Dodge the blue blocks. 20.54 23.4 secs is my best... good luck. :D

Things like this amuse the hell out of me. XD

(So I'm a geek, so what else is new? *giggles*)

(And speaking of Stuff You Can Buy, I still want some of the GiantMicrobes. Especially this and this and this and most especially this one. If only for the "awww, cute! what's it?" "black death." "..." freak-people-out factor. XD)

No snow photos. By when I got up, it had already almost completely melted. :( Stupid weather.

It's snowing \o/ FINALLY! It started snowing around 11pm, and I just went and looked outside and it's still snowing hard and showing no sign of stopping and everything outside is all white already. :D
I think tomorrow I'll have a fair bit of fun in my garden with my camera. :D

Ok, it's been a distraction for me for a few days, but I only just got around to posting it.

Bat the penguin. My best score is 587.1 588.3... a friend of mine got 593, I'm still trying. Hee.

[EDIT] Another distraction. I managed 8 20! in a row so far for this one.

Wow.

Just... wow.

A more coherent version of what I think of RotK after I get over the gibbering fangirl state. :P

I am myself.

I can't be somebody I'm not. Not even for people I dearly care about.

If I get hurt, oh well. I'll heal, and learn for the next time.

I will not step on eggshells to avoid popping inflated egos.

I will not lie. Don't ask me to.

If you can't understand something of me, or if you don't like something I do, tell me. I'm not a mind reader.

To dislike yourself is to insult your friends.

I live. I dream.

And I can fly.

The storm is over. Let spring come.

I am also not beyond self-serving posts. Happy birthday to me. ;)

Ok... so we have three cats, yeah? One, Testardo, is old and spends all his time sleeping, one - named Orione - is a sweetie, always friendly and purring, one - Attila - is, as the name indicates, a complete terror. If you expect any of them to commit gruesome murder, it would be Attila, right?
Wrong.
Orione, the sweet little friendly kitty who looks always innocent, like he couldn't hurt a fly, brutally murdered a blackbird.
Wait, no, I can't sum it up like that, I have to describe what happened (or rather, what we figured out from the blood and feather trails)...
Orione went outside and caught a blackbird. So far all normal, yeah? All cats do that. But then he proceeded to drag the (still alive and struggling, as far as we could determine) blackbird inside through the (small... the cats have to literally crawl to get through it) and through a (small... Attila and Testardo both tend to get stuck in it) grate by the side of our door. Then, he dragged it to the ground floor bathroom, where he fought with it... the bird evidently managed to escape for a bit, as there were blood tracks from the bathroom to behind the stair door.
Behind the stair door is where the bird died, I'm assuming, since there were feathers and blood everywhere, even on the WALLS. Then the body got dragged down the stairs and into the basement bathroom, where Orione proceeded to play with it some more (as evidenced by the amount of feathers in that bathroom).
When I found him, he was chewing on the neck of the bird, and looked up at me with big innocent "who, me? I was just passing through, I have nothing to do with this, really" eyes. And of course I couldn't even get grumpy at him, he was too cute. I just went and cleaned up instead... cleaning half-caked blood off walls is a pain, let me tell you.
What's even more surprising is that I didn't see or notice anything, and I'm literally three meters from the stairs and the basement bathroom, and I've been sitting here for most of the afternoon. Ditto for my brother... and ditto for my mother, who was reading on the sofa on the ground floor, five meters from the cat door and grate, the stairs, and the ground floor bathroom.
So, we have a ninja cat, and we'd underestimated him. We are so doomed...

Today's amusement, courtesy of a good friend of mine and at the expense of Internet Explorer: upgrade your IE. (Alternate version.)
If you're doing the intelligent thing to do and using a non-IE browser, you'll have to switch to IE to view those sites. Don't worry, they won't melt down your computer. ;) Make sure to check out the source of the websites for added amusement.

* Noah builds till he is 600 years old
<Noah> ready, sir
<Jehova> ta
<Jehova> get on board
* Humanity has left IRC (Excess Flood)
<Noah> o_O wtf

Apparently, according to the Nerd Test, 52.38095238095238% of me is a huge nerd. Hooray.

Ok, self-serving entry here. ;) If you read my blog but haven't commented in a while, post a comment here please. Just so I can keep count of my readers.
Yes, I know there's some of you, yes, I know even who some of you are, so stop acting like wallpaper and comment. ;)

Courtesy of a good friend of mine...

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97... wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are NOT as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Well, this certainly gives "Curses, foiled again!" a whole new meaning.

'You are the Catalyst still!' she shrieked after me. There was nothing but desperation and amazement in her voice now. 'If you will not kill me, then come back and use your Skill to heal me. I will be subject to you in all ways! You could use me as you wished, and I could teach you all I have learned from the Skill-scrolls! You have the strength to wield that magic! Heal me, and I will show you the path to power. You will be the rightful King of the Six Duchies, of the Out Islands, of all the Cursed Shores! All. I will give you all your dreams, if only you come back!'
My dream was dead in my arms. I continued to walk.

King William's College Quiz. Doubtlessly I'm late in finding this, but... well. Even though it made my brain hurt, wellllll, I know 25 answers. ^^; Assuming I got them right, of course, but I think I did. (I'm not about to google them, I'll wait for the answers to be published.) My answers are in the extended entry, to avoid spoilers.

Start out going South from THE HILL...

And this time Paint Shop Pro is just as guilty. It seems you can't edit images of currency at all in Paint Shop Pro 8 or Photoshop CS. Heh. It's true, too, I tested with my copy of PSP8 out of curiosity and it wouldn't open any images of new currency.
As always, Orb rants about it far better than I could, so I'll just shut up and direct people towards her blog. ;)
Good thing I installed PSP8 in a separate directory rather than upgrade my PSP7, so I can still use PSP7...
(Via Mefi.)

Pholph's Scrabble Generator

My Scrabble© Score is: 12.
What is your score? Get it here.

(My real name gives me 17 points, but I'm not about to post it here. ;) Via Mefi.)

And I'll miss him. :(

Well, wingedspirit.net was overdue for a new layout. And since I liked one of the firework photos I took tonight a lot...

...let's just ignore the Geek Factor of spending the wee hours of the morning of the first day of the new year making a new layout, ok?

And nevermind that it would've been done a lot earlier if I'd just done a table layout rather than being stubborn and doing it in CSS...

Just tell me what you think of it.

Happy New Year to all of you.

May this one be better than the last one.