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Patti's Life
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| It's been an action packed couple of days!
I went down to my parents' house for the weekend. On Saturday and Sunday I went to the 2nd Arroyo High School All-Class Reunion. It was well organized, and I'm glad that I went. There weren't a lot of people from my age group though, mostly older people!
On Sunday I went to see my sister for a massage. It turns out I was pretty broken after all! I knew I had tightness in the back of my thighs, but the knots in the back of my calves and in my upper back were news to me! Irma suggested that I go back to see her once a week, and I think I will. She leaves you pretty beat up, but it feels better afterward... Not soon enough afterward, though. For future reference, do not get a deep tissue massage the day before going to a theme park!
On Monday I took my parents and Irma to Disneyland. We actually saw pretty much everything that interested us, because as a group we weren't interested in the things that have a long wait and because the few things that did have a wait we went to the front of the line for because my dad uses an electric scooter when we go to theme parks. Mom refused to have any pictures taken unfortunately!
In the evening, Charles met us at Disneyland and we went to preview the new Nemo ride. (Only Charles and me, it was limited to cast members and dependents at this point.) They took the submarines that were there before, repainted them, and converted them from diesel to electric. Then they added a bunch of new show elements. Overall, it's really cool. The best part was how everyone else was looking at us in line when they couldn't go on!
My impressions of the ride (SPOILERS AHEAD!):
- The pre-ride area isn't particularly Nemo-ish, making it a bit too obvious that it's a re-theme. Same goes for the view from the windows before you depart and in the first few minutes of the ride. Although, what I would do if I ruled the world would be to theme the pre-ride area to some "explore the lost city" excursion in the style of the Jungle Cruise.
- I love love love the sea gulls on the buoy (you can see them from the line area). Mine! Mine! It's the perfect bridge to get people into the movie mood, and they're a good match to the movie as I remember it.
- The queue and loading area are fast and efficient. The cast members got people moving and ready to go, very clear and well organized. If you had twice as many subs in the water, the people would be ready waiting to board before they came around. Well done, cast members!
- There's a male and a female character talking to each other over the speakers. Everyone knows there are no women on submarines! =P
- I would have liked to see the two human characters in the water be at least a little bit animated. Kick of the flippers, maybe a small wave at the big yellow submarine that's floating by at close range?
- Once or twice I felt like the glass a feature was behind was too visible, but it might not have been if I didn't know there was glass.
- Soon after the point we identified as when you went into the cave (the light suddenly got very low), there were three voices talking over each other: the narrator talking to us about something to do with remarkable advances in some such, along with the male captain and female crew member having a conversation with each other. I don't know what happened here. Is one of them cast member activated and one is activated by where you are on the track, perhaps? It was very distracting trying to figure out which one to listen to though!
- I wasn't quite buying the volcano thing until near the end of that story arc when you finally see it. Even then, it didn't elicit a word from our captain or crew characters, so it must not have been dangerous!
- Most of the animated features were awesome. A few of them were not bright enough, making them look a tad translucent. Translucent marine animals = fake marine animals...
- The mine field was awesome. The anglers were awesome.
- My husband Charles was sitting under the forward hatch and some water fell on him mid-ride. The cast member said that wasn't supposed to happen and that she'd alert her lead about it. My guess is that condensation from inside the cave area dripped on the hatch, and since it doesn't go underwater it doesn't seal water-tight.
- "Why's that whale eating that yellow submarine, dude?" Hehehehe. Cute, maybe even a little clever, however someone had to point out to me that we had been eaten. Need a visual here! (There's a visual when you get out of the whale, but not when you get in.)
- "We better take her up before we have a run in with a sea serpent or encounter a mermaid!" Nice!
- I would have liked the two characters to guide us through a bit more of the voyage toward the end... the captain and female crew member are conspicuously silent as we go through a mine field, anglers, jellyfish, eaten by a whale, pass an erupting volcano... then they just come back to say "We better take her up" like they've been there all along!
Overall, A- just because the cool factor of the things that went well is enough to compensate for the awkwardness of the non-story. That and it's a 12 minute ride, that gives it a bump right there.
Longest I'd wait for this ride (barring the "I have to see it all in one day" factor of visiting out of state, etc): 45 minutes.
 | comments: Leave a comment   |
| Charles, Mike, and I went to the home of one of Charles's co-workers yesterday for Memorial Day. I had a great time.
