Oh, this is a fun website: The Brick Testament. It's stories from the Bible retold using Legos. Awesome. Prolly not for kids. I do think most kids would enjoy it; some of the scenes are kinda graphic, in a Lego kind of way.
From Revelations 20:4-10, or, God Burns Remaining Humans to Death:
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Revelation 20:4 |
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Enjoy! |
ebay. What would life be like w/o ebay? I don't even ebay that much (my # is <100), but I find it valuable.
First, it gives an idea of how much people will pay for something. I have this system where, as I find stuff I don't want anymore and that's still in decent condition, I mark a price on it and put it in a box for some future tag sale. My prices are very reasonable; for the most part, I just want to move the stuff on to someone who can use it. E.g., I got some no name bath stuff as a token thank you gift; it probably cost $7.99 at WalMart (and it may well have been a re-gift and there's nothing wrong with that); it's now marked 50 cents for the whole basket.
Sometimes I wonder if something is worth more. I'll look on ebay to see what people are willing to pay for it or something like it. That item I'll mark with a higher price; still a price less than what people are paying on ebay just to make sure it goes.
Second, it gives an idea of what people are asking and paying for something, even if I expect to buy it at a brick & mortar store.
Third, it gives an idea of what's available ito brands, quality, availability, older but funner models, etc.
Fourth, and finally, it's obvs a different way to buy stuff and often cheaper. A couple of recent examples.
Sheet Sets - Sheet sets are ridiculously expensive. It is not uncommon for a queen deep pocket sheet set to be on sale at $75. As they say over at Cute Overload, that's just redonkulous. I don't want fancy sheets; I just want simple, 100% cotton sheets. For starters, with 6 cats there are certain items for which we've learned to not pay a lot. E.g., carpeting and rugs. We had some wall to wall installed, but soon learned that bare floors with inexpensive rugs are a better option bc the cats just end up yakking (among other things) on it. In fact, Kevin got some old Persian rugs on ebay really inexpensively; I think the shipping was more than the price of the rugs. I don't feel so bad trying some harsh cleaner on or hosing down a room-size rug that cost <$100. Also: go for darker, multi-colored patterns!
Enough about how to best camouflage cat yak against one's decor. So I wanted some new sheets, but did not want to pay $75 on sale for them. Nosey's just going to sneeze on them, I'm just going to get cracker crumbs and diet Coke or a nice cuppa tea on them, Kevin's just going to sweat up a storm on them (hence no flannel sheets are allowed chez nous), I'm just going to launder the stuffing out of them due to aforementioned affronts against textiles, etc. So I noodle around ebay, checking out the bedclothes (I love that word; it sounds so medieval). I eventually bid $24.99 (incl. shipping) on a plain white, queen size, deep-pocket, 400TC, 100% cotton sheet set with two extra pillowcases (so 4 in total). Okay, white is a bit boring, even for me, but what the heck. Now yes, I'm taking a chance bc the sheets might feel like sandpaper. And actually, I took a double chance bc I bid on a second set w/o first winning, receiving and trying out one set.
Things worked out well. I've laundered and am currently using the first set I won (the white set) and I like them. I especially like the extra pillowcases bc Nosey sleeps between the pillows and gets his black fur (and I guess his white fur) all over them. So I can change the pillowcases before I'd change the sheets. I'll use the second, green set next and since they're the exact same thing except for the color, I expect I'll like them as well. Here's the picture from ebay; I got the white set at the top of the left stack and the green set third down on the right stack.
Pinking Shears - I had a pair of pinking shears that were probably ~25 yo, but practically brand new bc I hardly ever used them and kept them well. I recently needed them, but could not find them. I imagine I put them in some safe place which means they'll be found by whoever ends up handling my estate. Fortunately, my MIL loaned me a pair to use until I finish my current project and/or find my own pair, whichever comes first and who knows if either will happen.
