A Wandering WeyrCat...

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson My rating: 3 of 5 stars For the story? Without rereading I can only give three. For the audiobook version by Digivox, read by Andrew Morely? 0. Flat 0. The orator is so monotone and lacks the ability to pause between speakers that it's one long ramble. Excluding the third disc (The letter monologue) it's difficult to follow. I could glean the story and generally who was speaking but it was like following someone with a thick accent. I'll probably read it in print to fill in where I couldn't grasp the moment appropriately from listening. The story seemed great, but the delivery is poor. View all my reviews

I've had WeyrCat.Com for... longer than I should admit. Over a decade now. My Dad got it for me as a birthday present and I've been taking up cyberspace ever since. I've used GoDaddy for as long as I can remember and when my previous free hosting fell through I picked up some GoDaddy hosting (great deal 4.99 a month!) Now, last month (approx) I bit the bullet and put a redirect on my DotCom to kick people over into my Blogger, since I simply haven't had time to keep up with the ways the Internet demands pages be built and photos be hosted. I do most of it through Google services now (Picasa, Blogger, etc) but I hadn't turned off the hosting.  A GoDaddy rep just called me to let me know I was being billed for something I wasn't using and offered to cease the payments. She says that often times people will do something like I did, or simply stop using their FTP, yet continue to be billed. How nice that a company, that could have stayed quiet and let me be aut...

The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It by David Niven My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not bad, as far as short self-helpers go. Some were things that made me go "Yea, this doesn't apply to me." Some made me think "I knew this, I really should start doing it." And for some, I took notes. I like the research references at the end of each Point. View all my reviews

You know that song, Christmas Eve Sarajevo? If you don't know the name you've probably heard the song anyway. I recommend this vid to refresh your memory. Well Husband remembered that Trans Siberian Orchestra (the group commonly known for the tune) plays here in Florida every December, and thought he remembered that his granma had always wanted to go. SO, we called her up, invited, her, bought tickets, and two days later, drove 2.5 hours to get her, then 3 hours to Miami, and then did the whole thing in reverse. It was awesome. We had dinner at the Chili's at the Port. Chili's is Chili's but the view was wonderful! We watched the sky go from day, through twilight, and into night. The whole marina ended up lit by colorful lights, and then was made even brighter by the boats decorated for an upcoming boat parade.   After dinner we walked the short distance to the concert hall. We were a couple hours early and pretty much just hung out until they let us in....

BAD Blogger! BAD! You'd think with a fancy shmancy smartphone and a netbook and NO MORE SCHOOL that I'd have time to update my wee blog. Well you'd be partly right. My phone is doing this odd thing where the screen shuts off randomly. I hear it's a "Pocket Detection" error, but I seem to have no way to rectify it. To be continued... Final grades were posted, and I'm rather proud of myself. I should be, I wracked my brain cells the last couple months since going to part time. Here, my dear readers (meaning me, and maybe my dad and Granma hehe), are the results: -Biodiversity: A. (Made 92% on the final!) -Biodiversity Lab: A. -Chemistry I: A. (Made a raw 83% on the final, which was curved to 95%) -Chemistry Lab: A-. *My calculations said I'd end up with a 89, and they don't round. Someone did! -Biostatistics: A. Busted my butt on that final presentation, and got an A. WEE! -History of Civilizations: A. I BOMBED the final with a 72%. I got a ...

The Alphabet Of Manliness by Maddox My rating: 3 of 5 stars My husband had this and loved Maddox's stuff when he was a little younger, and while some of it was... riiiiiight, as soon as I shut off the part of my brain where my IQ was stored it was actually kind of amusing. Couldn't really read it all in one sitting, so I read a page or two while on the toilet. Captive audience, you see. Some of it was kind of funny, aaaand some of it kind of meh. Not sorry I read it, but glad I didn't pay money to do so. View all my reviews

Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein My rating: 5 of 5 stars The audiobook version is read by Spider Robinson. He's not monotone per say, sometimes he sounds very natural, but, in the end it doesn't matter. Heinlein's story is so interesting that I don't hear the orator anymore, I simply see the story being played out. I LOVE the mini-lectures. He's always sure to explain the physics of what's going on. I love that. In classic Heinlein fashion it ends without a "true ending," though everything is wrapped up neatly. I love that too. Let's face it, Heinlein was a great writer, and this is a great book. :) View all my reviews

As the WeyrCat I feel I must say Thank you to this lady who so shaped my young-teen reading habits. My mother owned tons of her books and I came to love more than the dragons she was so known for, but space, the exploration of other planets and peoples, technologies and what humans could achieve through science. Sure, some of them were a wee campy but her books largely shaped who I grew up to be. Writers touch people, and she definitely touched my life and therefore everyone in it. Thank you. ♥ - Made official on her publisher's (DelRay's) website. Anne McCaffrey: April 1 1926 - November 21, 2011 . - From Wired.com McCaffrey helped pave the way for women writers in fantasy and science fiction, and was both the first woman awarded a Hugo Award and the first awarded a Nebula Award. Even in her 80s she continued to write, and over her lifetime produced a prodigious number of books and short stories. She was still answering readers’ mail on her website as of a few weeks a...

Had a wonderful chat with an older gent while I was on patrol this week. Was given some wisdom: 1. Get the best education you can get. 2. Have the confidence and will to become an expert in your job within six months. 3. Don't be afraid to take well-thought of and responsible risks; you never know how much you can gain. Best advice I've had in a while. Respect your elders, they're smarter than you. The rest is grades, whining, and cool articles from the net :D

So. Today I found out I got a 95% on my Biodiversity exam. WOOT! Also, this means I only need a 65% on the Final to keep my A. I of course wouldn't settle for that, but it's nice to have the security. I took my dread Chem exam today, the raw score is 72% (ugh). We get to write our choices down and then compare them to the key that goes up an hour after the exams are closed. My first test was around the same, but was raised to a mid B due to some tinkering and curving. I'm hoping this does the same but I'm disappointed. I know I redirected a lot of effort into the Biodiv exams (the one above and the Practical Final tomorrow). I'm going to put all the time I WAS putting into the Bio Lab into Chem and see if I can't strengthen my base before the Final. I need a 90% on the final to keep my A. Bleh. Still no word on the History of Civ exam. It takes forever for those TA's to get back to us. I know they have their own exams, but sheesh. I did get a 95% on my r...

Dear Social Media, I think we're spending too much time together. I just feel smothered. I check my Facebook before my email these days. I download special apps for my computer and phone to make sure 'updates' get to FB, Twitter, AND G+. I stream some of my news feeds through FB, instead of RSS, and then feel bogged down when I have to go hunt through the mess to FIND the news stream I want to read. As a consequence of snatching up short blurbs of either densely packed information or witty one-liners, I'm pretty sure my attention span is MUCH shorter than it used to be. It's sometimes a struggle to get through a news article when I DO find the stream I want. I find myself breezing over paragraphs in the "TLDR" mindframe, figuring the topic paragraph and the ending paragraph will give me enough context clues to absorb the article. Having previously been a prolific reader, I'm rather appalled with myself. You know, I think I'm losing my 'spelli...

So, I subscribe to a couple different blogs. I like to read them instead of the 'morning paper'. One woman was trying to get into nursing school at the same time I was. She got in, I didn't, but we still poke each other back and forth. She wrote, and deleted, a post about people not holding up their end of some school work. We all encounter that in school, work, family, etc, and I felt the need to write her back. I ended up motivating mySELF with my comment, so I wanted to post it here. I want to be able to refer to it whenever I get frustrated for 'having to do it all myself'. "I'm making this comment based on a post you made that no longer exists, and since you may not want that content out and abouts, I'll make my reply a wee vague. Hopefully you'll still 'get it'. ;) I transferred out of pre-nursing and back into Biology, so I knew that I was putting myself back into a realm dominated by people who just want their C average to get ...

