Mostly Annoyances

I am feeling generous, so I will share these passing thoughts with you now.
It's pretty cool to be pleased with yourself sometimes. It's fantastic if you look great, and good for you if you are lucky (or Republican) enough to be rich.
But don't let your ego get in the way of happiness and success. Firstly, if you have an over-inflated ego, you're an asshole. If you are also blessed with enough intelligence to read for a few moments, this may provide some priceless enlightenment.
Everyone can see through you. They know the reason you have such a large ego is because you lack in some other vital area, whether it be talent, cunning, or your hidden parts are just too small.
When observing the ego-maniac, one theme weaves it's thread throughout the experience; they don't seem to listen. They cannot learn. When any conversation emerges, they immediately harken to some misty memory from their boring past to liken the situation, forcing them uncomfortably into the social circle.
Therein lies the answer;
SHUT UP AND LISTEN!
Listen and learn from those around you. It's ok to let one conversation go without your nervous (seemingly brave) mouth flapping opened and closed blahblahblah.
The prima donna takes offense. The true professional takes notes.
And world-class specialists always seem to approach even the most basic things differently than the rest of us.
So carve out your own style, take it all in.
Who knows, maybe if you didn't love yourself so much, others would do it for you.

After I caught Q-Tip (see the other blog below, on 11/26,) I put her in a separate cage for her first night in captivity after her two-week vacation. The cage was placed next to the stand the larger rat cage is on, and Q-Tip could hear the other rats above her. She acted very interested, and was very friendly with me too. So I decided to put her back with "The Whites" (that's what we call the other two, because they are mostly white with brown and beige patches) last night.

If a rat could scream "WOOHOO!", Q-Tip would have. She was so visibly happy to be back with the others ! The Baby (little Jigsaw) jumped on her back and started play-fighting with her, then Q-Tip started running after Bristle for another play-fight. They were all so excited ! Really looked like they were throwing a party! :)

When I got up this morning, they were all wide awake and acting playful (they're usually sound asleep in the morning) and they had eaten everything in their bowl of dry food during the night (it's usually full of stuff they discarded.) That must have been a busy night.

Now they're all sleeping in a pile. It's really cute to see how happy they are to be all back together :)

YEAH! I made it on Friday! Woohoo! :)

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?

I don't like to shop for the sole purpose of shopping. I shop when I have something specific to shop for (must have something to do with the fact I don't like to spend my money...)

2. What was the last thing you purchased?

Railroad Tycoon 3. And I bet the thing I bought before that was a computer game, and the next thing I buy will be a computer game too (or books.)

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?

Depends what for, but I usually prefer to shop at an actual store (mostly because I'm too impatient to wait for what I want.)

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?

What the hell is that? Well, I didn't get weekly money (my parents spoiled me enough without the need for that,) but I was allowed to do just about everything I wanted, within reason -- does that count? :)

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?

Some cheap inkjet cartdriges for my printer. That was an online purchase, incidentally. The crappiest shit-cartdriges I've ever bought! (maybe that's what they filled them with.) My printer was printing white pages after I put them in! (bleached shit?) And they said they were fully compatible with my printer... yeah, sure, they were...

Yessssssssssss!!! I caught that damn rat, finally!! She ran away exactly 2 weeks ago, and now she's back! :)

None of the traps we had set for her worked (not even the expensive "don't-hurt-the-rat" trap John bought a week ago.) Absolutely none. She's way too smart and careful to be caught with a trap. So, about a week ago, we put a 10 feet-long piece of wood (what you call a 2 x 4 here?) along the base of the kitchen counters, where there is an opening large enough for a rat to go inside the base (that's where she was hiding.) We placed the wood thing slightly askew so as to leave enough space for her to get out, but also to allow us to quickly close it if we happened to get in the kitchen while she was out, and fast enough to close it before she ran back in.

