of creating new Sims like Preacher Dante (an evil Warlock), Jocasta Goth (a self-made 3rd child of the famous Mortimer & Bella Goth) & Zeebest Quizine (the storied evil rival of chef Julien Cooke that Maxis was to friggen lazy to create themselves) I am inventing characters like Chief International Marshall Jack Kelly (the US Marshall/Canadian Mounty who started the "Extreme Victims" crime unit, which is dedicated solely to solving the most violent, twisted & unusual of cases) Detective/Deputy Brian Cooper (my alter-ego's partner & long-time Deputy when she 1st arrives in New York), Detective/Agent Kevin Hanson (former FBI agent who becomes my alter ego's 2nd partner after Brian goes nuts & tries to kill her) & of course, the fiery Detective/Marshall Aryanna Taglioni (ace Extreme Victims specialist, superstar horsewoman, crackerjack gunslinger, rescuer of abused Great Danes & ultimately destined to become the love of Detective Goren's up-until-now pathetically sad & very lonely life. In case you missed it, she's my alter ego in this particular universe. Also in case you missed it, this whole universe exists just so Goren & my alter ego can eventually engage in the kind of stuff one doesn't write about in an unsuspecting blog. NC-17, eat your heart out, baby!)
In other words, rather than obsessing about my TS2 universe, I have been obsessing about an alternate Law & Order universe.
Well, that & making some much needed progress in the email sorting area.
**Okay, just deleted somemore spam & sorted out a few things I need to look through later. That just leaves 58 emails (with 45 unread) still to go.**
That's 58 emails & counting....
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Awesome Desk of Awesomeness
Since the point of a blog (as near as I can figure, anyway) is to blather on endlessly to anonymous strangers about things only interesting to one's own self, I figured I would write about my latest endeavor, namely the completion of the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness.
First, a little back story: As I mentioned in my last post, I like to fancy myself as something of a wood carving wolf, so I suppose that it's no surprise that I have an attraction to wooden furniture, the richer the better. (When I say "richer" I am referring to the depth of the color & the beauty of the wood grain, not the price tag! I am not exactly a wealthy wolf, you know!) Anyway in keeping with my "wood attraction" most of the furnishings in my private den (also known as a bedroom) are made of wood, including the desk that plays host to my Trusty Computer. Well, okay technically my current PC is really Trusty Computer III, but as I only ever have one PC at a time I don't mention any previous PCs to my current one out of respect for their feelings. Anyway, as the same desk has played host to all 3 PCs to date I think this is a minor point & was - quite frankly - not even worth mentioning.
Urm....
Well, anyway the desk I was using was quite functional & had been with me since sometime around my late Elementary/early Middle School days.
It was sturdy.
It was pretty.
It was reliable.
But it wasn't exactly on the "big" side. (Turns out that I am quite a bit bigger than I was back in grade school. Go figure.)
So for the last few years I have been on the lookout for what I perceived to be the perfect replacement desk. It had to be wood, but was best unfinished so I could do my own staining, which I love. It had to be affordable (as I mentioned before I am not a particularly rich wolf) & most importantly it had to be the right size. This was was where things got really sticky, as the desk in question not only had to accommodate me & my 6' frame + a PC, it also had to fit in one very specific spot as my "den" is packed to the gills. Then of course there was the printer/scanner/copier, the scanner (yes, I have a stand alone scanner too- stop judging me!) the Wacom tablet, the snazzy new stereo my mother had given me (which was currently relegated to a spot on the floor) the battery-backup surge protector, the game controller (both of which actually sit on a shelf above the desk but I wanted to mention them anyway) the computer speakers & my bizarre assortment of pens/highlighters/markers that I liked to keep close by. Oh yes, then there's my 3 computer mice (one I normally use, one the goes with the Wacom tablet & one that my uncle gave me that sits on my monitor & changes color- I said stop judging me!)
In short, the new desk had a hell of a "must have" list, which was why I had pretty much resigned myself to making do with what I had...until I happened to be in the parking lot of a local "strip mall" (more like a haphazard collection of owner-run shops) this last December & noticed that the local furniture store had it's usual display of clearance stuff sitting out front...
...including, the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness.
