I crocheted these for my sister. Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to like them. They match her scarf though…

I can’t believe it has been twelve years since I saw Se7en. Twelve years…

My sister Stacey and I went to see the movie ourselves. Mike didn’t want to go because he doesn’t like horror films. I tried to tell him that it wasn’t horror. It was a police drama like “Silence of the Lambs.” His reply, “Silence of the Lambs IS a horror movie!” I shrugged and went to the movie with Stacey.

After the movie was over, the two of us walked to the bathroom. We always go to the bathroom after a movie. I cowered in the corner while Stacey did her business. I was too scared to pee. I just stood with my back to the corner and my eye on the door. That was after checking all the stalls, of course.

I was scared shitless (or rather pee-less…).

The two of us walked to the doors. I looked out the glass doors. I could see my car. The parking lot was empty, but I just couldn’t make the walk out to the car.

“Maybe if we call Mike, he’ll come pick us up and we can get the car tomorrow.”

Stacey was brave. “I don’t think he’s going to pick us up.”

I already had my phone out and dialed. “Mike? Will you come and pick us up at the theater?”

“Did the car break down?”

“No, um… I’m too scared to walk out to the car.”

“I TOLD you it was a horror movie!”

“No, actually it wasn’t. It was a police drama. We followed Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman around the whole time.”

“Morgan Freeman?”

“Yeah…”

“Easy Reader?”

“Yeah…”

“Cool…”

“Will you come and pick us up?”

“You can’t just walk out to the car? Why don’t you ask the guys who work at the theater to walk you out?”

By then, Stacey was trying to coax me, “Listen, Laura…”

Mike gave his final answer, “If you want me to come, I will. I TOLD you it was a horror movie.”

I replied, “No, I’ll drive us home. Don’t worry. I can do it.”

I wasn’t so sure. Stacey’s voice was calm and soothing, “Listen, Laura. We can see the car. We’ll just run like hell to it and get the doors open quick. We can do it.”

We pushed open the glass doors, ran in the dark and got into the car faster with a key than I could right now with an automatic lock.

I’ve never watched the movie again…

Here are the opening credits to Se7en. Just watching them creeped me out all over again. I wonder if I’ll be able to sleep tonight…

Last year at this time, I was getting ready to go to Las Vegas to cover CES. It was the first time I had a press pass and I was so excited. I wanted to prove myself as a writer and I worked so hard last year that I’m not very excited about going this year. CES has become a big chore in my mind. Now that I feel like I’m a writer, I’m not looking forward to going.

I keep telling myself that I can work as little or as much as I want. I’m self-employed. That’s the beauty of it. I can’t cover everything. It’s not physically possible, but I can write about what interests me. I think my brain is a little broken. CES has become one big job for me instead of a fun party.

Comdex was like one big party for me. Even though it was all work-related, I didn’t stress out about it. That’s what I need from CES. I need it to feel like a big party where I get to touch all those cool prototypes that will probably never make it to the production line. That’s what Comdex was for me, but CES hasn’t felt like that yet.

I remember back in 1993, my goal at Comdex was to, “get me some of that virtual reality that everyone is talking about.” Sun Microsystems had a funny thing that you put on your head and played with for about thirty seconds before the person behind you in line poked you with a stick. I remember waiting in line for about an hour to see that virtual reality stuff. Strangely, it wasn’t a disappointment.

Maybe my problem with CES is that I don’t have a goal. My goal last year was to prove that I was a writer. I don’t know who I was proving it to. I already had a press pass. I guess I was proving it to myself. This year, I already believe I’m a writer. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone.

Back in 1993, I wanted to get me some of that virtual reality stuff that everyone is talking about, but right now, there is nothing that I want to experience first hand that I haven’t already. I’m still waiting for virtual reality to get here already…

Hi, welcome to the town. You’ve kind of walked in on a big mess right now. The United States is fighting a war in Iraq. Other countries are madly working on building their own nuclear weapons. I guess you really didn’t have a choice. It seems like humans are always fighting some war or another.

You’ve kind of walked into a wonderland, too. We have advanced our communications to the point that people all over the world can argue and agree with each other in ways that we really couldn’t before. More people have a voice now than ever before. Sure, you need a computer to do it, but that’s a whole lot easier than convincing a publishing company that what you have to say is important.

Thanks for coming, 2007. Sorry you only get to stay for a year. Since your time here is limited, make the most of it. Let’s make this the best year ever, okay?