Up until now, the 2 x 4 trap hadn't worked... Every time we heard noise in the kitchen and ran there, we'd see her run back under the counters but were never quick enough to close the opening before she got in.

Tonight, I heard a noise that sounded like an empty can falling on the kitchen counter (we had seen her there, on top of the counters, a few days ago -- we thought she'd used the trash can to climb up there, so we set it farther from the counters. I have NO idea whatsoever how she could have climbed on top of the counters now, without the trash can next to them.) Anyway, I heard that noise, ran to the kitchen and turned the lights on. I saw movement in the corner, behind the bread box on top of the kitchen counters. I ran as fast as I could and pushed the 2 x 4 at the base of the counters to close the opening... And I saw her! She was right there, in the corner on top of the counters, hiding behind the bread box!!! I couldn't believe it! :)

I thought, being such a wild and shy rat, and especially after being alone and free for 2 whole weeks, she would bite me if I tried to catch her... But I didn't care anymore at this point -- I was full of adrenaline and just wanted to catch her. So I called her, trying to calm her down. She tried to run away when I grabbed her, but she didn't try to bite at all :) We put her in a separate cage for now and will re-introduce her to the other rats later (I hope she won't tell them too many tales about her 2-week vacation and have a bad influence on them!)

I'm so glad she's back! :) What's amazing is that she doesn't even seem to have lost any weight at all, even though we fed her sparingly in hope that hunger would bring her out of her hiding place (which it did, obviously.) She looks fine, just a little scared, but that's all :) Can't wait to pet her tonight! :) :) :)

Carole went on down to South Park, so I came to play too. Here is how I look just after crossing the border:



All I need now is a blizzard and a Fresh Towel!

English: They are as alike as peas in a pod.
French: Ils se ressemblent comme deux gouttes d'eau.
Literal translation from French: They are as alike as two drops of water.

English: There wasn't a soul.
French: Il n'y avait pas un chat.
Literal translation from French: There wasn't a cat.

English: I have a frog in my throat.
French: J'ai un chat dans la gorge.
Literal translation from French: I have a cat in my throat.

Funny how often it seems we use cats in French idioms instead of other things :) I wonder why.

Hey, check this out: Create a South Park Character

This is me:



I'd just need a lipbalm in one hand and a half-empty cup of coffee in the other, and the resemblance would be scary! Heehee! :)

MAH! I almost made it on Friday! Almost!

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

- Catch my rat Q-Tip (but I think it's hopeless.)
- Start writing a novel.
- Finish the song John and I started writing together.
- Get my papers in order.
- Clean the house... a bit... maybe :)

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.

Mmmh... I don't know a lot of people, and most of those I've lost contact with, well, I don't really want to get back in touch with them... Ok, let's try a few:

- Patrick, a friend I went to school with and with whom I had lots of fun when I was between the ages of 9-15. We used to sing Kiss songs together at the Mc Donald's restaurant across the street from the Lausanne's train station (using the burgers boxes and ashtrays as our drums kit) -- they threw us out a few times :)

- Bernard, who stills owes me money for the stupid second-hand Porsche he bought ( WITH MY MONEY!) after all those years, dammit!! I'll get you someday, asshole!

- Well, there's my friend "Mivu"... I haven't lost touch with him -- we still email each other once in a great while. I wish we did that more often. I consider him my best friend in Switzerland. Known him for 22 years.

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

- Play the guitar.
- Play the piano/keyboard.
- Programming (getting back into Visual Basic, and learning a more complex language like C++ would be great...)
- Flash programming.
- Get rich without working.

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

- Invest most of it so neither of us would ever have to work again.
- Buy a rustic cabin in a beautiful, wild, lonely place (with mountains, lakes and woods nearby.)
- Buy an RV, so we can go and travel at our leisure.
- Buy a horse. Always wanted one.
- Go to Switzerland with John for a couple months every year.