It was sitting on the left-most end of the row of furniture that had been placed outside in the freezing temperature it hopes of attracting interested customers. (The only businesses that have decent "people traffic" in this shopping center are the grocery store, the gas station, the feline veterinary clinic & the pizza joint. The other shop owners really have to struggle to get people to to come to their stores. Quite frankly, I am surprised they last as long as many of them do.) Now granted, I was virtually on the other side of the parking lot at the time, but even from that distance I could tell that the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness was different from any of the desks I had seen during my years of desk searching. I could tell it was big & I could see that it was unfinished (which is surprisingly hard to find these days, at least locally) but the thing that really grabbed my attention was that the pull-out drawer where the keyboard was to go seemed much longer than usual...long enough, in fact to accommodate a mouse pad & a Wacom tablet.
I was so attracted to the desk that after our workout (which is why we where at the "mall" in the first place) I talked mom into walking over to look at the desk up close. The desk was even more perfect than I could have imagined, both in size & space (it had separate compartments for both a CPU & a printer!) but when I looked at the price tag, my heart fell when I saw the $295 asking price. Granted, the original price was over almost $600 (and it had been reduced once before to the high $300s) but still it seemed like a lot of money to spend, even for such an amazing desk, so I sadly trudged away. However seeing the desk mad me think that there had to be something else (cheaper) out there somewhere, so mom & I began to poke around on the internet & see what we could find.
What we found was that it seems that it is ridiculously hard to find desks of any real size that don't require you to sell your organs to afford them. That $295 asking price was beginning to look like a pretty good one, but I'm a rather stubborn wolf & had convinced myself that I "couldn't" have the desk (how was I ever going to get the thing home?) so we kept searching. After a little more digging, mom found what looked like a decent contender listed for sale at - of all places - Ikea. I say "of all places" because despite the fact that I live relatively close to one of the few Ikea stores in the country, I had yet to set foot in the place. In fact, most of my Ikea knowledge (aside from what I see in their virtually continuous add campaigns) has been gathered via the Ikea SP (Stuff Pack) for my beloved Sims 2 game.
In short, my Sims have had more experience with Ikea stuff than I have.
Deciding that I should really go see what all the fuss is about (& still in denial about the desk I was destined to have) the family & I decided to go to Ikea & see the place for ourselves. So what did we think? Urm...let's just say that our Ikea experience was more than worthy of it's own post & since this post is getting long as it is, I will skip the gory details for now except to say that A) the desk I had gone to see was out of stock & B) if you are in anyway claustrophobic you should never ever ever set foot in an Ikea store, period. (Holy shit, how in the bloody hell is that place so goddamn popular??? Is everyone else on this stupid planet fucking insane???)
It was about this time that I was beginning to realize what I had known on some level the very first time I saw the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness: it was destined to be mine, no matter what it did to my bank account. (That's the problem with awesomeness: it doesn't often come cheap.) So after a few more days of me trying to talk myself out of it, I finally went ahead & bought the damn thing with my Xmas money. (The details of the purchase - or more precisely - the experience with the shop's owner are also worthy of their very own post, but for now I will just say this: There's a reason so many of the small businesses in my area are constantly struggling....)
So to make a long story short (too late!) I have been spending the last 3 weeks sanding, staining & finishing the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness to it's properly amazing self. There were a couple touch-n-go moments (like when I got it home & realized just how big the thing really was) but in the end things worked out fine. The old desk was removed & the Awesome desk is now in place & getting used to it's new duties as a computer desk/stuff holder.
I thought I would end this ludicrously long post with some pictures of the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness at various stages of the finishing process. (A big thanks to my dad who took the pictures!)
Okay, picture one is the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness in it's unfinished/naked state:
Keep in mind that this thing is (in inches) 62 long x 23 wide x 34 tall whereas the old desk was 33 long x 14 wide x 28 tall...so it is a lot bigger than what I used to have!
Picture two is the Awesome Desk with several coats of stain on it:
Ignore the stupid Shop-Vac. I was doing this project in the rec-room/basement area in front of my bedroom & there's a fair bit of clutter there. I like this shot as it shows the various pull-out drawers the desk has. That's a mahogany stain, if anyone cares.
Lastly we have picture three, taken mere minutes before dad & I wheeled the Awesome Desk into place:
Oooohhhhh. So shiny! That's 5 coats of a satin finish topped of with 2 coats of spray gloss. What can I say, I like shiny objects! (Of course it took me only minutes to scratch that finish when I was wrestling the damn CPU into it's drawer. @#$%!!!!!)
