How the world goes 'round Let me preface this by saying that I've been surfin' the internet since probably 1995 or so. Yeah, I guess you could say I was a late bloomer. But I didn't have a computer at home, and I'm guessing as to when we got internet hooked up at work and I had time to surf. Surfin' was actually a part of my job for a little while, lookin' up information on prospective clients and such. I became a master surfer.

But it wasn't until 1999 that I first discovered message boards. That was when my friend Matthew told me about this little movie in the works called The Lord of the Rings. Now, being a fan of the books as I was, he knew I'd be interested in knowing about the movie. So I went surfin and found the message board that is now known as The Council of Elrond, and coincidently, my husband now owns it. At the time, a guy named Aram in Alabama ran the site, and it was called Lordoftheringsmovie.com, and then Imladris.net (which will still route to our current site btw).

I am still not quite sure what made me make myself at home at this particular forum and not any of the other dozen or so that were out there. I did post a few times at other sites, but Imladris became my internet "home". And is still set as my homepage. Imladris was different. Not nearly as big as a couple of the others, so nowhere near as daunting. Maybe that was it. Maybe it was mik and Kelandra goofin' around. Or maybe it really was Dr. Evil seemed to need some help bashing the Americans ;-) I dunno...but life sure got different real fast!

And it was on this particular message board where I have made quite a lot of friends. Some I've not yet met face to face, and others, in the dozens, I've travelled to meet, or have hosted at my house at some time or another. That's where I met my Dark Lord husband (his nicname there is Melkor...if you're familiar with Tolkien's works, you'll understand the Dark Lord moniker that goes with the name Melkor).

I also met Carcharoth, who in real life goes by the name of Layne. I haven't seen him in a few years now sadly (gosh when was it last Layne? When I went to Regina?) BUT, despite the vastness of the Real World, and the Internet, we become connected yet again in a way, in less than 6 degrees ;-) After last weeks' charity screening event of Serenity, someone on the Charlotte Browncoats list posted a link to WereGeek comic celebrating Browncoat Day. Its a really cool comic, and wonder of wonders is drawn by none other than friend Layne's girlfriend Alina! And there it was, posted on the Charlotte Browncoats list.

So of course I hop on over to Layne's blog to let him know, and low and behold, he's got a post braggin' how the comic made it to Whedonesque.com which he found by clicking the link to Joss' rant from right here at my little ol' nothin' of a blog!

Kinda makes my head swim a bit.

I also wanted to say that I'd watched my DVD "Done the Impossible" last weekend, and I must say, that despite the fact I have never posted on any of the Firefly or Serenity boards (other than the Charlotte Yahoo list) but I Totally Get It. We have much the same type of experiences at our Lord of the Rings forums, only going back a lot further, and we're still goin! We even still get the odd new member sign up, which considering the movies were released several years ago now is pretty cool.

I don't get to travel anymore like I used to (that was one major benefit of working for a multi-national software company!) and nobody wants to come visit middle of nowhere Western North Carolina lately, so I haven't got to see anyone for quite a while. The last CoE-er (as we are now sometimes called) other than immediate family was Cousin Lanen (aka Elizabeth Kerner a celebrity in her own right. Or "write" ;-) in Edinburgh last spring. But I still would like to make a few more trips to far away places to meet some new friends, and see some old friends again. Sometime before I die. Seriously, its on the list! ;-)

Anyhoo...in a round about way what I'm gettin at is that even though those Browncoats on the DVD think perhaps they're the only website out there that has the same connections, the same comraderie etc (and don't get me wrong, Browncoats are wonderful folks!) We Ringers have been at it for far longer, and we do it just as well. And with hairy feet! I am quite certain however that if ever the 2 groups should meet, they'd get along very well. Afterall, there is some crossover. :-)  ¶ 12:26 PM 0 Comments

  Can't Stop the Serenity The signal just keeps getting bigger and bigger and...

Last night was the charity screening of Serenity in Charlotte. And being the second annual, it was a might better organized than the first annual, and better attended too. The Charlotte Browncoats raised over $2400 for Equality Now, and we all had a great time all together talking about, and watching our favourite BDM (big damn movie for those uninitiated )

For me, the shiniest part of the whole night was when they announced that the next door pizza joint Fuel Pizza, would be offering a portion of their proceeds from sales to Equality Now. They handed out a couple hundred vouchers to attendees, and anyone who turned one in when they ordered they'd donate a portion. Of course the poor sods in the pizza joint were understaffed, probably not realizing just how dedicated we Browncoats are to Equality Now, and even if we don't like pizza, we'll buy some just to send them some more money.

It was damn good pizza though! I was impressed. We ate ours on the drive home. Being an hour and a half away, and the dogs had already been cooped up in the house for 8 hours, we didn't have time to socialize.

It never ceases to amaze me how different a movie is when you're sitting in the cinema watching it with 200 other dedicated fans. Everyone knows the proper spots to laugh, or cry, or yell at the screen, or quote dialogue. No one has their phone on, no one is texting their friends one row over, or rudely talking about something or other that has nothing to do with the movie. Its just a great night out. And for a good cause. There'll be another one next year, so save the date. June 23.