I’ve never heard of this idea, but what a great tradition. On New Year’s Eve, we forget all the bad memories of the year. I wish there was a delete button I could press and make it permanent. Of course, I was so lucky this year. I can’t think of a bad memory to forget. What god do I thank for that blessing?

All my little animal friends are excited for the New Year’s Eve Countdown. I don’t have the heart to tell them that I’m spending the holiday in the REAL world…

I love this photo. “Art has never been made while thinking of art.”

Via: Wooster Collective: Found While Cleaning Out Our Inbox #3 (Thought For The Day)

Update 02-06-07: I just noticed that the letters shown spell the word “heart.” It makes me love this photograph even more.

This article talks about Ebeneezer Scrooge’s symptoms. Researchers have concluded that he had Lewy body dementia (LBD).

• Bah, humbug: Scrooge had brain disease | Arts & Books | The Australian

Hate to break it to you, kids… Scrooge was IMAGINARY! He was never a real person and Dickens didn’t observe a disease, he was writing fiction.

Next thing they’re going to tell me that Alice in Wonderland was actually a disease too…

• Alice in Wonderland syndrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Last year, the Christmas lights house was turned into a Bud Light commercial. This year, lets see if the owner of this house can cash in.

The music that they chose is not as Christmasy as I would like it. It’s a little too serious for a light show, I think. Still, that’s a whole lot of work.

When I looked outside this morning, I had the bile of panic rise in my throat. It was only a few inches on the ground, but it was the first REAL storm of the season. People die on the Salt Lake freeways because every year one moron forgets how to drive in these conditions.

I used to overcompensate by watching the local weather like a hawk and awaking early when it looked like a storm. Then I could leave thirty minutes early and drive on an abandoned freeway. Someone else would die, but I would be at work when they did.

This morning, however, the snow took me by surprise. I hadn’t watched the news last night. Not only did I not wake up early, I had slept in. The vision of struggling on the freeway in the snow flashed in my mind and the panic swelled. It took me ten full seconds before I remembered that I work at home .

Someone probably died on the freeway this morning and I can’t imagine how their family is grieving. All I know is that it wasn’t me.

Seven long months to wait until the next Harry Potter movie. Here are some clips from YouTube to tide you over…

July 13th… If only I had a new Harry Potter book to tide me over. J.K., where is the next book?

Last year, when everyone was up in arms about Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, Ben Stein wrote this article.

• Ben’s House – Stuff Ben Wrote

I love the final thought of this article:

“Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?”

As an atheist, Christmas doesn’t bother me at all. The nativity scenes and the menorahs are all wonderful lights to help cheer us during this dark season.

Via: Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Ben Stein)

When I saw this video, it made me feel like I was a normal Animal Crossing enthusiast because I don’t have a full-color illustrated diary and a video on YouTube to prove it. Then I realized that I recognized almost all the scenes that were portrayed, even though there is no explanation of each page. Not only that, I was the one searching on YouTube for Animal Crossing videos. Then I felt like a freak again…

Since I’m being a freak, here is a piano medley of the Animal Crossing tunes…

Here is a tour of someone’s Animal Crossing town. This person has been playing for so long that they have collected all the snow furniture and mush furniture. They also have a wide variety of rare pieces that are only available during promotional times. Cool…

Don’t know when it will be available in the states, but here is a trailer for the Animal Crossing animated movie. I wonder what it will be like…

“Hi…”

“You know what, Laura. I’m so glad you called because I totally spaced it and I haven’t even left yet. Are you there?”

“I’m just waiting in the parking lot.”

“I can be there in ten minutes, is that okay?”

“Sure, see you soon.”

“This winter has been murder on my lips.” I rummage in the drawer for some Burt’s Bees lip balm.

“Yeah, it has been dry.”

“Soothing Cooling Refreshing,” I read aloud off the tube and then add my own, “Söling.”

“What?”

“This says it’s söling. I just made up that word. It’s a cross between soothing and cooling.”

“Söling?”

“Yeah, with an umlat.”

“Not cöthing?”

“No that would be sick and wrong!”

The previous five entries were written on my Treo using a Flicker application that lets me automatically post to my weblog and upload pictures taken with my cameraphone. This is the first entry written on my computer for weeks. I feel like I should have a lot to say because I haven’t written for so long, but I really just feel a little bit empty. I’m not sad. I’m not stressed. I’m not overworked. I’m just empty of words.