I looked and looked and still didn't find my shears. Kevin suggested I go out and buy a new pair since that will most likely cause my old pair to turn up. Though true enough dat, I didn't really want to buy a brand new pair of pinking shears. Good quality sewing shears are expensive; I don't need two pairs (albeit one missing pair) of expensive pinking shears. So ebay it is.
Now, one thing about ebay that is similar to shopping in person is that it's possible to end up buying stuff you don't truly need and weren't even looking for in the first place until you saw them on ebay and decided, Hey! I want that! And, I admit, so it was with me. I was looking for a the usual size pinking shears, 7"-9" or so, but OMG there was the cutest little pinking shears evar up for auction! 5-1/4" total length with 3" blades. So I bid on and won those. Fortunately, the whole sordid affair only cost $4.99 ($2.99 + $2 shipping). I have received those:
They're a little stiff and a good cleaning and sharpening wouldn't hurt them, although they do work as is, but it's nothing a quick visit to the hardware store won't fix and did I ask you aren't they the cutest thing?
I did also bid on and win a larger 9" pair, but haven't received those yet. The total cost of those was ~$10.
Again, you're almost always taking a chance of some size when bidding on ebay stuff. I try to mitigatge the chance by only bidding on sellers with excellent feedback ratings. You might think that a rating of anywhere in the 90%s is good, bc that would be an A in school ! but not in ebay. I never bid on anything sold by a seller with a less than 99% feedback rating. The sheet seller had 99.7%, which is great considering that he's had 57,000 ebay transactions. The scissor sellers (2 different sellers) had between 1,800 - 4,000 ebay transactions and both had 100% feedback ratings. Sure, there are reasons why a seller might have <99% feedback rating, but someone else can figure that out and give them the benefit of the doubt. There are enough sellers and things for auction that it's easy to stick with sellers with >=99% ratings.
Another thing that might derail the thrift of ebay shopping is getting caught up in the bidding. I was the only bidder for the sheet sets and the small shears, so I got those things for the minimum bid. There were 5 bids in total for the larger shears: me, some other bidder, me again, some other other bidder, then me again for the win. I did what's known as sniping. That's when you wait until seconds left in the auction then place a bid that you hope will outbid the current high bidder. I usually don't snipe bc I don't pay that much attention to what's going on with my auctions, the items are generally not must-have items for me, etc., but this time I happened to be around when the auction was closing so I sniped and did so successfully.
IIUC, the powers that be at ebay discourage sniping, but oh well for them. Kevin uses ebay a lot. He's kinda off his stamp collecting at the moment, but he got a ton o' stamps from ebay. He's currently on his coin collecting and wins several auctions/week. He's pretty much done with U.S. coins bc he's got most of the ones he can afford. He's moved on to foreign coins, mostly German and German-state coins. He does a lot of sniping and, I must admit, usually successfully. His motto is, 'You live by the snipe, you die by the snipe.' Tough talk, nu?
So. As you can see, I've used ebay a bit and had some luck with it. I am by no means an expert on finding bargains on ebay so I'd love to hear readers' stories and tips around using ebay. And now, my frugal friends, that's all for today's edition of Thursday Thrift. See you next time!
Sorry about the lack of posts lately. I actually had stuff to post, but my puter's hard drive crashed. I'm typing on Kevin's pc now, which is okay, but it's not my pc. I've only had the thing for about 6 months or so now. I was losing internet access occasionally and got some message about McAfee anti-spam. McAfee took me through a patch...a few times, assuring me each time that it would fix the problem. And then all of a sudden I couldn't scare up anything beyond a black screen and a cursor.
So I did the online chat with Dell (on Kevin's pc bc mine was useless)...btw, chat is so much better than trying to do it over the phone...and they had me run some diagnostic thingie on my pc...which found that my hard drive is dead. I mentioned the problem w/losing internet access and the guy thinks I had some spyware/malware. Gross. He issued all the usual warnings about opening attachments, visiting specious websites, etc. I'm usually pretty good about that stuff bc a) I try to stay out of the bowels of the internet; and b) I'm lazy in that I can't be bothered to open up most attachments sent in emails.