There was a silent auction that had some really cool Serenity and Whedonesque stuff but we didn't have enough money to bid on anything because we wanted it all If you follow.

I did buy a copy of the documentary DVD "Done The Impossible" which I'm looking forward to watching today sometime. And, because this is Joss Whedon's birthday week, if you buy a copy of Done the Impossible before the 30th, you'll get a second copy for free to give to a friend, or a copy of the CD soundtrack, your choice. Cool eh? Wish I had known that last night! ;-)

Now, for any readers who are wondering why or how Joss Whedon and his millions of fans get involved with a charity such as Equality Now, I urge you to read his rant posted at Whedonesque.com.

Joss has always been about empowering women, or at the very least, showing that women can be strong, and in charge, just as well as, or perhaps better than, men can. But there are some cultures in this world who quite litterally beat women down to less than nothing. Equality Now, and Joss and his army of Browncoats around the world, wish to stop that. You can help too. You don't have to send money. Money is nice yeah. But another voice is always helpful.

And maybe I'll see you next year at the 3rd annual Can't Stop the Serenity screening. :-)  ¶ 10:59 AM 0 Comments

  Well, its been a week! My car is fixed, and certified for another year. But let me tell ya what they did...

Monday James took my Escape to the shop to get the door fixed. They took it all apart and called later to say they need to order a part, they'll have it all ready for us Tuesday in time for us to get to George & Bruno's obedience class.

Tuesday rolls around, they call back and the part that was delivered was the wrong part. But we still need to get to obedience class in the evening, so we go over at lunch time to pick up my truck. With the driver's side door still taken apart and for some stupid reason, the front passenger side window wide open. And because the driver's side door is torn apart, the master controls for the window and door locks are in-operable. No worries, we'll drive to Hickory with the window down.

Then it started to pour down rain about 4:30 - 5:00! Of course! I got drenched driving home from work, the car interior got soaked, and we had to call and tell our instructor that we would not be at our first class because our car is broke.

James took the truck back the next morning and told them he was not at all pleased that they'd left the window open. Me, I'd have made for damn sure just *exactly* how I felt. Which is why He went, and not me I guess :-p

Thursday morning I took George to the vet where she spent the day anesthetised and being x-rayed. She's got hip dysplasia. The vet gave her some pain meds, and said to start her on the glucosamine/MSM supplements again in a week. But they made her throw up all over the place when we gave them to her before, so I've been feeding her the Watkins Linnimax glucosamine supplement for a couple of weeks now. She doesn't throw up with that one. I think *not* throwing up is much better! So does George!

James went to pick George up in the evening, and the vet in the office for the day was the woman one. I've never met her, but she really rubs James the wrong way, and is apparently quite rude. She showed James the x-rays and I guess tried to make him feel responsible for her dysplasia. Kinda stupid really, considering its generally understood to be a genetic disease. :-p I think for George's follow up appointments, we will ask specifically for an appointment with Mark the head veterinarian there. He's much nicer. And not so rude.

Y'see this is part of the dangers of puppy mill breeding. This is how we figure George came into the world, as we never did find out where her "breeder" is. The young woman we got her from had conveniently "forgot" where to find the breeder, her name, and phone number so we were unable to contact her to get George's background information. We suspected we'd be in for some later health problems, and well, here they are. Our poor George is whining and groaning in pain most of the time because of selfish greedy back-yard puppy mill owners. IMO, they should all be tied up and publicly dragged through town behind the dog catcher's truck, and then tossed in a cage 3 sizes too small and live there for the rest of their sorry little lives. :-p

Hopefully we will be able to treat George's pain and reverse some of the joint damage with supplements. Hopefully she won't need surgery. I couldn't stand it just being at work while she was having x-rays!

Last night was the series finale of Stargate SG1, and now I'm all sad. It was a good episode, and when it was over I just had to wonder if Sam ever got together with Cameron or T'ealc in all of that time. Or even General Landry. Or all of them ;-) 50 years on a ship going nowhere, Daniel and Vala can't be the only ones gettin' any!

I will miss them. But I'll get to meet some of them at Dragon*Con on Labour Day weekend! ;-)

Tonight is the Can't Stop the Serenity screening in Charlotte. We'll be leaving here at around 3:30 to go down there and help get set up for the evening. George & Bruno will be home alone for a really long time! I think we'll have to just leave the back door open for them and turn the a/c off. Hopefully it won't be 90F today. Its been pretty muggy the past few days. But 8 or 9 hours without getting out for a pee is a long time. They're usually quite desperate by the time we get home if they're left that long. As I'm sure you could imagine!

I have an extra long weekend this week. With the slow-down at work, I had Friday off, and I have Monday off as well. Its inventory next week, which was already scheduled for Friday, so they couldn't make that our day off, and switched it to Monday. The following week we'll be on our Summer schedule of Friday's off until further notice. They're hoping (they say) that it'll be just for July, but I get the feeling it'll likely run through August as well.

