Oddly I don’t have any Marvel Avengers t-shirts, so I can’t take a pic of me in my comic book geeky excitement… I guess that will have to wait until I get one, or when the next Batman or Superman films come out.

Speaking of Marvel goodness, has anyone seen the new Disney XD Marvel line up? This past weekend I watched the new Ultimate Spider-Man with Nick Fury AND Avengers, with a little retro Marvel Mash-Up in between, I had to remind myself I was watching a kids channel instead of a “This is only for Dawn”.

(again, articles and blogging are kept minimal for the next several weeks)

Current Mood: chipper

Birds In Spaaa-aaaa-aaace

Yes I was an Angry Birds snob for the longest time, but I’m not one who is set in my ways. A year or so after the debut and hype of the game, I finally played the version on Chrome. I got the appeal and addiction; once I made it through rehab… I happened across “Seasons”. I figured one little try wouldn’t hurt- now my addiction is in full swing again.

I am near the end of Seasons 2011 and I was about to get my self stoked for the current year when I stumbled upon “Ice Bird”.

The bird turns concrete into ice, thus (probably) allowing the blue birds to swoop down and BREAK THEM ALL!!!!!!

I love the birds. I’m currently writing a song about my awesome love for them. It goes something like, “I love angry birds, and they’re not really angry… but they make me angry… and in my masochistic way… I liiiiiiiiiiike that! Oooooh angry birds, you make me happily angry and I LOOOVE… OOOOOOOOOVE you.”

 Of course being the addict I am, I downloaded the Birds in Spaaa-aaaa-aaaa-ce game. Now I’m actively playing two versions and I need to pull up old FB photos to remember what my loved ones look like. As for the cats, I think they’ve pretty much started their own ‘Lord of the Flies’ (from what I’ve glanced at it’s quite interesting).

The Birds in Spaaa-aaaaa-aaace terrain is incredible! It’s topsy turvy wacky bliss. I’m going to write another song later tonight about it.

Current Mood: chipper

Instead of calling authorities, when I had the opportunity to use my phone, I texted Geoff, “Semi on fire”. He wrote back possibly assuming I was referring to traffic and a delay in getting home, “Is it bad?”. I read his response and started to think about that question, “Is it bad?”

I wanted to write back initially reiterating, “Semi on fire.” Of course it was bad… a giant semi is on fire. Fire. It’s on fire. Gas tanks. BOOM! Then a quick flash back on my past six months here and that what was new for me was old hat for everyone else. Examples: My heart nearly explodes from the fear of the tornadoes closing in on the area during my first month. For me that was horrifying, for everyone else… “Meh”. Thunder and lightning striking all around while I feel like it’s the end of the world and I want to cower in a back corner until all the bad flashes of light and crashing noises go away. I’m terrified and when I express my fear to anyone local, “Meh.” My commutes are a nightmare, people zipping in and out all around- any given random day I spot at least two crushed over turned vehicles and consider my lucky, like I have a new lease on life every time I pull into my parking space. To me it’s a crazy nerve wracking adventure just to go to and from work, to everyone else here… “Meh.” Months of over 100 sweltering degree weather; where I come from it’s a disaster if we have it more than three days in a row… here it was… Okay, well that was historical for Texas.

I read his question again, “Is it bad?” I honestly didn’t know. By Dallas/Ft. Worth standards it was probably lame. I didn’t drive the other half of the major roads here, maybe there was a semi on fire every hour. It started to hit me that the cars were driving extremely casual, it was almost as if it were just an over turned construction cone to them. While I’m freaking out in my head, “IT IS GOING TO EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!” and trying to get as far away as I could, they were very calm and casual. It was like they knew “Well the fire is only minimal, no explosion for at least ten minutes, and by then the fire will go out by itself.

Of course my mind was too busy playing some sort of weird 6 month montage that by the time it ended I was driving at a normal speed and I was unable to respond to the text that prompted all those flashbacks.  I concluded that I was just a wimp and continued home. I walk in the door and said, “I don’t know if it was bad!”

Come to find out he thought it was a situation that was under control and I was referring to traffic. In that case, “No, the traffic was not bad… CONSIDERING THERE WAS A TICKING TIME BOMB!” I quickly logged onto the local news sites and saw no mention of it. Apparently here it is a “Meh.” occurrence.

Okay, here’s some quick Halloween themed shots I took since I don’t have a real costume thought up yet and I may forget to post anything before the holiest of holy days…

Now onto a gem that I happened across (actually Netflix shoved it down my throat via Watch Now, until I watched it), Raising Hope.

I first thought it was going to be a raunchy “Let’s push the envelope with vulgarity and stupidity.” type of show. I was actually quite surprised by how likable the characters are, how gentle the story is and wonderful a show I had been missing for the past year. “Jimmy becomes a single parent to an infant after the mother he had a one-night stand with ends up on death row.”

Without giving much away, it’s show about Chance. It’s a show about families making due with what they have, and what this peculiar family has is a strong bond, deep love and understanding of each other… it’s just the rest of the world that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Anything that initially bothered me about the story/characters/relationships, all started to resolve itself.