I actually wonder if the problem has anything to do with the fact that Miles likes to sit/sleep on the keyboard. Several times I've found him hanging out there, looking all innocent while the screen shows all kinds of activity going on. He's opened up all manner of programs, started things, stopped things, closed things.... I didn't mention it to the Dell guy bc I don't know if cat vandalism is covered under warranty.
They sent out a new hard drive which I will try to replace today since it's a SNOW !!1! DAY at work. I luuuurrrve snow days. I have a feeling that I appreciate snow days off of work now even more than snow days off of school as a kid. I think I do; this job thing can suck the lifeblood out of a person. I'm trying to let it get less of my blood than I have in previous jobs. I remember worrying so much about work when I was at places like Coopers & Lybrand and Deloitte & Touche. What a waste of time and energy. Not that the work wasn't worthwhile to somebody; it was certainly honest work; it just wasn't worthwhile to me and yet I got soooo into it. I let myself get sooooo into it (which would've been fine it it were worth it to me, but it wasn't). Now I try to keep a healthy distance between work and non-work. It is a bit easier to do this since working at the library. I've always loved the library, books, reading, chatting, etc. And it's a much mellower environment there. The interpersonal relationships are much better. I think it's possible to have better relationships there bc there's no (as far as I can see) competitive element. I mean, what would we compete for/about? It's a small library...everyone that works there lives in town or maybe one town over. You get to know a lot of the patrons there, which I like. I really like chatting with people when they come in. It's fun...you can learn a lot just from chatting with people...some aren't into it and that's okay...but most seem to be into it.
Well, there are a few less-than-pleasant patrons. I understand that all libraries have a certain amount of special needs patrons, where 'special needs' can mean a variety of things. We have a few group homes in town; I think they're mostly for psychologically-challenged people. While I understand that they have issues over which they have no control, it doesn't change the fact that their behavior can be a bit disconcerting at times, e.g., when they flip out right in front of you. One of our newer such patrons gets on these kicks where he Googles the stuffing out of some topic. Right now, it's religious stuff. One day he absolutely needed to find this picture he had seen on the internet: a bridge with trees all around it. 'mkay. Apparently, he had seen this article on Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website at some point in his life. At the end of the article there's a picture ad for the conference's publishing company: a picture of a bridge with trees around it. The text reads, 'Modern Questions, Gospel Answers'. And he wanted those gospel answers something fierce. He thought that if you click on that picture, you will get the gospel answers to all your modern questions. Were it that easy, my friend. That's actually not a weird thing for a psych-challenged person to think, especially since he has close to zero internet skills. Unfortunately, I don't think I convinced him that a) it's just an ad; b) there's nothing 'behind' it; c) there's nothing to click on there; and, most difficult of all, d) the gospel answers aren't out there, i.e., the bishops might say one thing about abortion; other groups might say something else about it; and he has to figure out for himself what he thinks about it; this last bit did not go over well. I got the feeling he thought I was lying to him. So yes, I believe I failed that patron that day.
One guy has flipped out on us several times in the last few days...and he's allegedly not challenged in any way, except perhaps wrt anger management, but that's just my layperson's diagnosis. He's lost documents...that he couldn't possibly recreate...that are so important...that he worked so hard on...for so long...an hour for two pages!...yet he didn't save them anywhere. The director finally gave him a flash drive bc it's happened several times and somehow it's our fault. He still isn't using the flash drive and it's still our fault. Whatevs, dude.
Anyhoo...I have only myself to blame that I lost stuff when my hard drive died bc I failed to back up anything. I hadn't acquired much on this pc...I'm mostly bummed about pictures I lost, most notably a picture of Stephanie drinking wine from the bottle through a straw. But, as others have pointed out, there will most likely be many opportunities to recreate that particular scene. Happy thought, that.
