Blood Moon--Lunar Eclipse

Just in time for Halloween, not only do we get a full moon, but it's the Blood Moon!

Blood Moon, what a cool name! That's what they call tonights full moon. It's also been called the Hunter's Moon... Why?? Well, the reason it was called a Hunters Moon is because it was one of the last full moons of the fall and hunters would use it's light to help them hunt and fill their larders for the winter. Fall was a time for gathering in of food to survive the winter months. Course now we just have to survive the trip to Wally World <g>. As for Blood moon, it's often called that because of the color of the moon during an eclipse. There is a great explanation of why the moon is red here. This is a Nasa link and should work for everyone.

I know where I'll be tonight. Sitting outside with my honey and watching the lunar eclipse. Want to know what time you should be outside? Check here. There is a listing of times for all the time zones of when to watch. Some places won't see a total eclipse, same as for a solar eclipse. So, now that I've caught your interest, why don't you check out this link too. It's got some more information, and a cool demo of what a lunar exlipse looks like. Sorry, that last link is an AOL only one.

 

I Did It!!

I figured out my FTP space, went into my graphics program and prepared the picture, uploaded it AND managed to get it in my About Me space!!! Woo Hoo!!! I rule <LOL>. I think I'll leave up the other entry with the pictures, but this is cool. Now I can change pics in my About Me space as the mood strikes me <eg>. Now that I've got the FTP thing figured out (No thanks to AOL, their directions aren't very good and the interface is NOT very intuitive.)

On a lighter note, I can swallow today. However, I haven't been to sleep since yesterday at 3pm and it is 8:30am now. My breathing is better, I've won my two badges I wanted to finish in Pogo, the dogs been walked, and I've updated my journal! I think I'll go prop myself up on some pillows and take a nap <g>

Is it Over Yet?

Look, entries in my Journal! I was beginning to think I would never have time again. Since Thursday my life has been going at full speed ahead and d#mn the torpedos. Thursday thru Sunday I worked at Howl-O-Scream and next weekend will be the same. Four days of 8 hours of wailing at people nonstop is waaaaay more wearing than you think. Plus, my SO's days off are Thur, Fri and Sat, and he thinks he deserves some attention also!

Thursday we visited a friend at his job. We spent the morning with him, and although the baby ellys were adorable, and it was great to see him.... I was tired when I went to work! Friday was fairly quiet thank goodness.

Saturday (after only 4 hours of sleep <shudder>) we had to go pick up my motorcycle from my brothers and take it to the shop. My brother and boyfriend had decided they could save me some money by changing my oil for me. I -always- take the bike to the shop for any maintenance, but money was tight, sooooo now I have a crack in the casing of my heads. Me thinks it would have been cheaper to have had the oil changed professionally! Anyway, picked up bike, visited, took bike to nice Harley dealer who thinks he can aluminum weld it. This may lead to another entry with me crying over no more motorcycle...we'll see. Anyway, home just in time to go to work and scream at more people. The park was PACKED. There were very few breaks in the line, and by 2 am my throat was sore.

Sunday my SO had to go to work at 5am, so I waited up till he left, then... Sleep, blessed Sleep! I got to sleep for 7 whole hours. Bliss! Another 8 hours at work, wait up for boyfriend to get up so I can say Hi and prepare for bed. Thankful I have the next three days off. Unfortunately, the raspy throat that was a nuisence when I fell asleep was a roaring sore throat when I woke up 4 hours later. As the afternoon progressed I lost the ability to swallow past the lump in my throat, started to ache all over and just looking at food made me nauseous. Hello Nasty Cold! I guess between yelling/wailing at people, going from it's hot outside at 5pm to it's cold at 2am, and lack of sleep, all caught up with me. My SO came home and took me to Wal-Mart so I could get juice, jello, throat lozenges, Dayquill <LOL>.

Over the weekend I only scanned the bulletin boards (including the Journal one) and read/answered e-mail that needed attention (such as Journal alerts <g>). Sooo, I had 120 e-mail, untold bulletin board posts across several boards, the weekend assignment which I hadn't even thought about, and the fact that I hadn't made one entry in my Journal.

Next week looks like a carbon copy of this one, minus the trip to my brothers, but the week following it is worse! Time to find my next part-time job <yuch!> I don't want to take on a full time gig until a position comes along in my field, so I find myself looking for something to both occupy my time and bring in a few bucks. The Howl-O-Scream gig was/is fun, maybe I can find something X-mas related.....

Take the Picture Challenge

O.k..... I'm accepting the challenge. Here are three pictures of me. I don't plan to leave this entry up forever as I plan to add the picture to the About Me section when I have time to experiment with FTP. But, for the time being, here are 3pictures of me over a period of 2 years. Yes, first the hair was curly and auburn... then straight and brown... then short and auburn. Currently it is midlength, straight, and auburn...but that won't last bwahahahaha!

Weekend Assignment #30

Weekend Assignment #30

"Assignment:  What gone, but not forgotten, TV series do you miss the most?
Extra Credit:  If you had to be on a game show or reality show, which one would it be?"  