I have been playing Animal Crossing religiously since the beginning of October. Two full months of almost constant video game play. I played for nearly 15 hours on Saturday during the Flea Market. I had tons of things saved to sell to my little animal friends and they kept coming. I would fill the room and they would buy everything. Who knew they had that much money? I feel a little guilty about selling them so much junk, but they seemed so happy with it all. Some of it ended up in the recycle bin. I grabbed it, put it in my house and a different animal friend bought it again. I think Mike is going to take away my Nintendo if I ever play that long again.

I have taken more pictures of my animal friends than I have of anything else for the last two months. We even went to Las Vegas and I took more pictures of Animal Crossing events than anything in Nevada. How can I help but take pictures? They are always doing something amusing. After all of these hours playing, I still get surprised. I love it when they fight. I love it when they are nice to each other. I especially love it when the grumpy males tease the normal females. It just makes me feel all warm inside.

The renovation of the Answerfone building has been going on since last spring. I love the building and when it was for sale, Mike and I were attracted to the price. An office building with an upstairs apartment for $170,000 is unheard of in Salt Lake. Whatever problems it might have had must have been phenomenal.

They were.

We grieved when it sold, but not for long. Soon we watched as the new owner started work. Major foundation shoring was first on the bill. That alone was more than Mike and I could have done on our own. We would have been stymied at the first step. We thanked our lucky stars that we were too poor to buy it and watched as the renovation crept along.

Months later, it’s still waiting for the final touches. Someone is living in the upstairs apartment, though. Rumor around the neighborhood is that it’s a former band member of Train. Drops of Jupiter runs through my mind every time I walk past.

They are supposed to have a bread pudding souffle. What could a bread pudding souffle possibly be like? Chunky and tasting of vanilla? Smooth, fluffy and tasting of rum sauce? I don’t even care about the entree. I probably shouldn’t order one. Is it bad manners to just order dessert?

Update 12-04-06: Verdict? The bread pudding souffle would have been more aptly named vanilla souffle with rum sauce. Nothing like bread pudding and no real bread pudding on the menu…

Every time we go to Vegas, we make a pilgrimage to Fry’s Electronics. Since we don’t have one in Salt Lake City, it feels like a treat to see that much geekiness in one store. Strangely, the store attracts all types, not just the geeks.

It’s a mistake to go on Thanksgiving weekend, I know. The crowds are enough to send me screaming away from any normal store, but this one is special. Must… Enjoy… The Geekdom…

I see Maggie in this window almost every morning. I think I’ve taken a picture of her before, but today I realized that she is over ten years old and there might come a morning when I’ll never see her in the window ever again.

So many people equate pets with children. If so, they are chidren that never grow up and almost always die before you do. If this is parenthood, then I want to know where the kid kennel is.

I procrastinated my exercise for so long that my morning exercise became an evening walk. For as long as I can remember, I had so many words in me that they couldn’t help but spill out. It eventually got so bad that I started this weblog. The words had to find a place to land. Otherwise, they were going cover my friends and family like so much projectile vomit.

Suddenly, I find myself in a different position. I am obsessing over a video game in which I listen to animals tell me their stories and all I can do is choose a response from a pre-set list. I find that I am quite content to listen. I listen, send gifts in short letters that are unread and look for treasure in the water, trees and ground. If I could travel to my imaginary town of Merriton, I would.

What does it mean? Everyone that I know says it means I need some “real” friends. Mommy, sister, girlfriend all agree, but they don’t understand. Real friends can’t be turned off when I’m tired. Real friends take a lot longer than 60 seconds to get over it when they’re angry at me. Real friends stay longer than three minutes when they visit.

Of course, real friends never judge my house and tell me they can’t give me more than four stars until I complete my furniture set. Real friends also don’t give me random quizzes and become agitated when I give the wrong answer. Real friends don’t move away every two weeks. No, I don’t think the problem is that I need more real friends.

Maybe winter is closing in on me and I enjoy the idea of being outside and not feeling the cold. I am texting this entry on my Treo with gloved hands. Just because it’s unseasonably warm, doesn’t mean it’s warm. It just means I can take an evening walk without threat of frostbite. At no other time of the year does California call out to me than the cusp of winter. Soon there will be snow, both in my imaginary town and my real one.

I ache so hard for SXSWi that I can taste it four months away.

We actually had a VERY productive CodeAway this time. The Sprague Library has great wireless and we were able to get some work done!

See more at the CodeAway Blog!