5. List five things you do that help you relax.

- Reading.
- Playing games on my computer.
- Playing board games.
- Petting and playing with my rats.
- Going for a walk or bike ride.

A couple weeks ago, I must have touched something somewhere, which resulted in the text on some web pages being displayed much smaller than usual (on this blog in particular,) while other text looked normal. I had no idea how this happened and couldn't find the option to get it back to normal in IE. At first, I assumed they'd changed something in the blog template, so I changed the font size in the template so the text looked normal on my computer -- but now I know it looked huge...

Anyway, I finally found how to get it right (IE's "View" menu > "Text Size" > "Medium" -- I had it set to "Smaller" somehow!) and changed the blog's font size back to what it was before. Much better, isn't it? :)

Yeah! It's our week-end! Tonight, Carlton (drummer) will come to play with John. He's such a great drummer, despite what he says! He's never played metal before, but I think he's doing quite well so far. They're working on "Ostracized" by Grip Inc. -- woohoo! I love that song! :) (I suggested it because it's not too difficult, a bit repetitive, but very driving.) John sang it when he was jamming with Art, Jeremiah and I don't remember who else.

We'll probably go for a visit to my favorite book stores too this "week-end" -- "A Novel Idea" in Hilliard (a half-price paperback store I love,) and maybe to the Half-Price Book Store too. I want to try and find more books by Robert J. Sawyer. Just started my first novel by him ("The Terminal Experiment") and I really like the way he writes. Most of his novels, from what I read on Amazon, are what I refer to as "techno-thrillers." Lots of science, future high-techs, computer stuff... It's categorized as sci-fi, I think, but it's rooted in the real world enough for me to enjoy it (I have a hard time reading sci-fi I can't relate to in any way -- like some aliens living in another galaxy and such.)

Damn! It's not as easy to catch a rat as it is to catch a mouse! Q-Tip triggered the new trap once and stole a piece of lettuce from the trigger-thing, but somehow managed not to get caught! The doors were closed, but she wasn't inside! Since then, she hasn't even tried to get anything from the trap! Rats are sometimes too smart for their own good... :(

I seem to always forget to do this on Fridays :)

1. Using one adjective, describe your current living space.

Well, if I didn't want us to look bad, I'd say "spacious," which is true. But I have to admit that the first thing that came to my mind when I read this question was "dirty" :) I'm such a lousy housewife.

2. Using two adjectives, describe your current employer.

Forgetful and workoholic.

3. Using three adjectives, describe your favorite hobby/pass-time.

Speaking of my computer addiction: interesting, fun, educative.

4. Using four adjectives, describe your typical day.

Computerized, peaceful, lazy, fun.

5. Using five adjectives, describe your ideal life.

Rich, worry-free, adventurous, playful, computerized.

I talked to my 14-year old nephew on the phone yesterday. He asked me if I knew some cartoon-thing called "Happy Tree Friends." I'd never heard of it, so he gave me a URL and said I should check it out. I wasn't overly interested to go look at some kid's stuff... but he insisted, so I went (after more than 10 years living in the US, I had almost forgotten that "kid's stuff" isn't the same for a 14 year-old European kid as it is for a 14 year-old American kid, haha!)

Anyway, Happy Tree Friends is *HILARIOUS*!!! Reminds me a bit of South Park, without the delightful swearing and vulgarity, but with... um... "something else" instead, hahaha! Very very funny!

Go look at the different Flash cartoons on the Happy Tree Friends web site!

Click on "More Episodes" when you're there. Make sure to let the different movies play until they say "The End". Most of them have an intro, then a short advertisement, and then the animated cartoon itself.

We lost one of our three rats a few days ago, on the 12th. She's not dead, she's lost... in our house (and I'm too ashamed to say how she got lost -- it was my fault.) Anyway, of course, it had to happen with our most shy, antisocial rat! She won't come back! I call her and call her and call her, and she won't come.

