KingOfAnkh’s Neighborhood

I don't really have anything much to say.  I've been kind of down in the dumps in recent weeks as finances have become increaingly tighter.   I'm hoping that finally paying my car off by the beginning of the year will help to improve my outlook.

So, this entry will be random thoughts cobbled together.

Yesterday, I went to Wal Mart to do my weekly grocery shopping.  I normally go to Aldi, but I was in a hurry and figured Wal Mart would have comparable prices, as they have in the past.
 
It seems as if I was wrong.  Wally World has raised prices on nearly everything, where some of the items were even higher than in the regular, full-price grocery stores.  I ended up spending more than ten dollars more than I pay for the same items at Aldi. Next week, it will be back to Aldi's for me.
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It's been raining all day here today and is supposed to continue until tomorrow evening as my area is subjected to the backlash from Hurricane Ida.  I'm glad it happened on my day off.  We've had a lot of rain in the last few months and I'm sick of it.
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If I had the money, this is what I'd get myself for Christmas:

I want the big flute in the middle that looks a bit like plumbing, otherwise known as a bass flute.  The flute to the right of it is a standard flute.  I've heard the bass flute before, usually in background movie music, and it has a deep, mysterious sound to it.  I've only seen a bass flute "in the flesh" once in my life, as a fifteen year old high school freshman visiting Manny's Music in New York City in 1973.

But this will likely remain a "pipe dream", as I'd likely not be able to touch even a used student grade for under fifteen hundred bucks.  But I hold out that one day I might find one for a steal.

WTF! How many calorpes do you think are in this?

WTF! How many calorpes do you think are in this?

AIRLINE LUGGAGE VIRUS - You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.

ALZHEIMER'S VIRUS - It makes your computer forget where it put your files.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER VIRUS v 1.0 - It terminates and stays resident. It'll be back!

BILL CLINTON VIRUS v 1.0 - It has a six inch hard drive and no memory. Freezes entire system due to unresolved memory conflicts.

BOB DOLE (aka Viagra) VIRUS - Makes a new hard drive out of an old floppy.

DISNEY VIRUS - Everything in the computer goes Goofy.

FRENCH VIRUS - garbles some files and then displays a message asking you for help. If you click OK, it just garbles more files and asks for help again. If you click Cancel, it displays the message, "I surrender!" and shuts down your computer. If you click Ignore, it scans your computer for the German and Russian viruses. If the French, Russian, and German viruses find each other, they merge into a single virus that conflicts with the George W. Bush virus, slowing it down.

GEORGE W. BUSH VIRUS v 1.0 - Doesn't do anything, but you can't get rid of it until November.

GEORGE W. BUSH VIRUS v 2.0 - Tells you it's going to eliminate all other viruses from your computer but that it may take a long time. Then it actually does scan your computer and eliminate viruses. It also scans for Programs of Mass Destruction (PMD), which are programs that destroy a lot of files if they are run. PMDs may be caused by a number of other viruses, such as the Saddam Hussein virus. The only problems with the George Bush virus are that it uses up a lot of your computer's resources while it's scanning, it never seems to find any PMDs, and it keeps switching the background color on your computer screen back and forth between yellow and orange.

HILLARY CLINTON VIRUS v 1.0 - Files disappear, only to reappear mysteriously a year later, in another directory.

HILLARY CLINTON VIRUS v 2.0 - sets the "hidden" attribute on all your accounting files and tells you your computer won't run in 2004 or 2008. Many experts believe this virus may become its most dangerous in 2008.

HOWARD STERN VIRUS - One of the dirtiest viruses around. It writes 4 letter words to all of your files just to annoy the operating system. It also installs an X-rated GIF on your hard drive. Very popular.

HURRICANE VIRUS - It blows away all your files, then tells you the government will help you rebuild them.

MAFIA VIRUS - You don't want it, but you're afraid to get rid of it.

MARTHA STEWART VIRUS - Takes all your files, sorts them by category and folds them into cute little doilies to be displayed on your desktop.