Okay, that's enough pointless blathering for now, so I think I'll sign off...until I decide to write about Ikea or my desk buying adventure details....* shudder *.....
First, a little back story: As I mentioned in my last post, I like to fancy myself as something of a wood carving wolf, so I suppose that it's no surprise that I have an attraction to wooden furniture, the richer the better. (When I say "richer" I am referring to the depth of the color & the beauty of the wood grain, not the price tag! I am not exactly a wealthy wolf, you know!) Anyway in keeping with my "wood attraction" most of the furnishings in my private den (also known as a bedroom) are made of wood, including the desk that plays host to my Trusty Computer. Well, okay technically my current PC is really Trusty Computer III, but as I only ever have one PC at a time I don't mention any previous PCs to my current one out of respect for their feelings. Anyway, as the same desk has played host to all 3 PCs to date I think this is a minor point & was - quite frankly - not even worth mentioning.
Urm....
Well, anyway the desk I was using was quite functional & had been with me since sometime around my late Elementary/early Middle School days.
It was sturdy.
It was pretty.
It was reliable.
But it wasn't exactly on the "big" side. (Turns out that I am quite a bit bigger than I was back in grade school. Go figure.)
So for the last few years I have been on the lookout for what I perceived to be the perfect replacement desk. It had to be wood, but was best unfinished so I could do my own staining, which I love. It had to be affordable (as I mentioned before I am not a particularly rich wolf) & most importantly it had to be the right size. This was was where things got really sticky, as the desk in question not only had to accommodate me & my 6' frame + a PC, it also had to fit in one very specific spot as my "den" is packed to the gills. Then of course there was the printer/scanner/copier, the scanner (yes, I have a stand alone scanner too- stop judging me!) the Wacom tablet, the snazzy new stereo my mother had given me (which was currently relegated to a spot on the floor) the battery-backup surge protector, the game controller (both of which actually sit on a shelf above the desk but I wanted to mention them anyway) the computer speakers & my bizarre assortment of pens/highlighters/markers that I liked to keep close by. Oh yes, then there's my 3 computer mice (one I normally use, one the goes with the Wacom tablet & one that my uncle gave me that sits on my monitor & changes color- I said stop judging me!)
In short, the new desk had a hell of a "must have" list, which was why I had pretty much resigned myself to making do with what I had...until I happened to be in the parking lot of a local "strip mall" (more like a haphazard collection of owner-run shops) this last December & noticed that the local furniture store had it's usual display of clearance stuff sitting out front...
...including, the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness.
It was sitting on the left-most end of the row of furniture that had been placed outside in the freezing temperature it hopes of attracting interested customers. (The only businesses that have decent "people traffic" in this shopping center are the grocery store, the gas station, the feline veterinary clinic & the pizza joint. The other shop owners really have to struggle to get people to to come to their stores. Quite frankly, I am surprised they last as long as many of them do.) Now granted, I was virtually on the other side of the parking lot at the time, but even from that distance I could tell that the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness was different from any of the desks I had seen during my years of desk searching. I could tell it was big & I could see that it was unfinished (which is surprisingly hard to find these days, at least locally) but the thing that really grabbed my attention was that the pull-out drawer where the keyboard was to go seemed much longer than usual...long enough, in fact to accommodate a mouse pad & a Wacom tablet.
I was so attracted to the desk that after our workout (which is why we where at the "mall" in the first place) I talked mom into walking over to look at the desk up close. The desk was even more perfect than I could have imagined, both in size & space (it had separate compartments for both a CPU & a printer!) but when I looked at the price tag, my heart fell when I saw the $295 asking price. Granted, the original price was over almost $600 (and it had been reduced once before to the high $300s) but still it seemed like a lot of money to spend, even for such an amazing desk, so I sadly trudged away. However seeing the desk mad me think that there had to be something else (cheaper) out there somewhere, so mom & I began to poke around on the internet & see what we could find.
What we found was that it seems that it is ridiculously hard to find desks of any real size that don't require you to sell your organs to afford them. That $295 asking price was beginning to look like a pretty good one, but I'm a rather stubborn wolf & had convinced myself that I "couldn't" have the desk (how was I ever going to get the thing home?) so we kept searching. After a little more digging, mom found what looked like a decent contender listed for sale at - of all places - Ikea. I say "of all places" because despite the fact that I live relatively close to one of the few Ikea stores in the country, I had yet to set foot in the place. In fact, most of my Ikea knowledge (aside from what I see in their virtually continuous add campaigns) has been gathered via the Ikea SP (Stuff Pack) for my beloved Sims 2 game.