Highlighted Cliffnotes for you TLDR's. I've discovered I'm over-busy. Full time work, full time school, part time dog mom and wife. Yep, wifery is now only part time, and I don't like that. Work used to be the place I got most school work done, when I only had 2-3 classes and could squeeze hw/study in between cars and on the Easy Day (Sunday), AND, if I was too burned out from a Hard Saturday to do much of anything on Sunday I didn't suffer too badly. I'm suffering. I was sick most of this month (allergies plus tired plus brain fried plus eating like crap 'cause we didn't have time to cook.... ). I'm walking proof that when I get poor sleep (6,6,10,8,10,5,8) and eat garbage , you feel like garbage. I actually don't know what day it is somedays . I'm not exaggerating. I also missed an online quiz for chem. I plum forgot. Ten points. Forgot. I did do decent on my first midterms:  -Chem's 79 was raised to an 88, due to some ...

Dear Diary, I'm so glad there's a place in the universe where my thoughts are safe. LJ brought critisism and spam, Myspace was pretty much all spam, FB sold our every move to marketers, Google stored our every click and tried to tailor our universe around what it felt matched those clicks, now... dear diary, there is only you. Dear little sister: Your thoughts are only safe in your head. If you don't want your every thought public, keep them to youself. Love, every big brother that's ever stolen a diary and used it for humiliatory purposes. PS: No Johnny doesn't like you. I asked.

Hmm, I've worn the same pair of frames for 6 years. Change the lenses lazily (about every two, when I should do them every year). I pretty much only get them updated when taking them off and squinting seems to work better. Now, I didn't like these frames when I got them, they were a lopsided compromise, and I've been hunting around for new ones. I found a few I like, and even almost purchased a cute cheapy pair. However... I ran into a pair the other day that I actually tried on twice. (Trust me, it's significant.) But they cost WAY more than I've ever spent on a pair of glasses. (I'm cheap, too!) I've hunted around online and found the only three places that sell the pair. Even the most expensive online store is less expensive than the walk-in glasses place. Then I worked out lens pricing. Shop Online Cheapies. TOTAL ~300 ~179 ~29 Frames. 178 99 10 AntiGlare- 60 30 5 Scratch-resist ?? 7 NA UV-block ?? 7 NA, add $3 ...

It took me a couple hours of hitting refresh on "Add Class CRNs" every fifteen (ok, five, I'm impatient) minutes, but someone FINALLY dropped and I was able to add to the Chem class I need! I didn't expect that to work! I'll have a heavy load this semester, but I really need that Chem: it's the first of a line of FIVE chemistry classes that must be done one after another (no concurrency allowed!) GLEE! OK, shower and bed, I'm running in the morning! I expect postings to be very sparse for the next few months :P Chem2045 (101 for Science majors) and Lab. History of Civilization - writing requirement. Biostatistics - yep. Bio1011 - Biodiversity (think Core Biology, large scale) and Lab. Oh, and Yoga on Monday :P

Greetings! Haven't blogged in a while, or written letters, or done anything in a long while but I have something to show for it! A in Calculus, A in Biological Principles Lab, and B+ in Bio-Princ lecture. I wasn't slacking, I'll have you know. I studied my brains out and missed my A by 4 points (356/360). I don't know what happened. I did throw up a status on it, I was that distraught, I'll paste it here: Felt like I got a 99%, got an 87%... Since school ended Husband and I have still been kind of busy, but in a good way. Went to the Palm Beach Zoo; it was fantastic. I expected it to be kind of small but we got there just after they opened and stayed almost until closing. The only reason we fled early was to escape the downpour that snuck up on us. We plan to go back to finish it: there were some animals that didn't show *coughTIGERS*. They have a volunteer program that teaches you to care for the animals and teach others about it. I squealed, and plan to ...