So, anyway, that's the deal here. I have a backlog of stuff to post: Mmm Mmm Monday recipes; Thursday Thrift ideas; Friday Cat Blogging (but of course); movie reviews (we continue to work our way down the AFI top 100 films, as well as tossing in a few others...'Triumph of the Will' anyone?...I don't know what possessed me to watch that); and what would a blog be without a healthy dose of navel-gazing by the blogger?
Unfortunately, I've been w/o a pc for a while, hence no blogging. My laptop is about 5 yo which, in human years, makes it about 94 yo. I bought a new power cord a few months ago bc the original power cord died. Its demise, I imagine, was hastened by first Edison's chewing on it and then Miles & Lizzie teething on it. Now the new one no longer works. The kits have stopped chewing on stuff like that, so it wasn't bco them. So once the battery ran down I was up the river w/o a computer.
I've since read the customer reviews for the power cord and it turns out that it stinks. Not that I had a whole heckuva lot of choice when it came to replacing the old cord; there only was the one power cord available. Hmm, I wonder if I could have ordered a non-Dell power cord that would work w/my pc.
Anyway, I've ordered a new laptop...bc my old one is, well, old...(not just bc the power cord doesn't work, silly)...plus, the sound no longer works on the old one...and the battery, which never lasted as long as it should, doesn't hold a charge well anymore. A Dell salesperson helped me build the laptop via chat. She tells me that the power cord that comes w/the new pc will work w/my old pc. The new one won't ship for about 3 weeks though, so I ask if they can just send the power cord out separately now seeing as I bought a new cord about 2 months ago that no longer works. No can do.
So I thought I'd just return the one I bought 2 months ago and get a new one; it's still under warranty. Someone else will get the old pc and they'll need a working power cord. And I did pay good money for one. Well, I ordered the new pc on Monday, 7/14. That's also when I started trying to find out how to exchange the non-working cord for a working cord. I'm still working on that. On the phone, I've been transferred around the world in 3 days. I just received a phone call from the Resolution Specialist who's responsible for seeing that my problem is resolved. She just told me that she cannot access my customer number...different departments have access to different accounts, customer numbers and data...yadda yadda yadda...she's forwarding my email and problem to someone in another department who allegedly can help me.
All this for a power cord. We're talking about a plug here, for goodness sake.
So anyway, no power = no puter for me. I do use Kevin's desktop some, although he needs to use it, too. He has to keep track of all his ebay auctions for funfmarks and dreimarks and grossens (sp? all) etc. His pc is even older than my laptop. As I'm typing this I occasionally delete something, highlight something, backspace something...it moves so s-l-o-w-l-y...I could make a light lunch for 12 in the interval.
But! I am excited about the new pc. I put it off for a while bc I don't really do jazzy stuff on the computer. I thought, do I really need a new one? I'll need to move stuff from the old to the new, e.g., approximately 3,000 cat pictures. How great would it be if all that stuff could be moved wirelessly? E.g., since both pcs are Dell, if Dell offered something where they accessed stuff on the old and moved it to the new. The new one has cool stuff...I could watch DVDs on my old one, but the screen was pretty small and then the sound went. I might actually watch a DVD on my new one. The mouse and printer are wireless, as is the keyboard although I don't think I ordered a separate, full-size keyboard. It has a webcam, which I have no idea how to use, but might be fun. It's really light. The screen's a little bigger than my old pc's screen. And and and it's red! Yes, it's the little things in life.
In other news, Kevin and I went out to Pittsburgh this past weekend to meet and be godparents to our newest niece, Sofia. Here's Kevin, my brother Greg, my SIL Marianne, nieces Gabi and Sofia:
A happy close up of Gabi:
Sofia:
Sofia at home, in the baby blanket I knitted for her:
She likes it, she really likes it!