In short, my Sims have had more experience with Ikea stuff than I have.
Deciding that I should really go see what all the fuss is about (& still in denial about the desk I was destined to have) the family & I decided to go to Ikea & see the place for ourselves. So what did we think? Urm...let's just say that our Ikea experience was more than worthy of it's own post & since this post is getting long as it is, I will skip the gory details for now except to say that A) the desk I had gone to see was out of stock & B) if you are in anyway claustrophobic you should never ever ever set foot in an Ikea store, period. (Holy shit, how in the bloody hell is that place so goddamn popular??? Is everyone else on this stupid planet fucking insane???)
It was about this time that I was beginning to realize what I had known on some level the very first time I saw the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness: it was destined to be mine, no matter what it did to my bank account. (That's the problem with awesomeness: it doesn't often come cheap.) So after a few more days of me trying to talk myself out of it, I finally went ahead & bought the damn thing with my Xmas money. (The details of the purchase - or more precisely - the experience with the shop's owner are also worthy of their very own post, but for now I will just say this: There's a reason so many of the small businesses in my area are constantly struggling....)
So to make a long story short (too late!) I have been spending the last 3 weeks sanding, staining & finishing the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness to it's properly amazing self. There were a couple touch-n-go moments (like when I got it home & realized just how big the thing really was) but in the end things worked out fine. The old desk was removed & the Awesome desk is now in place & getting used to it's new duties as a computer desk/stuff holder.
I thought I would end this ludicrously long post with some pictures of the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness at various stages of the finishing process. (A big thanks to my dad who took the pictures!)
Okay, picture one is the Awesome Desk of Awesomeness in it's unfinished/naked state:
Keep in mind that this thing is (in inches) 62 long x 23 wide x 34 tall whereas the old desk was 33 long x 14 wide x 28 tall...so it is a lot bigger than what I used to have!
Picture two is the Awesome Desk with several coats of stain on it:
Ignore the stupid Shop-Vac. I was doing this project in the rec-room/basement area in front of my bedroom & there's a fair bit of clutter there. I like this shot as it shows the various pull-out drawers the desk has. That's a mahogany stain, if anyone cares.
Lastly we have picture three, taken mere minutes before dad & I wheeled the Awesome Desk into place:
Oooohhhhh. So shiny! That's 5 coats of a satin finish topped of with 2 coats of spray gloss. What can I say, I like shiny objects! (Of course it took me only minutes to scratch that finish when I was wrestling the damn CPU into it's drawer. @#$%!!!!!)
Okay, that's enough pointless blathering for now, so I think I'll sign off...until I decide to write about Ikea or my desk buying adventure details....* shudder *.....
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Always Keep Your Tools Sharp
One of the rules that everyone who carves wood knows if that you should always keep your tools sharp. I know this because when I am not playing around in my Sims universe I am often found playing at being a woodcarver. (My passions are walking sticks & carousel figures though I am currently taking classes centered on N.W. Coast Native American style carving as that seems to be the only style most the instructors around here teach.)
So anyway, one of the first things one learns when one is a new carver is that you should always - but always - keep your tools sharp. This is second only to the Carver's Cardinal Rule, "Don't bleed on the wood!" (This is very important as blood is an absolute bitch to remove from wood & it always likes to splatter on the parts you hadn't planned on painting.) The reason for keeping one's tools razor sharp is that sharp tools cut better & better cuts mean cleaner cuts, on wood & on flesh. This speeds up the finishing or healing time, depending on the material cut.
The next thing one learns when one is a wood carver is that most carving injuries actually don't happen when you are carving, but rather when you are doing something else. For instance, one of the most common sources of injury is when it's time to clean the shavings off your workspace & rather than go over & get the whisk broom (which is usually all of 10 feet away from you) you decide to use your hand to sweep the shavings onto the floor & manage to impale yourself on a splinter. Another frequent source of ouch-ness is when you accidentally knock a chisel off your table & decide that trying to catch it makes more sense than just letting it hit the floor. (Hint for the stupid: floors don't bleed!) In short, most carving injuries happen when the carver is either lazy or not thinking straight...
