Note to Self: Embed Bobka’s eggs in resin.

• Ric-Rac: Extreme crafting – resin jewellery

Then they’ll last forever and won’t smell like rotten eggs.

I’ll have to practice on non-Bobka eggs first so I don’t screw hers up.

Via: Craftzine.com blog: Adventures in Casting Resin

• April Geek Lunch TODAY 1pm at RODIZIO GRILL in SLC http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/470822/ #
• I haven’t been followed on Twitter by a REAL person in months. It’s all spammers that are following thousands. #
• Heading to the Geek Lunch at Rodizio! #

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It’s rare when I REALLY laugh out loud and not just chuckle to myself and say that I LOL. This video was one of those REAL LOLs!

My favorite part was the corporeal cuddling for punishment (it works) and cat yodeling!

Via: Cute Overload! :) An Engineer’s Guide to Kittehs [eye roll]

• April Geek Lunch TOMORROW 04-18-08 1pm at Tucanos in SLC http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/470822/ #

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Lola Jo Lipe by Laura Moncur from Flickr

This is a photo of my grandmother as a young girl during the tail end of the Great Depression. If she could live through that, then so could I, but articles like this make me paranoid:

• Economic Survivalism: 12 Ways To Prepare For The Next Great Depression

Here are some great ideas to survive a economic downturn:

• Avoid debt at all costs.
• Get out of your mortgage before the housing market collapses any further.
• Buy some cheap land in a rural area.
• Go off the grid. Get your own power generator or some wind turbines.
• Cultivate some skills that will always be in demand.
• Offshore yourself.
• Invest in the ultimate counter-cyclicals.
• Invest in some Euros, or some other currency that’s not the dollar.
• Have some liquid funds on hand.
• Plant a garden or take part in a community garden in your neighborhood.
• Learn to hunt.
• Stockpile medications.

I was raised by 1970’s Jehovah Witnesses. Armageddon was always around the corner back then. Now, I don’t fear God’s wrath. We humans can make each other far more miserable. I guess I better find some land in the middle of nowhere and a wind turbine…

I am speaking at Valley High School today. Their teacher asked me to answer this question:

As the time grows near for me to leave home, what is the most important message or belief that you hope I will take with me and remember throughout my entire life?

The biggest thing that bugs me about motivational speeches is the idea, “Believe in yourself.”

I think that’s a load of baloney.

Every stupid movie you see nowadays keeps repeating the mantra, “Believe in yourself. Believe in yourself,” over and over, but I’m here to tell you that it’s wrong and it will steer you wrong more often that not.

I had a teacher when I was in ninth grade who taught us to “Question Everything.” That is a much more livable philosophy in my mind. Question everything, including yourself, and keep questioning until you get the answer that works.

My husband and I run the oldest quotations site on the Internet. We have over one million unique visitors to our site every month. If you type the word “quote” into Google, we’re number one. We started the site in 1994 when the Internet was young. We’re actually OLDER than Google. We have an email from Jerry Yang himself saying that he was adding our site to his web directory called Yahoo!

Did we get where we are by “believing in ourselves?” Nope.

We started the Quotations Page because quotes were something that we liked. By the time 1998 rolled around, we were paying a TON of money for bandwidth to keep the site running. At that point, we had a choice: figure out how to make the site profitable or shut it down.

Neither one of us thought that we could ever make the Quotations Page profitable. We just kept asking the question, “How can we keep the site running without going broke?” The answers came from all over. We joined a few of the ad networks, dealt with the angry visitors who didn’t think we should have advertising and kept it up and running.

Since both of us suffer from low self-esteem, we never in our wildest dreams believed that the Quotations Page would eventually make us enough money to live on. We never thought that it would be our one saving grace during the Dot Bomb. We never had that stubborn “believe in yourself” attitude that all the heroes in the movies had. The only thing that saved us is that we were willing to question everything and keep questioning until it worked for us.

I’ve seen too many people butt their heads against a wall because they “believe in themselves” instead of asking the right questions to become successful. You don’t need confidence. You don’t need high self-esteem. You don’t need to believe in yourself. All you need to do is question EVERYTHING, and keep questioning until you get an answer that works.