MOM VIRUS- Places a phone call to your mother every time you click on an adult website.

MONICA LEWINSKY VIRUS v 1.0 - It sucks the juice out of your system, but only affects laptops. Then, it emails everyone about what it did. This later activates the Independent Counsel virus.

NEWT GINGRICH VIRUS - It repartitions your hard disk into two volumes yet allocates most of the available resources to the 'Right' partition. When attacked by anti-virus software from the 'left' partition, it terminates and restarts to continue its work as a background process.

NIKE VIRUS - Just does it.

O.J. SIMPSON VIRUS v 1.0 - It claims that it did not, could not, and would not delete two of your files and vows to find the virus that did it.

O.J. SIMPSON VIRUS v 2.0 (Often accompanied by the Johnny Cochran Virus.) – You know it's guilty of trashing your system, but you just can't prove it. Every time you try to search for a file, it runs "Pro Golf Tour 2000" instead.

OPRAH WINFREY VIRUS - Your 200MB hard drive suddenly shrinks to 80MB, and then slowly expands back to 200MB.

PAUL REVERE VIRUS - This revolutionary virus does not horse around. It warns you of impending hard disk attack- Once, if by LAN; twice if by C.

POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS v 1.0 - Never calls itself a "virus," but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism."

POLITICALLY CORRECT VIRUS v 2.0 - Rephrases the "Abort, Retry, Fail" prompt as "Choice, Retry, Success-Impaired".

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION VIRUS - Makes your browser stop at every website.

RICHARD NIXON VIRUS - Also known as the "Tricky Dick Virus", you can wipe it out but it always makes a comeback. Popular in China.

RIGHT TO LIVE VIRUS v 1.0 - Won't allow you to delete a file, regardless of how old it is. Prints, “Oh, no, you don't!”, whenever you choose Abort from the "Abort, Retry, Fail" message.

RODNEY DANGERFIELD VIRUS - Gets no respect. Only allows data do be displayed as one-liners.

DAVID DUKE VIRUS - Makes your screen go completely white.

RUSH LIMBAUGH VIRUS v 1.0 - Probably the most dangerous virus we've ever seen. It occupies 50Mb, complains about all the other files, than eats them. It's so stupid you don't take it seriously until it's too late.

TEENAGER VIRUS - Your PC stops every few seconds to ask for money.

TEXAS VIRUS - Makes sure that it's bigger than any other file.

TITANIC VIRUS - Makes your whole computer go down. You get a sinking feeling when your system crashes.

TOBACCO INDUSTRY VIRUS - It contends that there is no reliable scientific evidence that viruses can harm you computer or that it targets adolescent computer users.

We went to see this movie on Saturday night.  The much-hyped Paranormal Activity starring two previously unknown actors and a supporting cast of unknowns, as well.  It was sort of a "Blair-Witch-Style" production - one of the lead characters films everything on a home video camera, although, the film got so much exposure before-hand there was no question as to the authenticity of it - I don't think anyone was misled to believe that these were actual events "caught on film" - but then I frequently overestimate the intelligence of my fellow-movie-goers, so I could be wrong.

So Far Nov ember is starting out as a quiet month.
On Thursday Styles left for a 5 month deployment, nowhere dangerous this time and he'll be back for my B-Day/our Anniversary so it's all good, I may even go visit him around Christmas.
Friday myself, my Ma and two friends went to the Rocking R to trail ride for the day, it was freaking GORGEOUS! out, and we have a great time, but nobody warned us that Friday started deer season here in NoDak(in MI it's Nov 15th and you couldn't PAY me to take my horse in the woods that day) well I had on some bright pink and blue, Pauline has a neon green helmet cover and three of the horses are SPOTTED so we were safe enough.
Saturday was the last home football game of the season for UND, GO SIOUX!! they won but it wasn't a pretty win, they are close to a conference title tho, not bad for only their second year in a higher division.
Not much else to say, with Styles gone it's horses, horses, horses for me. I do some house work and I have some sewing that needs finishing...