...which is exactly what happened to me last night at carving class. (Technically, "Carving Class #2" as it was Tuesday & I also take classes - with a different instructor - on Thursdays. So why is Tuesday #2 & Thursday #1? Because I started my Thurday classes a good two years before my Tuesday ones.)
I had decided to put away one of the two rolls of tools I had out on my bench when I noticed that roll #3 (which was still inside my "tool tote") was laying at a diagonal angle instead of nice & straight like normal. As this meant that I wouldn't be able to put may other tool rolls away (as roll #3 was effectively taking up 2 spaces) I decided that I needed to rectify the situation.
Here's where the smart part of my brain gave up control to the other 90%.
The smart thing to do would have been to remove roll #3 & re-insert it into my tool roll cubbyhole so that it was no longer at an angle, thereby making it possible to place all 3 rolls in the cubbyhole. Of course this would mean that I would have to go through all the trouble of removing roll #3, after which I would then have to put back (which was at least as non-time consuming as it would have been to remove it) so I decided to just straighten the offending tool roll where it was & eliminate the whole take-it-out-and-put-it-back thing. Of course this meant that I would need to slide my hand into the cubbyhole (into which I can't see, by the way) & shove the back end of the roll into place...but hey, it was still way faster than taking the whole roll out & putting it back by a good 5 seconds at least!
So I stick my hand inside the compartment & try pushing the roll back where it belongs.
No dice. The tool roll won't budge & I think I hear it snicker.
No problem, I'll just give it a harder push...
Again, no dice. The roll stands firm & the snicker becomes a cackle.
Screw you, tool roll! I'll show you! Take that!
So anyway, one of the first things one learns when one is a new carver is that you should always - but always - keep your tools sharp. This is second only to the Carver's Cardinal Rule, "Don't bleed on the wood!" (This is very important as blood is an absolute bitch to remove from wood & it always likes to splatter on the parts you hadn't planned on painting.) The reason for keeping one's tools razor sharp is that sharp tools cut better & better cuts mean cleaner cuts, on wood & on flesh. This speeds up the finishing or healing time, depending on the material cut.
The next thing one learns when one is a wood carver is that most carving injuries actually don't happen when you are carving, but rather when you are doing something else. For instance, one of the most common sources of injury is when it's time to clean the shavings off your workspace & rather than go over & get the whisk broom (which is usually all of 10 feet away from you) you decide to use your hand to sweep the shavings onto the floor & manage to impale yourself on a splinter. Another frequent source of ouch-ness is when you accidentally knock a chisel off your table & decide that trying to catch it makes more sense than just letting it hit the floor. (Hint for the stupid: floors don't bleed!) In short, most carving injuries happen when the carver is either lazy or not thinking straight...
...which is exactly what happened to me last night at carving class. (Technically, "Carving Class #2" as it was Tuesday & I also take classes - with a different instructor - on Thursdays. So why is Tuesday #2 & Thursday #1? Because I started my Thurday classes a good two years before my Tuesday ones.)
I had decided to put away one of the two rolls of tools I had out on my bench when I noticed that roll #3 (which was still inside my "tool tote") was laying at a diagonal angle instead of nice & straight like normal. As this meant that I wouldn't be able to put may other tool rolls away (as roll #3 was effectively taking up 2 spaces) I decided that I needed to rectify the situation.
Here's where the smart part of my brain gave up control to the other 90%.
The smart thing to do would have been to remove roll #3 & re-insert it into my tool roll cubbyhole so that it was no longer at an angle, thereby making it possible to place all 3 rolls in the cubbyhole. Of course this would mean that I would have to go through all the trouble of removing roll #3, after which I would then have to put back (which was at least as non-time consuming as it would have been to remove it) so I decided to just straighten the offending tool roll where it was & eliminate the whole take-it-out-and-put-it-back thing. Of course this meant that I would need to slide my hand into the cubbyhole (into which I can't see, by the way) & shove the back end of the roll into place...but hey, it was still way faster than taking the whole roll out & putting it back by a good 5 seconds at least!
So I stick my hand inside the compartment & try pushing the roll back where it belongs.
No dice. The tool roll won't budge & I think I hear it snicker.
No problem, I'll just give it a harder push...
Again, no dice. The roll stands firm & the snicker becomes a cackle.
Screw you, tool roll! I'll show you! Take that!
***************************************
Did you know...
...that it is entirely possible for chisels to loose their protective caps?
...that duct tape makes a really good top-layer for a bandage & 5 layers of gauze?