For the first couple days, we had no idea where she was hiding. We thought she was inside our couch, where some of our previous rats had already dug holes and visited... but we couldn't find her even though I cut open the bottom of the couch with scissors. There were still some hollow places we could not see inside the couch, so we thought she might still be in there. The first night, I put a bowl of soy milk for her, close to the rats cage in the living-room, on the floor. The next morning it was empty. I did that the second night and, again, the bowl was empty in the morning. So we knew she was still around and alive.

The third morning, I woke up early to go to the bathroom and left the bedroom door open when I went back to sleep. An hour later, I was woken up by a rat sliding down my pillow onto my shoulder!! It was Q-Tip! So I called her and, as soon as she heard my voice, she litterally flew straight towards the bedroom door! Impossible to catch her (plus I was sleepy.) I got up real quick and followed her, so I could at least see where she was going and where her hiding place was. Wonderful -- she's hiding exactly where I was afraid she was: in the hollow base underneath our kitchen counters (there's a long slit all along the counters' base, which we should have taken care of long ago since we have rats -- that's not the first time one of our rats goes under there, but they usually come back when called. Q-Tip doesn't :( And there's not way to get in there.

Anyway, now that we know where she is, I blocked the kitchen doorway (there's no physical door to our kitchen) and put her soy milk in the kitchen. I don't want her to get dehydrated, but I won't feed her so she can continue her happy little solitary life!

We set up a trap for her, but I knew it wouldn't work. It's a very small wire-cage with a door that slides up and down. We attached a thread to the door and put some food at its end -- just enough to hold the door up. When the bait-food is picked up, the door slides down. The problem is that this particular wire-cage is way too small to catch a rat this way (it worked fine to catch a mouse that was in our garage.) She doesn't need to go fully inside the cage to reach the bait, so it's easy for her to retreat without being locked inside. Today, she tried to pick up the food in the cage at least 15 times (actually got some,) and each time the door closed but the damn rat was not caught!

So John went out to buy a real trap -- something that theorically won't hurt her, and from which she won't have time to retreat before the door closes. So far, unfortunately, it hasn't worked. She's not a mouse -- she's a rat, and she's smart. I think she knows it's a trap and she hasn't even tried to approach it yet. I hope she'll try it tonight or tomorrow morning though. I put a bottle cap filled with soy milk and small pieces of lettuce in the middle of the trigger-thing (she'll probably get splashed in the face if/when she triggers it, haha!) I'm hoping she'll be less careful when she's thirsty enough. So far, she's been most active trying to find food/drink in the morning.

If she doesn't get caught tomorrow morning, I'll have to give her some "untrapped" soy milk -- she needs to drink -- and maybe try some other foods inside the trap (with more milk too.)

Bah-bah-bah!! :( So, YES, rats CAN be annoying sometimes!

I forgot to post my Friday Five Questions on Friday, so here's my Tuesday Five Questions.

1. What food do you like that most people hate?

Rare steaks. They're more tender and tasty this way. It always makes me laugh when people say: "But all that blood is disgusting!" Well, guess what... when steaks are more cooked, the blood is still there, only it's brownish and you can't see it! (and your steak tastes like crap and is hard like the sole of a shoe as an added "bonus", haha!)

2. What food do you hate that most people love?

Salads. Mostly lettuce and raw tomatoes -- I'll save that for rats. Actually, I like tomatoes, but hate the skin, so I usually peal it off (even on the slices they put in hamburgers, when I let them do that.)

3. What famous person, whom many people may find attractive, is most unappealing to you?

George Clooney -- YUK!!

4. What famous person, whom many people may find unappealing, do you find attractive?

Jack Nickolson. He looks so delightfully insane and evil :) Great actor too.

5. What popular trend baffles you?

Most of them. I don't like trends.

And in the idioms literal translations series...

English: Once in a blue moon.
French: Tous les trente-six du mois.
Literal translation from French: Every 36th of the month.