Note to self: Make a business card cube like this one:

• Ned Batchelder: How to make business card cubes

Via: 12 Unique Business Card Advertising Displays

The Joy of Tech comic: Blogging Warnings

I got this warning sticker from the Joy of Tech this morning. Sometimes I need to remember this advice.

Is it wrong for me to feel like this postcard from PostSecret is a personal birthday message for me?

I like to imagine that all those great people out there who influenced me over the years are thinking that I turned out alright and they had something to do with it. It’s true, you know…

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

I woke up and turned on my Nintendo DS to play a little Animal Crossing before Mike woke up. My friends greeted me with a birthday cake!

My mailbox was filled with letters and presents from my friends and my “mom.”

I love this one! I’m “almost an adult.” I guess I won’t graduate to full-blown adult until I STOP playing Animal Crossing!

It’s turning out to be a most excellent birthday. Who says that having imaginary friends is a bad thing?

Discarded Honor by Laura Moncur from Flickr

I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a valedictorian medal at Thrift Town. Jessica L. Eriksson graduated valedictorian from Viewmont High School in 2005 and just gave her medal away to a thrift shop. It made my heart ache to see it there.

When I think of how hard I worked to get as far as I did, it makes me sick to see it. Our school was so competitive that a 3.96 GPA wasn’t good enough. Neither was a 4.0. You had to take all the AP courses that were weighted and still we had two people with a GPA over 4.1. Suzanne Clark and Aracelli Rojas were our valedictorians at Kearns High in 1987. I wonder if they got a nice medal this shiny and clean with their names engraved on the back?

Two bucks. That’s what it cost me to buy a valedictorian medal. Is it just easier now? Did Jessica not care about it? Did it somehow get lost with the old clothes and end up at Thrift Town on accident? If it had been me, there would have been no mistakes. That thing would have been framed and mounted on the wall. There would have been no way for me to lose that accolade.

Jessica, I see you won fourth place in the State Finals for the FBLA in Accounting in 2005:

• FBLA STATE CONFERENCE WINNERS 2005: Who’s Who in FBLA

I also noticed you ran the 5K in 27 minutes and 38 seconds in October of 2004.

• 5A JV Girls 5K Results

You finished in 64th place. Is that good? Is that bad? You beat my best 5K time by three minutes. Three minutes and 0.3 GPA points. That’s the difference between a winner and a loser in these little races of human competition, but how fast do I need to run in the race of life?

Jessica, if you want your valedictorian medal back, you can’t have it. I’m pretending it’s mine now.

• WordCamp First Draft Meetup TONIGHT 6:30pm at Draper Applebees http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/468661/ #

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Bobka’s Eggs by Laura Moncur from Flickr

Over thirty years ago, my great-grandmother, Dora Klem, made these Ukrainian Eggs. Some of them have survived well. Others have cracks and holes. They all smell like rotten eggs a bit.

When my grandpa died last summer, Stacey found a stash of these eggs in the basement. It has taken this long for me to photograph them, precious as they are to me.

You can see the entire set here:

• Your Bobka’s Eggs slideshow on Flickr

I just found this website showing how to make these eggs. I think next Easter, I shall have some of my own to display:

• LearnPysanky.com: How to Make Ukrainian Easter Eggs (pysanky)

• I should be going to bed, but I can’t stop working. STOP! Get to bed NOW!!! #

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Don’t shake my tree by miss_rogue from Flickr

I love this saying,

If you don’t want my peaches, then don’t shake my tree.

I’d take it one further. If you don’t want the peaches, don’t even go into the orchard. Sometimes those crazy trees just drop peaches on you without provocation.

• Good morning! I’m up early and I have to get some work done today before the noon hour. Come on fingers, type fast! #
• It always makes me feel sad when I realize that I’m the only one awake. Come on British Twitter Friends! I know you’re awake! #
• @ThomAllen Our upgrades to Leopard went smoothly as well. I think they did much better than Vista this time. #
• @basykes PLEASE don’t tell me it’s from the SPCA. #

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This video shows some of the video games from 1972 to 2007.