After lunch and swimming, we decided to stay for dinner too! Then we had some trouble finding our way around a traffic jam on the freeway, so we didn't get home until like 11:00pm! It was all good though. =)
The couple who had us over have lived in numerous states before ending up in our area. It sounds almost exciting, going to new places and such. Then I thought, however, about how silly it would be for Charles and I to move around. Obviously, the place to be is here if that's where people settle in the end! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| There are very few people I still speak to today that I've known longer than my friend Andy. He and I met back in the day on a mud, and he is an exceptional person! Throughout many years, he's always been a great friend.
I had planned to go to Minnesota to meet him in person for his college graduation, but I wasn't able to make the trip in the end. However, he and a friend of his (my new friend Matt) came to California this week and dropped by yesterday to meet me and my husband Charles. So of course, I took them to Disneyland!
I had a great time, and they say they did too! =) I hope the rest of their trip goes very well, and that it won't be the only time we meet!
Pictures are at the usual place. Not as many of them as I normally take on Disneyland trips, but enough to remember the day by! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'd just like to point something out that annoyed me recently...
When I was un-insured, I was charged $15 for a one-month supply of the generic thyroid medication I take.
When we got new insurance, the pharmacy assumed I would want the brand name. It was about $26, less than my $35 co-pay at the time for brand name medication so I had to pay 100% and the insurance company paid nothing.
Then we got another new insurance when Charles was switched from contractor to full time. Now the same brand name medication bears a sticker that says such:
Amount: 14.49
You pay: 5.07
Ins pays: 9.42
Reminds me of when a Ford dealership quoted us $4,000 for a repair, and then after they learned it was covered by insurance the quote dropped to about $2,500.
This ridiculous price gouging is infuriating! Because I had no insurance, they were charging me almost twice as much as what they tell the insurance company the medicine is worth! I was being charged an $11 un-insured tax! Not only that, but generic medicine out of pocket costs more than brand name to the insurance company???
Horrible. This is why people should shop around for products and services and consult experts when appropriate. For example, see a mechanic you trust before you let an oil-change-only place fix anything on your car other than your oil. (Not random, that's on my to do list for the near future.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, my camera would have me believe that I went to Disneyland yesterday with Julio, Kassie, and Albert. However, the car would have me believe otherwise.
I suppooooosedly filled up the tank with gas in El Monte.
Drove 25.7 miles to Disneyland.
Drove Kassie home to El Monte. (27.5 miles)
Drove Albert to Circle K to be picked up by his mom. (1.6 miles)
Drove Julio to my mom's house where he had his car. (0.6 miles)
Drove home to North Hollywood. (30 miles)
Drove to school this morning. (3.9 miles)
Then back home (3.9 miles)
Drove to the doctor's office. (5.8 miles)
And back... (5.8 miles)
104 miles that my camera would have me believe I've driven since I filled up the tank yesterday, and I have this much gas:
Something's not adding up here!
If you want to examine the photographic "evidence" for yourself, click here. (On a side note, I have 1,197 pictures in my Yahoo pictures site now, go me! You can download the pictures full size or even have them sent to your house or to be picked up at your local Target!) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Not old as in old, you know, but people I've known for nearly a decade. =)
I stayed at my mom's house on Wednesday night so we could get an earlier start out of El Monte. I picked up Stephanie, Billy, and Billy's brother Albert and we drove down to Disneyland. on Thursday morning We got there shortly before opening, and there wasn't any line for the first three of four things we went on. It was great. =) We actually saw almost everything we wanted to see!
On Sunday, I'm taking Julio and Kassie (who had to work on Thursday) and probably Albert again. Charles and I went both Saturday and Sunday last weekend (but not all day). I may have to keep a close eye on my magicalness consumption, four visits in two weeks may be dangerous! =P
Pictures at the usual place- here. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So for a solid week, NBC was airing commercials about a news story coming up about Disneyland. I quote, because I have it recorded when they played the commercial during my soap opera:
"(Picture of castle) Disneyland: (video of teacups spinning) a place (Minnie Mouse taking a picture with some teenage girls) where millions escape (boy with mouse ears on his dad's shoulders, dissolves into video of people on Astro Orbitor) into the world of fantasy, (page curls up into aerial shot of the plaza at the north end of main street) but is the magic kingdom (black and white closeup on a datebook someone's flipping pages in) receiving (black and white closeup of a male hand writing in the datebook) special privileges to (back to color, mouse ear balloons) maintain that fantasy? (Chuck Henry standing across the street from a Disney building in Burbank, NBC had to drive almost half a mile to get that shot!) Chuck Henry (small plane banking right over a residential area) uncovers what's happening (NBC ad) above (back to a castle shot, flanked by blue and logos as are all future images) the Happiest (the castle shot changes to a shot of a crowd with a monorail track in the background) Place on Earth. (Same plane as before, flying toward the camera from a hilly background) Thursday on the Channel (Mickey in flowers in front of the Main Street train station) 4 news at 11."