Young parents become young grandparents with a coming of age son (who should have come of age years ago) becomes a dad, and they all live in a small little home that is owned by their Alzheimer afflicted Grandma/Great Grandma/Great Great Grandma played wonderfully be Cloris Leachman (Betty White who?).

I am so happy that a night of the mundane brought to view this little gem and I HOPE that this one survives a little bit longer. It’s breath of odd fresh air.

…It gets better.

Current Mood: Thankful & Flirtatious & Crazy!

Buffy, the creation of God Whedon is still a show I rotate on my DVD player/stream through Netflix now and then.

My latest round of viewing was to catch my boyfriend up on the part of the entertainment world that I actually do like and an annoyance in the atheist ‘community’ has had me pull out my feminist soap box (if you know what I’m talking about… I sided with Dawkins. Girl wouldn’t know a feminist issue if it… well, I’ll save for a later if I need to go there again).

My initial draw to Buffy was a summer of boredom. It was after Season Two had just ended and I had avoided that show due to the film association that gave it a bad rep. I didn’t want to see some airhead cheerleader slay vamps with poor acting and dialogue. I didn’t want to watch a dumb high school drama and ‘Buffy’… what kind of name was ‘Buffy’?

My life plate was full with raising two kids, one at that time was more frequently in and out of hospitals for major and minor operations; I was rallying with the special needs communities for accessibility to the community (you don’t think how poorly constructed a city is until you have to maneuver it with a wheelchair, and since at that time I didn’t have a car yet some of the sidewalks or lack of made things tough… but we didn’t whine, we made changes.)

By that point, even at that young age, I had a lot of life already lived from Alaska to Oregon; as a woman, single mother since I was 16, quadriplegic child, absence of Christian faith and being cursed with incredible good looks I had no tolerance for flaky or weak females- or men for that matter. Xena didn’t interest me and most everything else out at that time had no appeal.

I had just gotten out of a month long stay at the hospital with my son and with him being in a spica cast that went from his arm pits to his toes so we didn’t really have any place that to be that summer.

I guess in order to prep for the up coming season they were doing a two season marathon and boredom and lack of things to do got me caught up rather quickly. What was the appeal other than boredom? I guess in a way I related to a young woman at a young age quickly had to take on the world- but did it with style and a humorous ensemble. She was quirky, awkward and clueless about love and life regardless of physical strength or situation endurance.

Yes, some of the concerns they wrote for her were superficial and shallow, but so were some of mine. I was drawn in and saw the show as something I could watch with my daughter (sometimes awkwardly) and for my son he was used to being around strong females, he liked it immediately and told me that I was like Buffy. Granted, me bleaching my hair blond, wearing a crucifix and thrusting wooden stakes in pretty much everything assisted with his comparison… even though it took a few months of doing such and answering the phone “Hi, this is Buffy… the Vampire Slayer… Jonathon, did you hear me?” Don’t judge.

Basically yes- in America we live in a much better world than woman did even fifty years ago. We can report it and have it taken seriously if you beat us, rape us, flat out deny us work if we’re female (because we are of child bearing age, and yes that happened to me too), are sexually harassed at work. Unfortunately in my life time some of the laws didn’t come into effect until right after the fact, but the world around us continues to get better for human rights as long as we don’t remain quiet and passive. We are able to, and are encouraged to build up our strengths and defenses to protect ourselves should anything bad come our way so we can prevent it or at least have the mental strength to come out of it not being a vegetable.

Through the Buffy vehicle, a lot of issues were hit upon as the years progressed and you could tell there were strong female writers (my favorite was Marti Noxon). Writers (male and female) who ‘got it’ and didn’t write for sensationalism or mainstream. They had something to say and they said it through the dialogue, having the characters give a certain look that said so much more than words could.

The show didn’t try to be brainy, it didn’t try to overly campy, it didn’t try to be anything more than real… as real as you could get for slaying vamps/demons and just about anything else you could imagine.

It had wit, subtle humor and little observations that you could relate to or hit upon something that assisted you in your own life dealings. The additional thing it gave you that other shows lacked was its quirky group of underdog friends that you found attractive through personality and dynamics as time went on. Each character had their own struggles and vehicles for growth and I don’t think there was anyone I was wishing away or didn’t cheer on.

The show didn’t insult your intellect and at the same time you didn’t need a dictionary sitting beside you in order to understand it. It wasn’t arrogant or pompous and at one time or another, it gave everyone a soul.

Watching the show causes me to say what I said when it ended almost ten years ago… there’ll never be another one like it again, and there hasn’t been.

R.I.P. Buffster- I miss you. As for God Whedon… YEE TO AVENGERS!!!

And now to give you something to watch. I saw this on Huff-Post today in a blog and I just have to say to Dar Williams, thank you. The song brought back so many wonderful memories of, well, when I was a boy.

Current Mood: Giddy

His gifts: From a romantic etching of his first romantic nudge in my direction to the most heart warming, wonderful, tear jerking video/song- He set up the gift giving a fun number game sort of way- 14 presents and each made me smile inside and out.