• CodeAway » CodeAway November 2006 Live!

Music was provided by my very cool Microblast and my fantasy of chilling with my friends and a ghetto blaster has been cemented in stone!

I run, walk, or drive past this sign every day. I see it so often that sometimes I forget how unique and beautiful it is. Neon signs like this are a dying breed. Something in me wants to collect them. They are huge and boring when they aren’t fully equipped with glowing neon, light bulbs and electricity. There is no feasible way to keep them for myself.

Is there a Museum of Neon somewhere that could rescue the rusting and abandoned beauties? Dirk’s Dry Cleaning is beautifully maintained, but what about the Nu-Crisp Popcorn sign? What about the Salt Lake Costume Company sign? They sit advertising businesses long defunct on abandoned buildings. Sometimes I fantasize about stealing them, but where would I put them? If the world lost them to a thief, isn’t that as bad as losing them to rust?

I guess there ARE a couple of museums for this stuff. I wish they would acquire my Salt Lake City favorites…

• The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) – Los Angeles, CA

• Neon Museum – Las Vegas, NV

We’re going to Vegas over the Thanksgiving weekend. The ONE thing I want to do is go to the Neon Museum.

Music Credit: Atmospheric Royalty Free Music – Variation on Egmont

Last month’s CodeAway turned out pretty well. We had a great turnout! Sadly, the Salt Lake County libraries aren’t going to work for CodeAway. Their firewall blocked so many sites that few of us could get any work done. I can understand why they might block logging into a server, but sites like Yahoo!, Flickr and del.icio.us were inaccessible. They tried to blame it on Yahoo!’s servers, but I logged into Yahoo! using my cell phone and that worked just fine.

November 2006 CodeAway

Saturday, November 18, 2006 1-5pm

Sprague Library – 2131 S 1100 E, Salt Lake City, UT – Google Map

Downstairs Conference Room

Free wi-fi courtesy of X-Mission

Be there and be filmed!

Last month we drove past the pharmacy and saw the writing on their window. It said, “Your Halloween Headquarters.” Mike repeated it with a smile in his voice,

“Jolley Pharmacy is YOUR Halloween Headquarters!”

“It is NOT!” I yelled back to him, “My Halloween Headquarters is…”

I couldn’t think for a second, but Mike finished my sentence perfectly,

“Home Depot.”

My neighbors are so on the ball. All day last Saturday they worked on their yard filling the city-issued orange bags with leaves and grape vines. The city will pick them up at no charge; yet another benefit of living in Salt Lake City instead of the suburbs. Mike and I have never been on the ball enough to get our bags filled in time to let the city take them for us, but the garbage bins are huge enough that it’s not an issue.

Last week Mike picked up the leaves with lawn mower. Our yard looked good until the next morning when more leaves fell. Sometimes I worry about whether our neighbors resent our lack of yard pride.

I remember a time when all of us were together. Our next door neighbor said, “We have to get the leaves raked.” I was about to give her my flippant reply, “Just do what we do. Leave them until the wind blows them onto the neighbor’s yard,” but then I remembered that SHE was the neighbor. She continued, “I wouldn’t care so much, but we don’t even have a tree.” The next day, Mike and I raked our leaves.

When I was a kid, it was important to me to get all the leaves raked up because I didn’t want leaves in my snowman, snow fort or whatever else I was building in snow that year. It has been so long since I’ve built anything in the snow that I almost forgot how important it is to rake up the leaves. Not even admonishment from my neighbor reminded me.

I’m testing a GPS gadget for Starling Fitness, which explains why I’m out here in the rain. GPS gadgets don’t work on treadmills. Sure the thing can access the satellites inside my house, but running on a treadmill looks like running in place, so I’m out in the rain.

The campaign signs still grace the yards and remind me of all the Democrats that Utah didn’t vote for. Most regretably, Pete Ashdown. We had the chance to put a Democrat in the now-Democratically-held Senate. Instead they sent Orrin Hatch back AGAIN. He lied to them and they went rushing back to the polls to check off his Republican name.

I’m stoked about the rest of the country, though. Good job! Once again, I’m so ashamed of my state that I wish I didn’t live here. At least the weather’s good. Oh yeah, it’s not…

I haven’t even looked through the Halloween photos from the party. Okay, that’s a lie. The night of the party, we transferred the pictures to the computer and I glanced through the thumbnails, but that’s all I’ve done. I don’t know why I’m so uninspired to get it in order yet…

Oh well. I just thought I’d drop a note to tell you that there is nothing to see here yet.