That's 16 images in 15 seconds, with at least three different transition techniques between them.
Well, they said that there was something going on above Disneyland. Another commercial, which I deleted without thinking about it, says that this privilege is not given to any other place, including a nuclear power plant or LAX (the Los Angeles International Airport, never did figure out where they got X from International, but that's a subject for another post).
So, I'm thinking, what could Disneyland get that other people don't? A no fly zone was my first thought, but then I thought, "what would LAX doooo if it had a no fly zone around it???" Become a new NASCAR venue?
My next thought was maybe they can keep their nightly fireworks display even though it's illegal (I'm not sure if it's illegal there or not, this is just my train of thought). Why would a nuclear power plant want to have fireworks, though? Or LAX for that matter?
So I bit. I watched the show. (Well, technically, I had MythTV record it, fast forwarded until I saw Disneyland, and watched just that segment. I fooled them!)
So what was this thing that no one else can have? It's a no fly zone after all. You can't go closer than 3 miles to the center of the parks unless you're above 3,000 feet. It's supposed to be for security, but the newscasters say it's probably to keep people from flying banner advertisements above the millions of park guests and keep sightseeing helicopters away. (I'd like to point out that they say that Disney "won't talk about it," but they display on screen a statement from the Parks and Resorts spokesman.)
There seems to be some debate over whether there is a credible threat to the parks. The internet tells me that "Counterterrorism officials said the Disney parks have come up in interviews with al Qaeda operatives. Pictures and information about the parks have been found during some terror sweeps overseas, they say." but yet other sources say that there is no credible threat. (Source) Lack of communication here? I can totally see the theme parks being targets, though. On Halloween night of 2001, Knott's Scary Farm was nearly empty because of a threat against it, even though the tickets were sold out in pre-sale.
Of course, with a draw like Disneyland, I can't blame them for not wanting advertisers over their parks either. The internet claims that, "At its height, the Orlando air wars daily featured biplanes towing banners, blimps and single-wing skywriters competing for attention." (Source)
Now, the internet tells me that there are other places that have no fly zones, "including President Bush's Texas ranch, nuclear submarine bases and stockpiles of sarin gas and other weapons of mass destruction." Also, "While the bill had originally offered flight protections only to some sports stadiums during games, it now forced the FAA to put the no-fly zones over the entertainment giant's parks as well." So that means that we can add stadiums during games to the list. Also add the Valdez terminal of the Alaska oil pipeline. (Source for all)
The internet also tells me that since the no fly zone came into effect, it's been challenged by conservatives who want to fly anti-homosexuality banners over the park. (Source) I can't say I'm disappointed that those efforts were blocked, that's the last thing I'd want my school-aged child to see while at Disneyland.
My conclusions:
1. No one's being hurt except for the aerial equivalent of pop-up window advertisers.
2. I believe that there has been and continues to be a credible threat to the parks.
3. The idea that LAX should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone is ridiculous.
4. The idea that the Las Vegas strip should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone (the news story says, "not even the Las Vegas Strip, which has a denser concentration of people...") is also ridiculous. If you look at this map, you'll see that if you put a three-mile radius around the strip, it would nullify the McCarran Airport.
5. The idea that the San Onofre nuclear reactor should have a 3-mile radius under-3k no-fly zone is probably a good idea.