Wow.... that's a hard one. It seems that I like a lot of non-mainstream stuff. What to choose? Buffy, The Vampire Slayer, Hercules, Xena? None of these have been off the air long to be missed, and you can still catch them at odd times....Kolcheck, The Night Stalker? Remember that one? I used to watch it at Midnight on Friday nights. Anything Star Trek, of course. Then there was Battlestar Galactica and more recently Farscape... What to Choose?  

Finally I settled on not one, but two. I couldn't choose. One story got to complete it's story arc, the other just left us wondering if our heroine ever solved her mystery. My choices are....

Envelopes Please...  

First, Babylon 5 ,which completed it's planned 5 year story arc. This was a wonderfully complete universe. It spawned not only the series, but several movies, and a set of book tie-ins that filled in back stories. They explored a lot of issues and it was very interesting how everything started out kind of Black and White, but by the end you found yourself seeing all kinds of shades of gray. Characters and species were given plenty of depth and the episodes were a nice mix of continuing story and episodes that were complete in themselves.  

Second was a show very few of you will have heard from, and I was soooo disappointed when they stopped production without tying up all of their loose ends...::Opens Second Envelope:: VR5! The title stood for Virtual Reality 5. It started out a little shaky, but was settling down into a nice story arc when Blammo they canceled it. I believe that this show too could have explored issues in a way that could make people think without hitting them in the head with them, but it never got it's chance to fulfill it's potential.

JibJab has a Blog!

I know everyone by now has seen JibJab's cartoons "This Land" and "Good to be in DC". These guys are great, but would you be surprised to know they have a blog? Well, they do. It tells a little about what happens to two guys who make a little political cartoon to attract some attention and maybe even land a job with an advertising company...... and it turns into a National, even International phenomenon.   The site used to have a few more of their cartoons, but I was just over there this evening and it currently only has the 2 shorts listed. You can still watch the cartoons for free, but they are trying to sell you the option of buying a download of one or both of them for your computer, or buying them on DVD. I was a little disappointed about the other missing cartoons, they were cute, but there are some free downloadable desktop wallpapers over there if you would like them.

Computer Addiction

Hmmmmm... I was just over at the "Off" Topic Board and jokingly made a comment about being addicted to my computer. The thing is that it is the truth. When we were traveling and all I had was an aircard to check my mail and maybe play a game of Tri-Peaks Solitaire on Pogo thru AOL, I was pretty good. I had several people I e-mailed regularly, some news alerts, and a couple of newsletters that came to my e-mail box. My main addiction to the computer back then was Sim type games. You know the type; The Sims, Zoo Tycoon, RollerCoasterTycoon. I also had a camera and liked to send out pictures to people, but I wasn't too bad. I would spend a few hours a week on the computer. I watched a lot of movies and played games on the PS/2......  

Then, we came off the road and I got Broadband...............  

Now, I'm addicted to Club Pogo Not just Pogo, but Club Pogo. The first thing I do on a Wednesday is check and see what the badges are that I can earn for that week. I spend a couple of hours almost every day playing games over there of one type or another. I still play my Sim type games and even occasionally turn on the PS/2, but I HAVE to get those badges each week <g>. It's way more fun playing a game and chatting, or playing a game like Gin or Canasta -against- another human!    

And if Pogo isn't bad enough, I rediscovered bulletin boards. A few years ago I used to play a Pern RPG on Prodigy on a bulletin board, and also posted on a few other boards. I had forgotten how much time you can spend on bulletin boards.... And now, on top of that, I had to discover Journals. A way to not only write (or type <g>) out your ideas, views, whatever strikes your fancy, and then for people to have the opportunity to then comment on your ideas..... I see another addiction on its way. I already have a couple of journals set up to notify me when there are updates. So, it's not just the writing in a journal, it's also reading other peoples ideas, and makingcomments for them. Yep, I see this becoming time consuming.  

My SO already claims that "the box" takes upa large chunk of my time. I told him that it was because I wasn't currently working and had time to kill while I was home alone with just the dog and cat, but I know that even when I go back to work that the computer is going to stay a large time sucker. I'm blaming it on the Broadband connection! When things load almost instantaneously and you don't have to wait for a Website to download forever, you find yourself surfing just for the sake of surfing. And the things you see make you think about other things......  

So, yeah, I think the computer could easily become an addiction if a person was careful to keep it in perspective and realize that real life offline is, and should always be, more important. Your family, friends, pets should always be first in line for your attention. But..... as long as there are a couple of hours of the day left over to spend on the computer why not?  

And <sigh> the Sims2 hit the shelves this month and ZooTycoon2 is supposed to be out next month....."Ummmm.....Hon.... I know what I want for x-mas....O.K.??? Huh??? But Hon...." <BEG>

Spooks & Jobs

What do you do for a living?? Normally I work with animals of one type or another. But, since I've been between jobs of my chosen profession (my choice), I decided I needed something to keep me occupied and keep me from getting "Cabin Fever".

So, what do I do for a living? Well, for the month of October I am a Mourner. To be specific, I am a Final Mourner at The Mortuary at Busch Gardens Howl-O-Scream . I know a lot of you just went "Cool" and another group "Ewwww"! This has turned out to be a fun, but grueling gig. And, surprisingly, dangerous! One of our first lessons is in how to protect ourselves from the patrons <g>. You wouldn't think that would be necessary, but it is!

Looking for a haunted house in your area? Try  here And if you want the real thing Shadowlands Haunted Places. Happy haunting!