English: To shake someone up.
French: Secouer les puces a quelqu'un.
Literal translation from French: To shake someone's fleas.

English: To have other fish to fry.
French: Avoir d'autres chats a fouetter.
Literal translation from French: To have other cats to whip.

Do you play Neopets? It's a really nice site to get obsessed with, in different ways. Of course, there's the pet we adopt and "have" to take care of. Then there are the many free games we can play online, the guilds we can belong to, the Neoshops we can open to sell Neo-items to make Neo-money (Neopoints.)

Anyway, while I used to play a lot of those mini-games when I first started, what really hooked me was my goal of getting rich. When you play games, you earn Neopoints, or you can buy (still talking virtual money here) miscellaneous items that you can then sell in a Neoshop (<- this is my shop!) Then, with your Neopoints, you can buy more expensive virtual items for your collection, or to improve your Neopets in some way, etc.

A few weeks ago, I became a Neo-millionnaire :) I currently have about 1.3 million Neopoints, so I decided it was time to buy something for my Neopet Tramplewoods, like one of those sadly expensive paint brushes. Paint brushes allow you to paint your Neopet in a color or style that is not available to choose from at the Adoption Center. I decided to buy a Tyrannian paint brush to paint Tramplewoods. All Tyrannian things are related to prehistory, so my originally green Moehog went from this:

To this:

Now isn't he adorable with his new Tyrannian look?! :) He looks like a little mammoth-hog. I love it! (even though that darn Tyrannian paint brush cost me 184,000 neopoints on auction!)

So, hey, if you're bored, or have kids and want some peace, go take a look at Neopets.

They changed John's schedule again. His days off are on Tuesday and Wednesday, so now Sunday is no longer Sunday. No, Sunday is Wednesday, and today is Thursday. MAH! This confuses me so much! I keep forgetting what day it really is, both in real time and in John's schedule. Oh sure, I can just turn my head a few inches to take a glance at my wall calendar, but who'd think of doing such a thing?

It's really cold out today. Last night, when I went to bed, my weather machine said it was 20 degrees! Just right for John, but hibernating temperatures for me.

I love strategy games, especially business simulations where you have to build up your empire, discover and conquer new lands, make money... I've played this type of games since the dawn of times (started on my Atari and Amiga, in the precambrian era,) and I'm still playing them obsessively now.

So, of course, I've played the original, classic Railroad Tycoon (version 1 on my Atari, and then version 2, 10 years later, on my PC.) Railroad Tycoon 3 has just been born, and I am bowing to the genius programmers! :)

Never before has Railroad Tycoon felt more like a model train simulation! Yes, RRT3 has gone 3D, which I usually hate for strategy games (I prefer a top or isometric view,) but this time it is a good thing! I am still amazed at the graphics and animations quality, and at how easy it is to manipulate through the excellent interface! There is even a map editor to create your own worlds or real ones using heightmaps! And a sandbox mode if you just want to play with a model train without worrying about the financial and aspects of the game.

It is particularly amazing to lock the camera on one of your trains (from any desired point) and go for a little trip with it! :) The smoke effects for steam trains are beautiful (electric locomotives produce little electric arcs on the lines!), and the night and day cycle and weather effects add to the feeling that you're in a real world! Water and waves are beautifully rendered as well.

And you don't even have to have a computer with all the latest hardware to run it! My dad is running the game on his 4-5 year-old PC (I think it's a PII 900 MHz) without any problem. He says the animations are nice and smooth too.

The screenshots below do not do justice to this beautiful game.

Well, I finally decided to upload the web site I had made for Danny's band, Remedy, which was never used (the band broke up as I was almost done! MAH!) I uploaded it just to have one more example to show on my Design Vortex site.

Take a look: Remedy's never-used-site-what-a-pity!

Oh, and if you know anybody who needs a web site, send them to me :) The link to Design Vortex is on the right-hand side.