6. The claim that Disney is the only commercial operation to have a no-fly zone is a lie.
7. NBC's 11pm news ratings must be dropping.
So, that's my take on "the Magic Kingdom getting special privileges to maintain that fantasy." | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I like Yahoo Answers, as evidenced by the following:
| Total Points | | Points this week | 41 | | Points to get to Level 5 | 1,000 |
| Answers | | Total answers | 648 | | Best answers | 180 | | Questions | | Questions asked | 20 | | Resolved questions | 18 | | Stars received | 9 | I'm thisclose to the next level. =) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Now, I know that not many people are checking into their finances at 11:54pm Pacific, but I want to! I know that my credit card company does weekly maintenance downtime on Mondays, which always confuses me because it's still Sunday in my head (they're Eastern Time). So I went there today, and I was like, "Huh? It's Sunday night already?" (Don't scare me, I have homework due Monday morning!)
Both my bank and my credit card company are down!
The bank says:
Our Web site is temporarily unavailable due to a scheduled technology upgrade. Bill payments and transfers scheduled during this period will be initiated as scheduled. We regret any inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding.
Do not be alarmed, they'll still be taking your money. The credit card company says: Our site is currently unavailable while we update our system. We apologize for the inconvenience and suggest that you check back later today to view your account information. If you have an urgent account servicing need, you can contact our customer service representatives at 1-800-951-6951, 24 hours a day. We look forward to your future use of Online Account Services.
However, when they do their actually scheduled weekly downtime, it says something to the effect of "customer service reps can't access your information during this downtime" which is missing in this message. Are they going to have downtime again tomorrow night? So, this makes me curious about our store credit card, so I go to their website and find:
We are sorry, but we are experiencing technical difficulties at this time. Please try back later. If you have questions you may contact a Web Support Representative at 1-800-298-4240. Our representatives are available: - Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.CT
- Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.CT
Web Support is closed for Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and Easter Sunday.
Color me confused... (that's a shade of blue I think.) It's like the whole interweb is hiding our money... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I <3 MythTV. Even though I have live-in tech support (aka my husband) I took it upon myself to try to solve some of my own problems, since I use the media server more than Charles does. =)
I figured out that our transcoding wasn't working because the default settings were not to MPEG-4 as one might expect. Easy fix once I found it.
The other thing I fixed was the channels. An auto scan of channels over-writes the data downloaded from Zap2It, so I deleted and re-downloaded the channels and listings.
Now if only the time stopped drifting... | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I found this amusing for some reason. I opened up an I Love Lucy episode on MythTv, only to find a newscast isntead. It was a live shot of a memorial type service being held at Virginia Tech. I watched for a few minutes, and then there was an emergency alert system weekly test right during some important-looking guy's speech! They interrupted my interruption to my recording...
I would have thought there'd be something in place to prevent that kind of timing! What if it was an actual emergency instead of a press conference, and then a weekly test of the emergency alert system interrupts it... the very thought irritates me for some reason. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So I bought myself a cute little chain charm bracelet at Disneyland last week...
Charles and I both have silver passes that get us discounts, but they don't like it when you use someone else's credit card for your discounted merchandise. One of my sisters carries cash, and she paid as she went. My other sister doesn't carry cash (which is good, she'd lose it) so I put everything on my check card and she was going to pay me at the end of the day. (I mention this because I normally wouldn't have even looked at the receipts that carefully.) I was going through my receipts to add up how much my sister owed me, and found out that my bracelet came with a warning label. Not anywhere near the bracelet of course, but only after you buy it and read the receipt. It says:
"WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm."
Lovely, huh? I think it would be amusing to try to return it and say "I want my money back because I'm going to have reproductive harm if I wear this!" Too bad I like the bracelet more than I fear the warning!
Anyhow, just wanted to remind everyone to be careful what they wear... oh, and don't eat bracelets! =P | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I had to get in one more trip before our Spring Break blackout days, so Charles suggested that I go during the week sometime. I would have felt pretty silly going by myself, so I invited my sisters to come too.
We had a really good time. First we went to California Adventure. We got fast passes for Soaring Over California (which is awesome), went to see the Disney Animation's Turtle Talk with Crush and Animation Academy, then returned to Soaring Over California, then went to see the Aladdin Musical Spectacular, which was also very good.
Then we went to eat at Disneyland, went to the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise, and the Tiki Room. We did some shopping in between, and eventually made our way to the photo shop on main street.There's a new photo service that I really like. They give you a card that gets scanned by each photographer in the park, so you show them the card at the photo shops and they pull up all your pictures, rather than having a ticket for each picture. Very cool, we bought some pictures of the three of us, including one to give to my parents. There's a picture from way back (I was like 8, maybe) of the three of us at Disneyland, and we wanted to recreate it but they don't have a photography place anymore. That and we weren't feeling silly enough to buy mouse ears either!