Longtime readers may recall that Kevin and I are areligious. So how can we be godparents, you ask. Well, it's like this. Gabi's godparents are Marianne's sister and BIL. Technically, according to the church, they're Sofia's godparents, too, and we were just standing in for them (they live in MA). In practice, according to Sofia and her family, we'll be her godparents. That's a misnomer then, but I don't know what other word to use. Guardians?
We had fun while we were out there...it was nice to meet Sofia and see Greg, Marianne and Gabi again. I'll blog more on our visit and put up a photo album in the future.
A friend - I shall call her 'Cassiopeia' - and I have been hard at work fixing up our mutual friend - I shall call her 'Elspeth' - on match.com. Actually, it was all Kevin's idea. Once upon a time, Kevin and I were chatting about Elspeth. Kevin said, 'Elspeth's
so nice. Why isn't she with someone?' Good question! I mentioned this exchange to Cassiopeia who agreed to wonder the same thing, then immediately set out to do something about it.
Now, before anyone gets too het up, let me just note that if Elspeth were perfectly fine w/o a main squeeze, we would not have gone ahead with this idea. But we had discussed this before and knew this was not the case. And of course...
The first thing was to talk to Elspeth about it. There would be no seekret matchingks going on as they are sure to be disastrous. And we kinda, ya know, wanted Elspeth to know that in which we were involving her. Elspeth says, 'Okay, you girls have fun and knock yourself out.' So Cassiopeia and I set Elspeth up on match.com for the free 7 days. We wrote her profile, with some input from Elspeth. Elspeth declined to include a picture; postings with pictures get more interest; Elspeth did agree that we could send her picture to anyone with whom she I ended up corresponding.
Next, Cassiopeia 'winked' at a bunch of guys she thought Elspeth might like. 'Winking' on match.com is how you quickly tell someone you're interested in them. This was done with less input from Elspeth than one might expect bc Elspeth is so charitable and generous wrt her thoughts about others - even strangers - that she is excessively 
disinclined to say she finds someone unattractive. When Cassiopeia joked that Elspeth would agree to wink at someone without teeth, with scales (currently mid-molt), etc., Elspeth replied that, well, you never know, maybe he had a childhood illness that caused him to lose all his teeth and maybe he's got scales bc.... When pressed at what she found physically attractive, we were able to establish a useful guideline: If Cassiopeia found someone attractive, she didn't wink; if she found someone unattractive, she winked at him. Apparently, for every guy Cassiopeia found unattractive, Elspeth found something positive likeable adequate acceptable about him.
Match.com sends you pretty much daily emails with profiles of tons of people that (duh) match your stated likes. Cassiopeia developed a twitch in her eye after winking at so many guys.
Next, I corresponded by email with several of the guys who responded to Elspeth's/Cassiopeia's winks. That was a little odd. I had to remind myself to sign the emails 'Elspeth' and not 'Annie'. It was a little weird when sometimes, just for ease (bc Cassiopeia had winked at a boatload of guys), I'd decide to let an email correspondence wither w/o discussing it with Elspeth. It was also a little odd imagining that I was Elspeth and what would Elspeth say, what would Elspeth reply to, basically: WWED?
As an aside (I have so many sides), I just want to note that, while I understand the desire one might have to see a picture of someone who's winked at you, I don't understand how lack of a picture could render one speechless. E.g., in his reply, this one guy said something about how since she's new to match (we put that in her profile) she might feel uncomfortable posting a picture, but that it is nice to have a face to put with a name. That sounds like a reasonable comment. E.g., another guy said that he'd 
love to email her but she doesn't have a picture posted. Huh? You have her email address, but bc she hasn't posted her picture, it's impossible for you to email her? You couldn't maybe, you know, exhange emails with her for a while first to even see if you're interested in say, anything, anything else at all about her? You have to see what someone looks like before you can even talk to them? I know there's all that blather about how men are more visual blah blah blah, but come the fuck on, dude. Moron. Needless to say, we I did not continue that email correspondence.
