Author Archives: Pamela

Something unexpected happened which is: I’ve become a browser slut. I’ve pretty much always used Netscape although I sometimes used Exploder on the iMac for reasons I can’t remember. But the eMac booted up this thing called safari which I fell in love with after about 3 minutes. It’s superfast and easy to use and pretty much my only problem with it is that all my bookmarks are floating around somewhere other than in the bookmarks area. I need to find a URL manager. Meanwhile, liking safari made me start thinking about browsers and I found this article about browsers and later I heard about Firefox on a weblog and downloaded that at the office and then downloaded Camino back at home. So now sometimes I have 2 or 3 browsers going at once and bookmarks all over the place. I like safari a lot but this sidebar bookmark thing in Camino is brilliant.

I’m back in the writing project again and did some research yesterday. I can’t believe the sort of stuff I find when I’m not looking like Heartless Bitches International. They even have merchandise.

We had a successful eating weekend. We created fish soup from several recipes choosing what sounded good and what we had on hand. We put a bag of seafood medley from Trader Joes plus another pound of whitefish and a dozen leftover shrimp. Tasty treat. I also made chicken soup from the roast chicken. Now we have too much food.

Still trying to get this new system organized. Efficiency eludes me. I have a complaint about OS X which is it has that annoying windoze quality of making me confirm every stupid thing I want to do. I hit a keyboard command to bookmark a webpage and then I have to click again that yes, I do want to add as a bookmark. It asks me if I’m sure I want to shut down. All the double whammy not necessary.

Also CBS apologized for the OutKast Indian number. Quote: “CBS television on Friday apologized for any offense taken at the American Indian-motif Grammy Awards performance by the hip-hop group OutKast that some Native Americans have condemned as racist.” … ” ‘We are very sorry if anyone was offended,’ CBS spokeswoman Nancy Carr said when asked about the NACC boycott. She declined to comment further.” How perfunctory is that?

I made a fun dinner for Valentines: Cook’s Illustrated Rosemary-Garlic Roast Chicken with roasted vegetables. The recipe said potatoes but I also threw carrots and onion in plus a turnip and a few pieces of daikon radish — just to see what it would do. It was all yummy. I made an Expresso Brownie cake from Sunset for dessert. (Both websites want you to be a member or sign in or something.) We invited Priscilla over and had some cheesy pink champagne — we had a great time and I have a sugar hangover this morning.

Here’s a map of all the states I’ve visited. Only 15. It was kind of hard to remember where I’ve actually been and places I’ve wanted to go. Also I didn’t count airport layovers otherwise I could have added Utah, Texas, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia and Maine.

create your own visited states map

or write about it on the open travel guide

Weekdays are nuts. I seem to constantly be in a state of hurrying up or cramming something in half-assed or running late. This morning I couldn’t (and still can’t) find my glasses and I was wandering around the house looking even in the illogical places and I was thinking, I’m turning into my Aunt Janet who is always looking for her glasses and will pick up any pair she can find in a pinch. Later when Bob left for work I said: “I can’t find my glasses,” and he said, “You’re turning into Aunt Janet.”

Native Americans Rap OutKast

I didn’t watch that Grammys, obviously, because if I would have seen this I would have been ranting about it all week but apparently OutKast performed in front of a green tepee and had backup dancers in feathers and fringe. No one questioned this?

The article says:

“We’re not attacking OutKast as artists,” the group’s chairman Andrew Brother Elk said Wednesday, “They can go out and make fools of themselves if they want to, but we are going to question the commercialization of our symbols.” … “If people were wearing yarmulkes and the Hasidic dress and bumping and grinding, we would see that as ridiculous, but for some reason we don’t see what OutKast did as ridiculous,’ Brother Elk said.”

The double standard is appalling.

More updates on the aging thing: found second grey hair; am getting biofocals.

Frodo

I got my new computer on Thursday and we’re having a tough time getting used to each other. First of all, I’ve never used OS X and sometimes when I want to do something that normally would take me about 10 seconds and it takes me 10 minutes because nothing is like I remember it, well, I call my new pretty machine “a piece of sh*t.” Second, I am still using the desk that my Dad made for me when I was in the 7th grade which is a great tribute to the solidity of the stuff my Dad made, but hey, I’m a grown up now (and have been for some time) and desperately need a bigger desk. This desk was ridiculously small for Yoda, the iMac and is downright absurd for the mammoth eMac. So it’s uncomfortable to use. Also, the keyboard is different so things I used to do w/o looking are now all forked up. Also, I’m still getting all my regularly used software loaded, upgraded and preferenced like I want. I’ve got a lot of work to do still. But I can tell after I’m used to it, I will love this puppy.

Everything is Illuminated

I got this book for xmas and when I read the first few pages I loved the voice although I wasn’t sure if I could stick with it for a whole book. Turns out the story switches between several voices. I’m not sure how to explain this but there are certain well respected literary voices that I have had a hard time following. A perfect example would be Salman Rushdie. Others: Tom Robbins, Maxine Hong Kingston and Jack Kerouac. I don’t know what it is but I have a hard time concentrating on the words long enough to follow the narrative and there is one “voice” in Illuminated where I had this problem. So for 50 or so pages I was bummed that maybe I didn’t like this book as much as I wanted to. Turns out it gets hilarious in the middle — also some very tragic stuff — but the voice is so charming and funny. I loved it in the end.