So anyway, after the pictures, we watched the Parade of Dreams at 7pm. There were a ton of people already, so Irma and I decided that we should camp out for the fireworks at 9:30pm. Martha and Cyndi went off to try to get on a ride or two in the meantime, while Irma and I saved seats. We got an awesome spot almost directly in front of the castle. =)
Then Martha and Cyndi rode Indiana Jones, which they had a fast pass for. Then we went back to a shop for a hat that Martha had her eye on before but didn't get, then we came home.
Pretty good day, if you ask me!
Pictures below:
My sisters:
Martha and her daughter Cyndi:
And again:
The three of us:
And again =):
Waiting for the Aladdin show:
On the Jungle Cruise:
 | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I want to talk about buying stuff today.
Gas
Every time the price of gas goes up, I kick myself (figuratively) for not filling up the tank the day before. =P It's a never-ending cycle though. Apparently, the only way to avoid the self-kicking sensation is to live in South Carolina, where a gallon of gas is about $2.26. Without leaving the state of California, I could get gas for $2.95 in Whittier (44 minutes from here). If I wanted to save a penny, the cheapest gas today is $2.94 in Folsom (in the Sacramento area), a mere 5 hour and 55 minute drive from here.
I, on the other hand, paid $3.13 today for gas because I had an eighth of a tank left, that was the only station in the area not totally out of my way, and I had to go drop off a spare key for the other car to my husband. (His key broke!) There was one station cheaper that I passed on the way home, but all the other stations were even more expensive.
Postage Stamps
When we got married in October of 2005, my husband bought 100 stamps in a roll (or maybe there were two rolls, I don't recall) for our wedding announcements that were mailed within the US. After that, there were some left over that I've been using for what little we mail.
All was well, we don't mail much so they were in a manila folder in my file cabinet for when we needed them. Then, the price of stamps went up! For the few stamps that were left, I decided that I'd rather put two stamps on each letter I mail (once a month for rent and some odd random letters/forms) than drive to the post office.
Instead of a 37 cent stamp and a 2 cent stamp, I put on two 37 cent stamps. Yup, I waste 35 cents every single month! You know why? Not only was it not worth my time to drive down there to save 35 cents per month, not only was it not worth my tiny fraction of my $3.13 gallon of gas to get there, and not only does the post office in fact charge for parking in the amount of 25 cents (remember, I'd be saving 35, before gas and time)... No no, it wasn't that. The price of stamps is going up again! (3 cents if the USPS gets their way, 2 cents if the Postal Regulatory Commission gets their way.)
I haven't even used the whole roll, and there will have been two rate increases. In a year and a half!
I would rather the rate go up 10 cents and stay there for 3 years than go up by 2 cents, then 3, then 2, then 3... I don't like 2 cent stamps, never will. And what about those people who bought 2 cent stamps the last time rates went up and now they'll need 2 cent stamps AND 3 cent stamps! Or 5 cent stamps, or 2s and 1s... WHY???
Speaking of which, they're coming out with a "Forever Stamp." It'll be sold at whatever the going rate is, and be good even if the rate goes up. If the rate goes up, the purchase price of the Forever Stamp will go up, but it'll be the same physical stamp, and still valid for the next increase.
I, for one, am going to stock up on Forever Stamps the minute they come out. There will be no 2/3/5/1 cent stamps in our home!
/rant
Eyeglass cleaning solution
Finally, I would just like to point out that there has not been any eyeglass cleaning solution since I've purchased my glasses at any of the following places: Ralphs in NoHo, my pharmacy in NoHo, Target in Burbank, Target in Baldwin Park, Target optical in Burbank, Walmart in Duarte... The lady at the pharmacy told me that they were having a hard time finding it to stock it. I think it's just a conspiracy to get us all to wear contacts, there's plenty of contact lens solution everywhere. Luckily, I had some eyeglass cleaning stuff from a long time ago, but I'm out now, and my glasses are dirty, and it irritates me.