So... I got a B+ in Biological Principles. I missed an A in Biological Principles by 4 points. 356/360. I'm actually a little blindsided because I came out of the final exam feeling like I did 100%. I identified one I missed, but still felt I was getting almost a perfect score. I knew everything. I blazed through the test and was sure I was going to be at the top of the "honor roll" (list of highest grades on the exam). I got 91/105, an 87%. I actually cried! How can I feel like I did so well, and get a B? How can I get three A's in a class, and one B, and get a B overall? Shane thinks I'm crazy, but I'm disappointed in the whole semester. To put EVERYTHING into something to only get a B+. I brought my notecards to my husband's brother's memorial service. For a B. 3/4 exams I felt I nailed it, and didn't do close to what I thought I did. So, I'd study more. Steal time at work to study more. Stay up later. Normally I do about as well as I ...

Not a very interesting week; hubby's playing Army so I feel like a single mom. Needy pets, 40hr job, two summer classes, AAAAHHH! Mangogeddon continued and after freezing a bunch of tupperware full of mango I realized I was out of tupperware! I relocated the tupperware bricks into baggies and pulped what I had. I repeated the process later in the week with what had riped, and there are now 2-2cup bricks, 1-4cup brick, 4-1 mango baggies, 3-2 mango baggies, and 2-1 mango loaves of bread in the freezer. Three unripe mangos in the fridge, one in the fruit bowl. I'v thrown away a ridiculous amount of fruit in the last couple weeks, mainly because we have no way to harvest besides waiting for them to fall. I know some of our landlord's workers can climb up the tree or onto the roof, but I'm not risking broken bones for more of what I have a surplus of. Took my first Bio Principles exam on Monday, got a 92%. Really happy about that. Offset it Friday (in my mind) by forgettin...

This week didn't have a lot too it, except that I've been really busy the whole time. I spent most of Independence Day catching up on housework and homework while Hubby pulled a double-time shift. I had a beer with lunch (Sam Adams East-West Kolsch) and had enough time (read: got bored enough) to finally sit down with Photoshop and recreate my highschool diploma. My mom 'filed' mine when I left everything I owned with her as I marched off to Bootcamp and that was the last anyone ever saw of it. I love her, but I unfortunately get my organizational skills from her! I think it turned out rather well, especially since it's just for my wall anyway. It took longer than I thought it would. Looked up diplomas to get the wording right, then had to dig around for signatures that could be used. Took me a silly amount of time to find a signature for someone with the name Anderson, large enough to manipulate. The others, shrug, no one remembers those people, but the principal...

I always wondered if there was a name for it. I was sure there was, humans name everything. When I was young I would mouth or whisper the last sentence I said. I started trying to stop when people started pointing it out, though I still did it in my head. It happened more obviously when I spoke spontaneously (any normal conversation not rehearsed) so I thought it may be mind-to-mouth in reverse, as if people think-then-speak but because I spoke first my brain would rewind and then think. I still sometimes do it, but when I'm alone I do it outloud, sometimes complete with smiling and hand gestures. Sometimes I review whole short conversations (just my side). I've been doing it a lot lately (or maybe it seems like a lot lately since I noticed I still do it). Today I finally looked it up. Most of the people who say they did it say they had normal to advanced language development. This is different from what Einstein had; he developed language slow and repeated sentences to himse...

School: I started Biological Principals this Monday. The professor is a marine biologist who's been at FAU for 25 years. He's also hilarious, no-nonsense, and replies "no" when asked if he was in the military. He's specific about what he demands of a student: No tech in class, excluding dedicated audio recorders (which he recommends for those who feel the need to write everything down). He started the day off by calling security on a girl who refused to move closer to the podium (no sitting in the back five rows) because she wanted to be able to charge her laptop (not allowed in class anyway). He actually laughed at her. He asked nicely, then instructed her, then informed her he was calling security. He did. They came and escorted her out while she flipped him off and yelled "F* YOU!" Wow... just... wow. Pride man... Pride and entitlement. The body of the class seems like a bunch of material I've already learned, so as long as I stay on top of it I ...