At least I have a job...

Well, that's enough. I'm going to go see about getting my hair cut today, and need to get that done before we head out to Charlotte.

Catch ya later!  ¶ 8:29 AM 0 Comments

  Can I just be a kid again? I seriously don't like being an adult sometimes. Too much pressure!

Its getting a bit crazy around here lately, mostly financially because of the lack of finances and the growing list of things that need to be fed money.

Like the other house. We moved out of it in December, and we've been paying the bills for it ever since because for whatever reason James only just now got around to hiring a contractor to do the renovations work that will be required in order to sell it. That's a few thousand dollars. Which hopefully we'll get back with the sale of the house.

Then there's the house we're living in. First and foremost we need a new water heater. We still have hot water (for now), but its been leaking for a couple of months now and it'll probably blow up eventually. I'm sure the leaking is costing us extra in electricity and water as well. bleah.

Then there's the 20 year old refrigerator sucking up probably half our electric bill. Its frost free, and its getting all frosty inside, so I'm guessing that'll be going soon too. The air conditioner is also showing its age and is struggling to keep the house cool. I'm sure a new more efficient one would save us some money on our power bill, but finding a couple thousand dollars to have a new one installed is tricky.

And the other day we had a terrific storm here, which believe it or not, tore the gutters (eavestrough) right off the side of the roof! So now we need to call a roofer and have all the gutters replaced.

The driver side door lock on my truck is jammed so we can't open the door from the outside, and that's going in to be fixed tomorrow. I also have to take it in before the end of the month for its annual emissions test.

Plus I have a doctor appointment because I'm also falling apart at the seams.

George is having hip problems and is going in for x-rays on Wednesday for which they have to knock her out. The anesthetic will probably cost a couple hundred bucks. The joys of living with Giants!

And, to top it all off, my hours just got cut at work to 4 days a week because of slow down. I suppose I should be happy to have a job at all, but this will severely cut into my already paltry weekly paycheck.

Crappy part of it is that I'll have long weekends all summer but no money to enjoy them :-p

I have that old song by The Pursuit of Happiness stuck in my head and it won't go away. Of course, only my Canadian readers will know it. And maybe only the ones from Ontario at that!

ah well...maybe I'll check my lottery ticket and see if we won.  ¶ 12:32 PM 3 Comments

  Finally, some rain! We have not had rain here for several weeks. I think for the past 4 weeks, every Wednesday or so "They" say to expect rain, and it never came.

The other day we got a few minutes of rain, but hardly noticeable. Finally last night it started, it is still going now, and its nearly noon. We really needed it. It was about to become a dust bowl here. Grass was turning brown on those lawns that get mowed far too often and far too short, and our vegetable garden was suffering. As I'm sure is our water bill!

Speaking of our vegetable garden, it looks as though we are going to have quite a good potato harvest, and beans. Our tomato plants each have 3 fruits on them at the moment, and more blooms. They're still green though so it'll be a while til I have a fresh tomato sammich. Our carrotts and parsnips however are nowhere to be found. They either don't like the soil, or the groundhog got at them. Some of our squash survived the goundhog, but not much. We may also have some watermelon. The birds ate ALL of the cherries though. The grapes were starting to look a bit dry, but this rain should help them considerably.

I also put out a few of the house plants for a shower, some of them were a bit dusty.

I think today will be a lazy rainy Sunday. James will be going out shortly for his D&D game, leaving me to my own devices. I think I'll just sit and watch Stargate Atlantis season 2 DVDs. James was in Hickory the other day and picked them up for me at Best Buy, while the dogs were at the groomers.

Heeeyyyyy! I think I've got the cure for drought! Take the dogs to the groomers! :-p Seems every time they get a bath, it rains and then they get all muddy again. *snarf* For the time being, they still smell nice, and their coats are all shiny and soft. Won't last long I'm sure!

I won't get many more of these lazy Sundays. We're pretty much booked solid through June and July now, what with PPD planning and other events.

I also just checked the Dragon Con website and see they've added a few celebs to the guest list. The other day my fave vampire James Marsters was added, and today I see everybody's favourite Star Trek - TNG villain (villain? No! he was just misunderstood? antagonist certainly...) "Q" John de Lancie, was added. That for sure will be busy weekend! So much to see and do. We've got our hotel reservations and our tickets booked...only thing left is to save our money so I can pay off the credit card later :-o

Oh, we watched the funniest thing on TV the other night. Henry Rollins had William Shatner on his show. Seems the two of them are fast friends, as well as "fans" of the other. And, I had no idea, but they'd recorded a song together. It is on Shatner's album "Has Been" (that's an amazon.com link, you can have a listen there)

I love both those guys. Strangely, I have none of either of their records/CDs. hmmm...

Well...I'm off to go be lazy!  ¶ 11:55 AM 1 Comments