But my new mp3 player, and the fact that we paid off both of our credit cards this month, make me feel a little better. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Things have been slow moving in my genealogy lately. My husband was gracious enough to let me purchase a one year Ancestry.com membership, which is really cool. There's not much on my family though. =P
I've found quite a bit of stuff for my family on FamilySearch, and would have expected at least confirmation of the same information on Ancestry.com, but found nothing at all. I would love to see the day when Ancestry.com starts offering more records from non-anglo countries. Mexico has kept very good birth, death, and marriage records since 1859, and there has been much genealogical work done on the founding families of Mexico beginning in the 1500s.
I like the Ancestry.com "family site" for the most part. It's cool being able to link records straight into it, although some records that I've found have not had an "add to someone" button. This mostly happens with things like phone book records.
The downside is that there are no reporting features. Of course, the easy way to overcome this is to download the Gedcom and open it in Gramps, my normal genealogy program. Or so I thought. When I opened it, I found that everyone and every event was there, but there were no relationships between anyone. Defeats the purpose of the thing, doesn't it?
It turns out that the Gedcoms generated by Ancestry.com lack a tag that ties people to families, as per the Gedcom standards. Another Gramps user has already contacted Ancestry.com and was told essentially that they have no intention of fixing it. This is the genealogy equivalent of DRM (Digital Rights Management, the stuff that makes you not able to burn your mp3s to cds and makes your video fuzzy). "We will not follow the standards that the whole industry uses so that your data is portable, so your data which you've worked hard to find, source, and compile will be worthless outside of our website (and maybe the programs that we tell you to buy)." Lovely, huh?
The exact response states:
Dear ______,
We appreciate your message.
We are sorry for the trouble with the file. The GEDCOM file is read differently by the different programs. You may need to edit the file after it is entered into the new software.
If there is anything else with which we might assist you, please let us know. 1-800-262-3787
Jennifer
Member Solutions
Ancestry.com
Translation: The file is fine, all you have to do is add parents and children and spouses to every single person (all 1,000+ of them) after you import it! Nothing wrong at all!
I'll be emailing them soon, when I have the energy to address them in a way worthy of their already-stated non-compliance. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Another interesting technology source I found in the news today:
The supply of water to the area is irregular, so the school has an innovative system that recycles rainwater and uses seesaws and merry-go-rounds to pump water. It also uses solar power and has landscaped gardens that supply vegetables for school meals.
If we harnessed all children's playgrounds around the world to pump water and/or generate electricity... I think we just stumbled onto something good! It's like one of those renewable energy sources you hear about on the news! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| My husband, one of our friends, and myself went to Disneyland yesterday (Sunday). Lots of fun, I haven't uploaded the pictures yet but I will soon.
I was reading the news this weekend and found the story of the kidnapped baby interesting. Especially interesting, this quote:
Susanne Moore, a former Covenant nurse who had a baby Friday at the same hospital, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that the hospital placed an electronic band on her newborn girl's ankle. She said she was told that if the baby were taken too close to a door or elevator, a sensor would cause the door to lock or the elevator to shut down.
Moore said she also was told that if the band were cut off before it was deactivated, the hospital would be locked down.
A couple of comments here...
- What has the world come to that we need to do this because we seemingly EXPECT babies to be stolen from hospitals...?
- Cool idea. I imagine it's RFID technology, but how do you get it to detect when the band has been broken? Does this mean it's a non-re-sizable band that's completely made of electronic components/cables? Is it just a single cable that goes the whole circumference, and if so how do you prevent someone from cutting the rest of the band and slipping that part off? Hmmm.
- This proximity-based door and elevator control is pretty clever, we were talking about something similar on the way home from Disneyland.
- I can see other hospital applications here, particularly for hospitals that have this proximity based control already... why doesn't the ER/OR double doors swing open when a gurney approaches? (So you have to tag all the EMT's gurneys, but that's okay!) Why doesn't the elevator door automatically stay open when a gurney's approaching unless you press the close button (if you're full, you know).
Then you expand it out to office buildings, places where people can't carry their keys/badges all the time... aquatic centers come to mind! Hanging 2 big keys and like 9 small keys from the shoulder strap of my swimsuit on a whistle lanyard while I was teaching lessons may have worked, but it's not nearly as cool as the doors recognizing me automagically!
Fun stuff.
By the way, whoever was still sick at Charles's parents' house (I babysat on Saturday), I think I caught it from them. I've had a stuffy nose all day and feeling generally "blah."
Still pretty productive though, I did the laundry that backed up due to our lack of drying capabilities since Friday.