At some point, although the email correspondence didn't get exceedingly personal, it got to the point where Elspeth had to pick up the emailing or talk on the phone with the guy bc the chat went from the general to the particular. I wonder if any of the guys figured out that there were two writers; my email style was chatty yet along the lines of brief letters/notes. Elspeth's style is more to the point, no frills.
Clearly, Cassiopeia and I were out of the picture when it came time to talk on the phone. Elspeth's chatted via phone with a few guys and it appears that it's a go for at least one IRL date coming up. Elspeth had the nerve to put the kybosh on Cassiopeia 
and I lurking in the background of her date, so we won't be live blogging it. I wish she would let us lurk bc I'd really feel so much better if someone - i.e., us - were there. Again, Elspeth is so charitable and generous that I worry she won't think about safety. Mind you, Elspeth is no spring chicken, but she's just so dogdamn nice. The best we'll probably be able to do is to encourage her to go someplace very public; get her to tell us where she's going, with whom and when; and to report to us afterwards.
At first, Elspeth didn't seem too into this match.com business; it was as if she were indulging us by letting us put her on match; wink at guys on her behalf; email with them; etc. But her interest has grown and she's about to go on her first match.com date. Cassiopeia is so proud of her. Cassiopeia puts off a bit of a hard shell, but she's a romantic deep down. She goes on about how wouldn't it be great if Elspeth married one of these guys? And, since Elspeth isn't about to give birth, shouldn't she and her husband at least name their pets after us? As for me, I'm not so romantic. If she has a few enjoyable dates: great. If she gets some action: great. Basically, if she has some fun: great.
Thanks, Sawyer. Via Feministe, Sawyer's nickname generator. Mine is 'Rerun'.
And yeah, Sawyer is pretty, even when slightly dorkified by wearing some probably dead fellow passenger's plane crash-salvaged glasses.
Fun new-to-me website: Free Rice. From their About page:
FreeRice is a sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com.
FreeRice has two goals:
- Provide English vocabulary to everyone for free.
- Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.
This is made possible by the sponsors who advertise on this site.
Whether you are CEO of a large corporation or a street child in a poor country, improving your vocabulary can improve your life. It is a great investment in yourself.
Perhaps even greater is the investment your donated rice makes in hungry human beings, enabling them to function and be productive. Somewhere in the world, a person is eating rice that you helped provide. Thank you.
What you do:
Rice donated so far:
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Looks like they've doubled their rice donations in the first five days of 2008. I saw this via Eszters's post at Crooked Timber. Maybe they got a big bump in visitors from that link.
About the vocabulary quiz:
How does the FreeRice vocabulary program work?
FreeRice has a custom database containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words appropriate for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most scholarly professors. In between are thousands of words for students, business people, homemakers, doctors, truck drivers, retired people… everyone!
FreeRice automatically adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, assigns you an approximate starting level. You then determine a more exact level for yourself as you play. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level. This one-to-three ratio is best for keeping you at the “outer fringe” of your vocabulary, where learning can take place.
There are 50 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 48.
How is the difficulty level for each word determined?
The program keeps track of how many people get each word right or wrong, and then adjusts each word’s difficulty level accordingly. So the words at the easiest levels are the ones that people most often get right. The words at the hardest levels are the ones that people most often get wrong. As more and more people have played the game, these levels have become increasingly more accurate.
Is FreeRice adding more words?
Yes. A team of professional lexicographers from the firm of Lexiteria is working to add words and additional levels to the FreeRice database. In particular, the hunt is on to find the hairiest and most difficult words in the English language. But we are also looking to add easy words, medium words and all the other words you might ever want to know. The new entries should begin to appear in January 2008. In short, we do not want you to run out of vocabulary to learn anytime soon...
I've been able to get up to level 48 for brief periods of time. Then I crash and burn, sometimes down to the upper 30's. I do hope they add new words soon bc I'm seeing repeats already. Words are the best.
(Picture via.)
D. M. Armstrong: A World of States of Affairs (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy)
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