...that it has taken me almost 2 hours to write everything above the asterisk marks?
Oh, & sharp tools not only cut cleaner than dull ones, they also cut a lot deeper...
Sunday, January 9, 2011
My First Real Post: Go Me!
Well since I finally managed to start a blog (despite my various limitations) I guess the proper thing to do is start blogging, eh? Of course now I need to come up with something to say beyond "Is this thing on", which is proving to be harder than I expected!
So, where to begin? How about the beginning...or at least, someplace close to it.
Hmmm. Okay, well as stated in my profile, I'm something of a strange wolf with a serious addiction to a computer game you have likely heard of called Sims 2. Yes, I said "2" not "3" & no, that's not a mistake or another case of my usual dyslexia. I am very much aware (painfully aware, in fact) that Sims 3 is the most recent offering in the Sims game series & no, that is not the game I am interested in. If I had meant 3 I would have said 3 now, wouldn't I? I didn't mean 3, I meant 2 & that's that.
If you detect a bit of hostility on my part toward Sims 3 then congratulations: your brain cells are, in fact connect properly! As far as I am currently concerned, Sims 3 (aka "Rod Humble's watered down & imagination devoid piece of crap") is such a travesty & a blasphemy of everything Wil Wright (the original creator of the series) ever envisioned that if it suddenly exploded, caught on fire, tripped & fell into a giant, smelly void to oblivion I would dance around my room singing "Ding dong, Sims 3 is dead! I hope Rod Humble's seeing red! With luck it smashed his @#$% head! Now I must get back to bed!" as I cackled with unparalleled glee. (For some reason I always envision this occurring in the middle of the night, either because that's the most likely time for crappy computer games to spontaneously combust, fall into smelly holes to oblivion & hit their money-hungry creators on the noggin or because I needed another word that rhymed with "dead", I'm not sure which.)
In other words, I would be a very happy She-Wolf!
Speaking of wolves (how's that for a quick change of subjects) you may have noticed my wolfish avatar & been wondering who she is & where I found her. Well her name is Lady Zirconia. She's a high priestess & a sorceress. She's a fierce protector of the innocent & a vengeful hunter of the wicked. She's an unequaled ally or a relentless enemy. She could be your dream come true or your worst nightmare. She is my personal alter ego & her stunningly amazing picture was a commissioned piece done by Christy Grandjean (aka "Goldie") the owner of the Goldenwolfen art site. While my avatar is only a closeup of her head, you can see a picture of the entire piece here:
In truth, even the full-body JPG doesn't do her proper justice (for instance those grey tribal markings have an icy blue aurora iridescence on the actual drawing) but she's still gorgeous! I chose the closeup for my avatar as it shows her stunning "I could kiss you or tear your throat out" expression, which I simply adore!
I should also take this moment to note that - as beautiful an avatar that she makes - she is NOT for use by anyone except me. She is mine, not yours. I paid for her, you didn't. She was personally created for me, not you. If you love anthropomorphs & admire Christy's work as much as I do, then either go to her site & pay her for your own commissioned piece (3 figures for one like Lady Zirconia) or use one of the non-commissioned pictures there for your avatar, character icon, desktop wallpaper, website graphic or whatever. (Christy is fine with that, so long as you follow her rules about adding her name/copyright to the picture & don't claim it as your own.)
In other words, don't steal her for your own use! If you do you are not only committing art theft (which is a punishable offense btw, no matter what you may have been told elsewhere) you will also earn the full wrath of not only me but Lady Zirconia herself. For you see, in addition to being a sorceress & such, Lady Zirconia is also the all powerful goddess of my Sims 2 universe & is more than capable of dealing with a 12 year old who thinks rules don't apply to them. (All trolls, art thieves, spammers, flamers & other such a-holes are assumed to be 12 by Lady Zirconia as she knows that intelligent beings don't do such things & therefore are not 12 years old.)
So before you do something stupid you might want to ask yourself if it's worth angering a wolf-goddess with such unparalleled powers of vengeance at her disposal. After all, if she can do what she does to some of the less desirable Sims in my game, a mere 12 will an attitude problem be vaporized without even blinking her sultry eyes.
If you don't believe me, then you can ask Goopy GilsCarbo what she did to him...assuming you can get him to stop screaming long enough to tell you.
And with that Sims 2 reference, I have finally managed to bring this post full circle & will sign off for now.
So, where to begin? How about the beginning...or at least, someplace close to it.