I’m offended by only one of the omissions. He included Viva Pinata, which was a game that was merely a derivative of Animal Crossing, which was not included. Other than that, it was an enjoyable walk through memory lane.

Via: kev/null – History of Video Games 1972-2007

I’ve been working at home for almost three years now. After spending all day in the house writing, I want to get out of the house in the evening. Unfortunately, it feels like there is no place to go. We can go out to eat. We can go to a store or a mall. When I have a full belly and a full life, there really is no place to retreat.

I’ve enjoyed eating at home. Mike is an excellent cook and the food at home is inherently healthier than the food in restaurants solely because Mike cooks it that way. Even when we do opt to eat at a restaurant, a meal lasts no longer than an hour and we are left wandering the town, unwilling to go home.

Going shopping loses its meaning when you feel like you have enough. We rarely need anything anymore, so going to a store usually means that we walk up and down the aisles. We people-watch, but that only lasts for so long at Wal-Mart. There are interesting sights to see, but once you’ve seen the crazy that Wal-Mart (or the mall) has to offer, it pales quickly.

What I need is a clean, well-lit place like in Ernest Hemingway’s story of the same name. I’d like a place to go where it is clean, well-lit and comfortable to spend a few evening hours. I don’t want a bar. I don’t want a coffee-shop. I want a fashionable salon or a club where I can sit, talk to like-minded people and get out of the house for a few hours.

Anyone have any idea of a place that would be good for me?

Either crochet a Rock Band Drum Cozy for myself or buy one from FunkieFresh for 40 bucks.

• Etsy :: FunkieFresh :: XBox Rock Band Drum Kit Cosies

Why didn’t I think of this?

Via:

• Crocheted Covers for the Rock Band drum kit – SlashGear

• rock band drum kit quieted by crochet covers on [technabob]

Is it just me, or am I the only one who still likes Rick Astley and his song Never Gonna Give You Up?

I understand the concept of sending someone to a site that is a complete non sequitur as a joke. I even understand the humor of sending them to the SAME non sequitur on multiple occasions, but the “aversion” that people seem to feel for the song is too harsh.

What’s not to like? A handsome man, a beautiful voice, a catchy tune. I liked it in the Eighties and I still like it. Play a joke on me and send me to YouTube to watch his video and I’ll watch the first few seconds of it. I watch Rick long enough to listen and I’ll close the window once the blondes start dancing poorly (sadly, that’s at the ten second mark).

I don’t mind having the song in my head all day long. I know enough irritating songs by heart that it could be far worse. Pleasure and Pain by the Divinyls comes to mind.

Really, why does Rick Astley get all this aversion when the Divinyls were behaving so poorly with just as catchy a tune?

When Mike did his book signing for SAMS Publishing back at Comdex 1996, we had no idea that it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They used to have a booth at Comdex every year and give away piles of books for free to the people willing to wait in line. The very next year, they stopped doing that so Mike’s book signing was a unique experience for us.

Here is the line of people waiting for Mike’s book.

Here is the board with the schedule of author signings.

Here’s Mike sitting at his table with a nice board telling the world who he is and which book he wrote.

This is a photo of the first guy in line at the signing.

Here is Michael signing books and me handing them to him.

They ran out of books before these guys got one. It was the first day and they could get one tomorrow, so I didn’t feel bad asking them to pretend to look really sad that they didn’t get one of Mike’s books.

SAMS did so much promotion for his book that they even had a huge copy of it on the side of the Comdex Bookstore. I was so excited about it, but Mike really wasn’t. I forced him to stand next to the book cover for a photo. Can you tell?

Looking back at that time makes me feel happy and wary all at once. I took all these photos with my beloved 110 camera that I got from my grandma in fifth grade. I recently scanned in all the Comdex 1996 photos for a series that I did on the Gadgets Page, but I thought I’d share these personal favorites with you.

• @herlo Whole Foods bought Wild Oats and are currently converting their markets. You’ll get your 7-Layer Dip when they’re ready. #
• I’ve been up since 3:30 am. Cat got her right paw stuck in her collar and her stumbling woke me up. Adrenaline is a harsh mistress. #
• @libel_vox No… #
• @extralife First step: learn how to spell it. #
• @NewspaperGrl The high paying jobs of today will most probably NOT be the high paying jobs of tomorrow. #
• I’m out of RSS and I’m pretty much done writing for the day. Twitter off. #

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I love makeup. It’s a little bit of art that I get to do every day.