Smoothie

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We visited the Berkshires this weekend, it was lovely. We grabbed some lattes, looked for hiking clothes and ate at a small-town pub after.  The region is more mountainous and forested than our region, the Valley.

We drove past an incredible home. It was white with silver shutters, and it was traditional yet semi-modern. I wish I knew the name of house styles so I could have identified it.  

We have a creative artist neighbor who does sidewalk chalk art every day. One guy calls it "The Gallery" because we all see her fabulous drawings when we walk to the breakfast place on weekends. I'm looking forward to having more artistic space on our new property.

People in the Berkshires live a much more cozy lifestyle, the forests are right outside their windows, along with the rushing river and mountains. Fireplaces and faux-fur hiking boots in mudrooms are the norm.

I found a cool example of a modern home, south-facing windows, in Natural-Home Magazine. It's a Zen Ranch Colorado Straw Bale Home. I'd love a place like this!

Tea4

We shopped for hiking boots this weekend, I overheard the funniest conversation. A woman and her mom were trying on some clothes, lamented that the sizes were all wrong.

"These clothes aren't made for American women. (Looks at label) See? 'Made in India'. Women over there are made differently. That's why all our jobs are gone, because the were all sent over there".

I had to laugh. Haven't we gotten a grip on a global economy yet? When will we get with the program? Other countries have a prospering population, universal health care. Other nations are united to solve climate change issues. Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands allow gay marriage.

There's an exceptional article in the Boston Globe this week called Why Fundamentalism will fail.

In Christianity, the fastest-growing wing of the church is the Pentecostal/Charismatic wave...accounting for one in every four Christians. One writer has called them “main street mystics.” Among Muslims, it is the gentle but ecstatic Sufi version that is growing fastest, not the suicide bomber cults. All these movements...represent a fatal threat to fundamentalism.

Throws

I'm encouraged to hear this. Because while the far right-wing may be making a lot of noise, they are clearly in the minority. They've even caused some Republicans to switch parties - and I'm a huge supporter of the Working Party. 

I don't think it's about being the loudest, I do think it's about forming communities.  

With raspberry too

As we all know, real change takes time. News reports are saying today that the single-payer health care plan is off the table. The real news is, it's a very hot topic. It has energy. Thousands of grassroots organizations and nurses are supporting the idea.

Bernie Sanders is introductiong S703 to Healh Care Reform.

Please write to the White House and support Universal Health Care for the 37 to 47 million Americans without insurance. It will save us money! And tell them we want the bill delayed if it doesn't have one.

I finally spent the gift card that mom, Keegan, and Karina sent for my birthday.  I know you're all dying to know what they got me.  Well, what their money bought.  Whatever...

First off, I used it to buy Brian's Christmas presents.   Hey, why not.  Between them and Brian I have $125 worth of gift cards.  I have about 5 or 6 books lined up already.  I always want more more more books, of course. But sharing is nice.   And, well, Brian already told me that really all he could think of for me to get him were the two Avatar books.  Easy.  Done.  He's getting James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook and The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure.  I was tempted to get him James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Sticker Book to be funny, but I decided it wasn't THAT funny.  I might still order it before Christmas though... Because even though it's not funny, he'd probably actually sit there playing with the stickers.  Seriously.  

Don't worry, I wasn't gonna spend all of my birthday money on Brian!  No No.  I ordered myself some things from my wishlist.  To add onto my to read pile -- Beautiful Creatures, Tempest Rising (Jane True), and Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate).  And Brian wonders why I've decided that perhaps I need a Kindle for Christmas :p  He never orders books and thinks sometimes that ever he wants one. HA! I keep Amazon in business.  Time to re-organize my bookshelf again maybe... I think I really am out of room probably. 

Also, I still have Brian's birthday gift card left to spend.   Oh how I love Amazon.  My only real shopping addiction.  They're ev0l and good both.