Nothing wakes you up in the morning like having your car robbed in the middle of the night. After going through everything, they got: A sun-cooked GPS and cord (doesn't work), earbuds with no backing on them anymore (could see the wires), a bunch of useless keys from the center console, and *the only important thing* Shane's ACU backpack containing his $50 textbook and his notebook. They missed: $30 I forgot to take out of the sunglass holder (for tolls yesterday), $200 in an envelope in the glovebox (Granma's been hiding money apparently), keys/transponder to mom-in-law's house which I had only JUST put in the upper sunglass holder. They tore everything out of the glovebox, pulled apart the owner's manual, pulled everything out of the center console, weird little cigarette holder thing. We got in at 1130p, brought everything we could carry in, and must have forgot to lock it because nothing was broken. They smoked in my car while they rifled, assholes. Sheriff s...

Busting more buttocks today. Spent an hour lounging in bed, reading various articles and simply enjoying the rare occurrence. Started computer format (redoing the drives finally). Started dinner, cleaned catbox, dumped all the water out of the totes I'd set outside yesterday (not knowing it was going to downpour). Checked on fungi (see below) and had to move raspberry pot away from house: no gutters, and the edge of the pot was hammered by a stream of rain off the roof all night. Missed the sprout by inches, or it'd have broken. Placed it under the tree for now. Put away most of the laundry (ongoing process, it's hung all over the house willy-nilly). Stripped, vacuumed, redressed mattress. Dinner: Balsamic honey pork tenderloin, over (Jonagold) apples. Will serve with baby carrots. Probably plain, since I'm not sure what herbs won't make the carrots participate in overwhelming the whole meal with spices. I found two recipes online I wanted to make, Bavarian Po...

Busted my butt today; so why am I so agitated? Went to school, got my exam back, nasty, but the curve gives me an 85. Went to get oil changed and tires rotated, and ended up with those, two recall refittings, filters changed, power steering flushed, and waiting two hours. Shane ran the other errands while I was in class (Vitamin Shoppe for his Jackd, Petco for foods, Best Buy for DSL modem). He set the modem up, though we couldn't get service through it. I came home, he went to school. I called the bank about a declined charge, straightened that out in 30min. Called ATT about DSL. Called ATT back about the setup, spent an hour, made appointment for the tech to come out and make sure the damned retrofitted phone jack actually works. Changed the catbox. Unpacked and stowed the blanket tote. Righted the skewed vanity. Unpacked partials of boxes (bathroom, bookcase). Sorted laundry. Forgot to go get prescription. Rook decided to go swimming without permission. Shane came out, he fe...

No really, I went to bed last night on 500mg tylenol and a glass of wine to try to zonk out with a throbbing in my forebrain. It worked, but when I woke up it was still there and angry. I forgot my belt, my chapstick, couldn't find my sunglasses, tried to fall down twice (poor balance and a cat NAMED Shmoosh), and a few minutes late. Hubby was kind, scratch, awesome enough to come from his overnight to bring me the mini coffee maker. He even braved Walmart (which he hates) to pick up cream, sugar, and a bonus prize (Choco Tacoooooo!) I am way spoiled. 1000mg Tylenol and 1.5cups of coffee later, it's still there but only throbs when blood is forced into my skull (bend over, sneeze, etc). I think I'll make it. Had a woman call to complain that we gave her nurse a 'hard time' at the gate. Our job is to screen people, derp, but since I didn't do the giving I passed it to the other gate, whooo happens to be the Captain of the site. Cpt calls me back to give me the ...

Busted my bum today. T oday Hubby had to work but I was home with the mess. I tried to be productive. Cleaned the litter box, unpacked two totes, broke for breakfast. Unpacked and collasped uncounted more boxes, filled bookshelves, spun couch, moved elliptical, arranged most of kitchen. Pigged out on ice cream and a glass of wine for an early lunch. Addendum: Frey Natural (organic white: bleh. Tastes like lightly carbonated, slightly bitter, blah. But I'm not a huge fan of white wines anyway. Called FPL, old electric off. Called water company, old water off tomorrow 0730 (stinks, I know she's moving in as soon as she has keys.) Shopped internet providers. ATT it is. It'll come on next week. Called Comcast, turned on net off. More boxes, more ice cream. Ten minutes on the elliptical to help offset the ice cream, definitly not enough. Showered, and went to meet landlady for the walkthrough. (Since I ended with the landlady rant: We went feom her to the gym, where I warmed ...