I am the canvas and the beauty of it all is that the canvas is ever-changing from year to year and I am never left bored.

RE: One Word: Primp

I received this in the mail on Saturday. At first, I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not. With a name like Christ Meat of The Word Sanctuary & Fellowship, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s parody.

They are having “Worship Services” at the Megaplex. That just made me think that it must be some movie making fun of Christian fundamentalism and you can meet at 9:30 am for “Bible Study,” which means that you can find other people who think the whole Christian thing has gotten silly.

Sadly, it looks like it might be a “real” church.

• Meat of The Word Sanctuary & Fellowship

Can a megaplex theater actually provide sanctuary? I’m sure that you can find sanctuary of the mind in the humblest of places, but if Quasi Modo were to run into the megaplex screaming sanctuary, would he be spared?

Maybe it’s just a “Word Sanctuary” and only words are safe within the megaplex walls.

I wonder what Christ Meat tastes like.

I would think that they meant Christ Meet, but they consistently spell it “Meat,” so they must mean the flesh of Christ in a strangely cuisine-oriented phrasing.

Religious freedom is one of the foundations that the United States was built upon. I strongly believe in Christ Meat of The Word Sanctuary & Fellowship’s right to form a religion and meet in the local movie theater every Sunday. I just wonder why they chose such a name that is neither catchy nor descriptive. It’s like they need a marketing bishopric to ensure that they don’t sound like a parody of themselves.

Next time we have a yard sale, print up this checklist so that I don’t forget anything.

• Yard Sale Checklist | Organized Home

I got my April Fool’s joke yesterday with a half a foot of snow covering my city.

Out Like A Lion by Laura Moncur from Flickr

It was spring snow, so it melted off the driveway by noon, but still, I keep forgetting that it’s not spring in Utah until May.

• Out Like A Lion: http://tinyurl.com/3e2nd8 #

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Sid was barking at the truck across the street. I opened the blinds and watched the workman measure out gutters while I let my fingers write.

The Ace Gutter Guy by Laura Moncur from Flickr

A desk beside a window is a luxury that I must have to be able to write.

A couple of people have found me because they were looking for old friends. They were looking for Sceverenia, found my blog and emailed me about her. That’s cool, I forwarded on the emails to her and she’s so nice that she responded to both of them.

Because of all this, I looked on Flickr to see what they had as far as pictures for Kearns High School. Here are some of my favorites:

Home Of The Cougars by williams.mark48 from Flickr

That soaring cougar is just so 1976. I’m glad that it has survived as long as it has. I love the green and gold swoop under the cougar. Seeing this photo just filled me with all the old school pride.

Kearns High lockers by Hailey Baker from Flickr

Every year, I had a green locker. I never really envied the yellow lockers, but this photo looks so pretty I wish I could feel nostalgic about it. I still have vivid dreams about forgetting the location and what the combination of my locker is. Will it ever go away?

kearns high school crest by emmanuel trujillo from Flickr

Don’t step on it or the Seniors with make you clean it with your tongue!

Whats up at Kearns High? Nothing. by erinb.tulips from Flickr

Past, present or future, it’s nice to know that those SAME desks are still there. Those were the perfect desks. I could lean my back over the edge of the chair and it would pop my shoulder right into place. It has taken me twenty years to find a replacement for those perfect desks.

landscapes/ back of kearns high by larissa L from Flickr

This photo reminded me of a picture I took back in 1985 of the same part of Kearns High School. I took it with my beloved 110 camera that my grandma gave me when I was in fifth grade. I cleaned it up a little, but it looks pretty good.

Sunrise at Kearns 1985 by Laura Moncur from Flickr

Okay, I’m done with nostalgia for now. I think I should spend some time and get all my photos scanned. It would be nice to have them all there at my fingertips… err… hard drive.