After all the hanging chad problems with the Florida elections, you would think that I would welcome electronic voting and be glad to be rid of punch cards. Instead, I felt a small wave of panic come over me when I saw the electronic voting machines.

Is there a conspiracy between the companies that run the machines and certain political candidates? I don’t know. I don’t even know if I believe that there couldn’t have been conspiracies with the old punch cards. I know there were several cases of incompetence where entire boxes of ballots were misplaced. Which is better? I don’t know. I guess the important thing is that I stood in line and made my voice heard for the first time in two years. It will be two years until I can speak again.

We voted early this morning. For anything else, we probably would have procrastinated, but this is so important that we made sure we got it out of the way early.

Suzanne Vega has a song called Institution Green that always comes to my mind when I’m standing in line to vote. This time, we saw three of our neighbors there, so I felt less lonely. It felt like a community instead of an institution. I still hummed the song, though.

We’re going to dinner and buying a printer that’s on sale. Mike is driving and I have my feet up on the dashboard. Sometimes I worry.

If we’re in an accident, will the airbag turn my legs into projectiles and impale me?

I keep my feet off the airbag panel just in case.

Since I had so many entries pre-written for October, I spent the time wisely…

I played videogames.

I had stumbled upon Animal Crossing and did a review of it for The Gadgets Page:

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing

• The Gadgets Page » Nintendo DS: Animal Crossing Update

I have spent a month playing the game and have learned the following things:

• If I send a little letter (no more than four lines) to my friends every day, it makes them happier.

• If I say hi to my friends when I pass them, they like me.

• If I stop what I’m doing for my friends and treat them as a highest priority, they give me their most prized possession: a picture of themselves.

• It’s not a good idea to spend too much time in my house. I miss out on all the good stuff.

• Rainbows are freakin’ impressive, even computer generated ones, mostly because they are so rare.

• Playing the Stalk Market can pay off big, but it’s just as much work as “real” work.

• There is joy in gardening, fishing, talking to friends and moving around furniture. If you think they are just mundane work, this isn’t the game (or life) for you.

There was a moment when I realized that these “rules” for Animal Crossing are pretty good rules for life. If I sent a four line email to each of my friends every day, I would have so many “real” friends that I wouldn’t need all of these imaginary friends in my Nintendo DS. Funny thing is, in some respects, I like these imaginary friends a lot. I grieve when they move away. I beg them to stay. I give them little gifts that I think they will like by tucking them into my letters to them.

My month in Merriton has been a happy and productive month both in the “real” world and the videogame. I can’t wait until it starts snowing so I can make a snowman. Maybe it will talk to me!

I found the photographs from the Kearns High 15 Year Reunion for the class of 1987. We had the reunion back in 2002. Dawni, Penny and I organized it and I found a folder full of photos when I looking through my old stuff. I uploaded them to Flicker:

• Kearns High 15 Year Reunion – a photoset on Flickr

I can’t believe we are heading into the twentieth year this summer. I wonder who is going to organize the 20 Year Reunion. It sure isn’t going to be me…

After a month of this, I’m pretty much sick of Halloween. Let’s talk about something completely different.

Ironically, I didn’t really dress up today, but my Animal Crossing girl did. I think the Halloween Party wore me out this year. I’m still recovering.

The concert was amazing! They let us keep our cell phones on (vibrate) and sent us text messages throughout the entire concert! It was like having a know-it-all friend whispering things in my ear the whole time. It was AWESOME!

I left my REAL camera at home, so I took this picture with my Treo. It turned out really well considering that the lens is smaller than a dime!

This photograph is from Grey Water Photography:

You can see the full size image here:

• The Ghost in White Shoes

There is another picture here:

• Entrances to Hell

I wrote to Gene, asking him about this eerie photograph.

Holy Cow, Gene!

Was that a double exposure or just a trick of the light?

Hi Sis

It’s a very long exposure (about 20 seconds) using a lensless camera (pinhole.) I stood in one place for about 10 seconds and then moved out of the frame for the remaining ten seconds.

Pinhole cameras are easy to make out of materials you have lying around the house. Check the internet for details or ask me for help if you’re interested.

Gene

For more information about pinhole photography:

• Oatmeal Box Pinhole Photography by Stew Woodruff – How to Make and Take Pictures With Pinhole Cameras Made from Oatmeal Boxes