My love with him is something I’m gladly celebrating. Granted I’ve celebrated it by putting him on a plane :-/ …and now I’m going to play video games with Jonathon… but still, it was the best Valentine’s Day weekend EVER!

Celebrating singlehood, a relationship, or just enjoying your day- I wish you all a happy Valentine’s Day, Monday, etc.

Current Mood: Loved

What causes me to laugh further is the article I wrote a few years ago about the 700 Club going off on Pokemon.

Current Mood: Crazy!

I laughed at this at first… then my latest boredom this week made me pout after viewing the vid and send my apologies for acting thug :-\

Which was inspired by:

Although now I’m trying to remember what prompted me to search for that video in the first place… :-\

Current Mood: Silly

The name says it all. It’s not typing. No, typing is soooo passé. Swype one ups typing and takes you into a flawless and seamless experience for texting and using your touch screen.

Let me start from the beginning.

Once upon a time in a Galaxy far, far away (for those reading in a completely different galaxy than I’m in) there was a girl who lived in a physical world. She was accustomed to the ‘tap tap tap’ of the keyboard, the trackball, and just about anything external needed to access anything online. She had a blackberry and she had a regular computer and she was completely content.

One day she was given the opportunity to change her Blackberry ways for an Android. Reluctantly, she decided to go ahead and give it a whirl. Having two Blackberry’s as backup, the risk involved was minimal. She had very little interest at first for such a conversion because she had always snubbed the iPhone and Android users in the past and going over to the Droid side might make her a hypocrite. Not being one who was afraid of change or admitting she was wrong about a gadget, she was on board- besides, it was completely free and her curiosity was piqued.

After placing her SIM card from one device into the other and activating the data package, she ran her clumsy fingers over the display and her previous reservations about the touch screen were confirmed. It *was* difficult to get used to. It wasn’t really about navigation across the screen, it was actually trying to type on the tiny virtual keyboard. She turned the phone on its side, she tried different angles, but nothing was helping and she was too frustrated to type any longer. For hours she sat in her chair looking at the tiny phone in her hands that seemed to mock her as each text message arrived that she was incapable of responding to.

“How am I doing???!?!?! I’d love to tell you how I’m doing but I keep hitting the wrong keys! BLAST YOU TOUCH SCREEN! BLAST YOU HADES!”

Finally she found a little feature on one of the keyboards she had decided to try out. For 24 hours she activated the voice to text and found herself in a little playground of amusements while being either impressed or sent into fits of giggles as she read the translated words.

Currently living several states away from her boyfriend, texting was a survival means of communication, especially since they had over lapping work and sleep schedules. Now voice texting, while amusing and usually accurate, it didn’t give her a chance to have low key opportunities to text messages to him, especially mushy/cheesy messages that should not be overheard by co-workers or children.

Alas, salvation came her way on a dead holiday work day. The call volumes were low, the need for assistance from other people in the department were almost non-existent, so she decided to explore various keyboard options one more time. I mention the one more time because she previously spent a good portion of her second night with the phone trying to find some sort of solution to her clumsy fingers before she resorted to voice to text, and if this search came up empty handed she might be forced to go back to the now lackluster Blackberry.

Her search came up with ‘Swype’, she read the name of the keyboard before, but apparently didn’t understand the feature that could have saved her two days of frustrations. Apparently now used as a stock keyboard in the newer devices, they just released a beta version to be installed on phones that lack this essential tool.

After a quick registration and install, a love for the application was quickly developed.

Ah who are we kidding? I’m the girl in the ‘story’.

Seriously though! I swiped my finger across the little board and voila! 9 out of ten times it would come up with the word/sentence I was going for… and trust me, the things and words I typically text would leave you in awe once you saw this keyboard translate it out.

What is Swype?

Swype provides a faster and easier way to input text on any screen. With one continuous finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard, the patented technology enables users to input words faster and easier than other data input methods—at over 40 words per minute. The application is designed to work across a variety of devices such as phones, tablets, game consoles, kiosks, televisions, virtual screens and more.

Simply Trace a Path

The word “quick” was generated from tracing the path shown above in a fraction of a second, by roughly aiming to pass through the letters of the word. A key advantage to Swype is that there is no need to be very accurate, enabling very rapid text entry.

Speed and Accuracy

Swype is faster than existing text entry methods because it has built-in intelligence that does not require users to hit each letter accurately. Also, tracing a smooth, continuous path is much faster than “target-tap-lift-target-tap…”. Even novice users can quickly achieve sustained data entry speeds of over 40 words per minute.

Key Features

• Over 40 words per minute on touchscreen devices
• Standard QWERTY layout
• Use a stylus or finger
• Ideal for Smartphones and Tablet PCs
• Multiple languages available
• Supports common editing actions
• Patented
• SDK available now!
• Single Tap Predictive Text for mobile devices

I would LOVE to see this developed for a standard PC, but until that day, my Android has now become my tool of choice for surfing/messaging and writing the next great novel just because I want to use Swype!

Current Mood: Geeky