One of the resident's fathers comes through and chats with me now and again. Today they had a bbq and he brought me a plate! This is a rare occurrence: I've only ever gotten two plates in my 11 months here, BOTH from this nice man. Today happens to be a diet-day, thanks to my recklessness this week. I was brought (approx) 845 calories. I pared it down to 520. *See before and after plate hehe. Altered the rest of my day's diet to accommodate. Will eat the portion allotted in increments (except the burger and potato salad. I smashed those). Interestingly, though those two were all I had (343 cals) I feel stuffed O.O been consuming rather small portions spaced out by much water on my penitential-diet-day. Assuming I don't tinker, which I will, I'm looking at a 301 calorie deficit for the day. Yesterday finished paying up moving-week, so these 301 are pure weight loss. :) PS: You can kind of see my weekly graph poking out from the side there!

The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is really cool. I love the forward, a young man presenting the tale following as a an account written by his uncle who may have believed it really happened, (leaving the reader to feel... maybe it did!) The story itself was also very cool. Wonderfully descriptive, yet not tiring about it. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll simply state that YOU should read it. :) I must also mention how, to me, the Law felt like a reflection of Man and religion... an attempt to embody an unattainable Self, an attempt to hide or disown instincts and mentalities innate. It was probably on purpose, it was done so well. View all my reviews

Haven't updated in a while, school and moving you know. Did I mention I got A's in both my classes? I should have. At work, and it's going as usual: Want to punch some of these people in the face. Bleach blonde b***h in a Bentley insists she's on the list and eeeeveryone knows her. She's on the list all right, as 'No entry unless resident confirms.' Ex wife. Also, (from my FB), I spend a lot of my day smiling around wanting to poke holes in peoples' tires. Just had one who forgot her ID (doesn't know the code for the apt she stays in, since she's not -actually- the resident there) and, of course, spouts off about how I'm the 'only one who gives her this problem'. I ran her plate thru the system as a roundabout way of getting her in (a favor she would never know nor admit, since I could antagonize her further, so says SOP). While I did so, back turned and all, she continued on about me 'then wantin to drive around and wave and ...

Bullet by Laurell K. Hamilton My rating: 4 of 5 stars While this was MILES better than the previous installment (hmm, most of the sex seems to make sense, story is nice and full with only a teensy bit of seemingly pointless sideline branches (COUGH the rotting master of Augusta) that get clippingly solved in the end) I have one problem.... How do you just cause Padma, Master of Beasts, to be extinct in ..one...line...? A member of the Council, someone riDICulously scary, but his death is mentioned in a summary afterthought? Why not at least a small installment, like Flirt or the first chapter in one of the multi-books? /grumble grumble/ View all my reviews

Though Sundays are my brain dead, swollen knees, no real way to PT/cardio I managed some today. *5min condensed Yoga as sun salutations. *10min (cumu) Iron Yoga / upper body weights 2lb. *5min of Spark's Cardio Kickboxing vid (from memory) *A set of bodyweight squats *Half a mile (1480 steps) pacing the cube (cumu). I also devoured half of Robert Hamilton's book _Earthdream_ which I recommend!

Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading It took me a short while to hurdle the dialect, but it was worth it. A vivid telling of Genesis, partially from Satan's view. I sometimes got a little lost in Milton's often parallels to myths I've never read (probably common knowledge at the time the non-rhyming long verse was written). I think my favorite part was the naming of Satan's minions, assigning them each a worshipped god of mythology. Pretty much tickled pink by that for some reason. Enjoyed seeing Satan's viewpoint of Hell and Chaos. Heard some quotes I knew well but not where from, 'abashed the Devil stood...'. One thing... the son of God is born in Heaven before God creates Man... Maybe I misunderstand the Bibble but I don't recall that being so. A little polytheistic, don'tcha think?