Hmmm. Okay, well as stated in my profile, I'm something of a strange wolf with a serious addiction to a computer game you have likely heard of called Sims 2. Yes, I said "2" not "3" & no, that's not a mistake or another case of my usual dyslexia. I am very much aware (painfully aware, in fact) that Sims 3 is the most recent offering in the Sims game series & no, that is not the game I am interested in. If I had meant 3 I would have said 3 now, wouldn't I? I didn't mean 3, I meant 2 & that's that.
If you detect a bit of hostility on my part toward Sims 3 then congratulations: your brain cells are, in fact connect properly! As far as I am currently concerned, Sims 3 (aka "Rod Humble's watered down & imagination devoid piece of crap") is such a travesty & a blasphemy of everything Wil Wright (the original creator of the series) ever envisioned that if it suddenly exploded, caught on fire, tripped & fell into a giant, smelly void to oblivion I would dance around my room singing "Ding dong, Sims 3 is dead! I hope Rod Humble's seeing red! With luck it smashed his @#$% head! Now I must get back to bed!" as I cackled with unparalleled glee. (For some reason I always envision this occurring in the middle of the night, either because that's the most likely time for crappy computer games to spontaneously combust, fall into smelly holes to oblivion & hit their money-hungry creators on the noggin or because I needed another word that rhymed with "dead", I'm not sure which.)
In other words, I would be a very happy She-Wolf!
Speaking of wolves (how's that for a quick change of subjects) you may have noticed my wolfish avatar & been wondering who she is & where I found her. Well her name is Lady Zirconia. She's a high priestess & a sorceress. She's a fierce protector of the innocent & a vengeful hunter of the wicked. She's an unequaled ally or a relentless enemy. She could be your dream come true or your worst nightmare. She is my personal alter ego & her stunningly amazing picture was a commissioned piece done by Christy Grandjean (aka "Goldie") the owner of the Goldenwolfen art site. While my avatar is only a closeup of her head, you can see a picture of the entire piece here:
In truth, even the full-body JPG doesn't do her proper justice (for instance those grey tribal markings have an icy blue aurora iridescence on the actual drawing) but she's still gorgeous! I chose the closeup for my avatar as it shows her stunning "I could kiss you or tear your throat out" expression, which I simply adore!
I should also take this moment to note that - as beautiful an avatar that she makes - she is NOT for use by anyone except me. She is mine, not yours. I paid for her, you didn't. She was personally created for me, not you. If you love anthropomorphs & admire Christy's work as much as I do, then either go to her site & pay her for your own commissioned piece (3 figures for one like Lady Zirconia) or use one of the non-commissioned pictures there for your avatar, character icon, desktop wallpaper, website graphic or whatever. (Christy is fine with that, so long as you follow her rules about adding her name/copyright to the picture & don't claim it as your own.)
In other words, don't steal her for your own use! If you do you are not only committing art theft (which is a punishable offense btw, no matter what you may have been told elsewhere) you will also earn the full wrath of not only me but Lady Zirconia herself. For you see, in addition to being a sorceress & such, Lady Zirconia is also the all powerful goddess of my Sims 2 universe & is more than capable of dealing with a 12 year old who thinks rules don't apply to them. (All trolls, art thieves, spammers, flamers & other such a-holes are assumed to be 12 by Lady Zirconia as she knows that intelligent beings don't do such things & therefore are not 12 years old.)
So before you do something stupid you might want to ask yourself if it's worth angering a wolf-goddess with such unparalleled powers of vengeance at her disposal. After all, if she can do what she does to some of the less desirable Sims in my game, a mere 12 will an attitude problem be vaporized without even blinking her sultry eyes.
If you don't believe me, then you can ask Goopy GilsCarbo what she did to him...assuming you can get him to stop screaming long enough to tell you.
And with that Sims 2 reference, I have finally managed to bring this post full circle & will sign off for now.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Is This Thing On?
This is just a test to see if I am able to figure out this whole "blogging" thing...
...which apparently I am! Not that I will have anything interesting to say, but it's not like being interesting is a blogging requirement (thank goodness!) so I should eventually fit right in.
Now to see if I can figure out what all the different templates & layouts do...
...which apparently I am! Not that I will have anything interesting to say, but it's not like being interesting is a blogging requirement (thank goodness!) so I should eventually fit right in.
Now to see if I can figure out what all the different templates & layouts do...
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