• Fighting with Adobe CS. It keeps crashing. Why did I pay so much money for this? #
• @tomjohnson1492 It looks like our day today is going to be filled with updating WP as well. Gotta stop those hackers! #
• @tomjohnson1492 Mike does all the updating, but we have several blogs to update, so it will take a while either way. #
• @jensimmons Oh PLEASE Twitter the content theft session! Big problem and need new ideas! #

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I’m feeling tired and peopled out lately. It’s not like I have been more social. I haven’t been attending more events or having more people over. In fact, I’ve been cocooning more than anything, yet I feel peopled out. Despite my hours alone during the day, I feel like people should just leave me the heck alone.

Is it Twitter? Is it email? Is it the phone? I can’t say that those methods of communication are any more active than they were a couple of months ago.

I wish I could track this and control it, but right now, all I’m doing is managing it the best that I can.

• At the #geekdinner Taj India has the buffet up! #
• @robertmerrill People are asking about you at the #geekdinner #
• Leaving geek dinner #
• My cleaning lady alternative personality has arrived. I’m trying not to scare her away, but I need to eat. #

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Scott C. Lemon had heard from Tyler Whitaker about this cool Live Earthquake Mashup. Little did I know that I would want to use it a few days after hearing about it.

A couple of nights ago, I thought I felt an earthquake. The bed shook and the little door on my unused vanity rattled. I opened my eyes and looked at the time: 11:09 pm. The next time Mike came into the room, I mentioned that we had an earthquake and went back to sleep. The next morning, Mike told me that he couldn’t see any indication that we had experienced an earthquake.

I was so sure of it, I went hunting back into Tyler Whitaker’s Twitter account just to find the link to that cool earthquake mashup thing.

Mike was right. Aside from the Nevada and Wyoming earthquakes from five days earlier, the only earthquake even near Utah was an Arizona quake at a measly 3.5 magnitude. There’s NO way I felt that one all the way in Salt Lake City.

Maybe the cat jumped off the bed.

• @justsomeguy Maybe it’s some mutant super power that you haven’t uncovered yet. #
• @ThomAllen Were you surprised? Utah does this to us EVERY year! http://tinyurl.com/2qp5bq #
• @Ladanea Try Anton Chekov. That might cheer ’em up… #
• March Utah Geek/Blogger Dinner TONIGHT 6pm at Taj India: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/451613/ #
• @libel_vox Calm down there, cowboy. Jesse already admitted that he missed the stories because of RSS fast. #

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I love the look of these security envelopes that have been turned inside out. Thrifty AND cool!

• Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » diy wednesdays: inside out security envelopes

Here is Design*Sponge’s description

being small business owners, we get tons of bills, and over the years we’ve been collecting the ones with interesting security patterns printed on the insides. we’ve used them in various craft projects here and there, but one of our favorites requires practically no materials or skill and is a great way to whip up some unique and wonderful stationery.

I can’t wait for the mail to come today. Even the junk mail might be worth pillaging now!

Via: Craftzine.com blog: Inside Out Security Envelopes

Update 04-10-08: I actually tried this project after saving a bunch of my junk mail. It’s a lot harder to “Carefully de-construct your envelopes using your fingers, a letter opener or a blade, making sure not to rip the paper.” That one simple line makes the entire “project” a waste of time for me and I ended up throwing everything in the recycle bin.

• Twitter IM is freakin’ broken! When is Twitter NOT broken? #
• Long overdue entries for Starling Travel. I’m SO behind on everything I want to write. #

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• Utah Blogger/Geek Dinner THIS Thursday 03-27-08 6pm at Taj India: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/451613/ #

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• Awake when I shouldn’t be. I can feel the glands in my throat. They are hard little marbles warning me that I might be getting sick. #
• Twitter Karma is MIA. I cleaned up my tweets on my own. I have realized that I can’t follow too many people without getting cranky. #

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• CodeAway Today 12-5pm at Rocky Mtn Pizza #
• @msjen Did you get my Black Phoebe photos from 29 Palms? #
• At CodeAway trying to decide what kind of pizza to order for us all. #
• @thomallen I LOVE the Star Trek Experience! Klingons or Borg? #

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• Coming down off a busy, busy day. Not even Nuar Nom Tok was able to make it come down easily. I guess I just need some sleep. #

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