I also went to school today. I did better than I expected on the test we took last week, I got partial credit for admitting that something went over my head in the reading. =P The reading was about a girl who wanted to eat at the rectory of her Catholic school instead of walking home to eat. The question was something along the lines of "the author criticizes the role of the Catholic church, what criticisms does she have?" Totally over my head, I thought if there was anything criticized it may have been the Mother Superior, but not the "role" of the Church in daily life. Apparently the right answer had something to do with equality and preferential treatment. I guess I was too literal reading the question, because I still feel that's a stretch- inequality among students in that era is a socio-economic issue that may well be limited to that particular scenario that was described, and it's not the church's fault. Other than that, I only had a couple of minor errors, mostly accents and/or spelling in my short answer questions.
Tomorrow, I have to go to parents' house. They're leaving to Mexico on Wednesday night, they'll be gone for two months. There's some talk about parents selling their rental property in about a year, supposedly mom thinks that she spends all of the rental income on upkeep. I think I need to talk her into sitting down and figuring out where her money goes when she gets back.
Of course, there are those in our family who know where mom's money goes, that namely being to the thrift store, the other thrift store, the thrift store in the next town over once a month, the swap meet on Thursdays and Sears. She needs to figure it out for herself, though, to make it stick. Hopefully we can talk her out of selling, though, because that will leave both of my sisters without a place to live. Unless she doesn't really like them and that's her sneaky evil plan all along... Hmmm.
Wow, that kind of jumped around... alot. I guess I haven't posted as often as I should. =P I'd break it up into subject-specific posts, but that ruins the free flow of information and such! | | comments: Leave a comment |
| By the way, I want to mention that we have not had hot water in our apartment building since Friday afternoon. Apparently it's an issue with the gas, not just the water heater, because the dryers aren't working either.
You never realize how important gas is until it's gone! I can't wash dishes (not well anyway), can't do laundry (unless I want it to sit around damp until Monday), and can't take a shower at home (unless I wanna freeze!). Glad we're YMCA members and I can shower there!
Maintenace isn't going to come out until Monday. They don't consider it an emergency situation that we can't take showers. =P | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I got marked down on my weekly vocab sheet last week due to using my English-Spanish dictionary rather than using a Spanish dictionary that gives definitions in Spanish. The professor wrote on my sheet that I should use the dictionary linked on the resources section of the class management system, which is the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary.
I like my other dictionary better.
- I looked up jalea for example, which said "f. Conserva transparente, hecha de zumo de algunas frutas." Conserva I took to be something saved or preserved, transparente is transparent, made of zumo of some fruits.
- So I look up zumo and it tells me "m. Líquido de las hierbas, flores, frutas u otras cosas semejantes, que se saca exprimiéndolas o majándolas." Liquid of the herbs, flowers, fruits, or other similar things, that are taken out by exprimir or majandar.
- I look up exprimir, which I determined in my vast knowledge of conjugation to be the root of the word exprimiéndolas. It says "Extraer el zumo o líquido de una cosa, apretándola o retorciéndola." To extract the zumo or liquid of a thing, squeezing or twisting it. (Remember, zumo is defined as the thing that you exprimir, making a circular definition. A is made when you do B to fruits. B is what you do to fruits to make A.)
- I then look up majandar, which in my vast knowledge of conjugation (see above) I determine to be the probable root of the word majándolas. It doesn't exist, neither does majándolas or majando (las is a suffix meaning to a female them). I give up on that part of the definition. (I later discover, by browsing in my Spanish-English dictionary, that the root word is majar, which it defines as "to crush, to mash." I don't get "mash" out of any of the three definitions in Spanish!)
What does my Spanish-English dictionary say about jalea? "nf. (noun, feminine) jelly."
Lovely, huh?
The next word, which was found in the story we read for homework over the weekend, again doesn't exist at all in any form I can think of (again, in my vast knowledge of Spanish conjugation) until I browse the Spanish-English dictionary.
Here's another one:
- I found the word caló in the reading. The definition says "m. Lenguaje de los gitanos españoles." Masculine word, meaning the language of the Spanish gitanos.
- I think a gitano is some sort of native, but I decide to check. I copy and paste it, and "gitanos" isn't in the dictionary, only "gitano" is. This is the problem with dictionaries that you can't browse, only search. But one letter differences, such as plural to singular, should be correctable by the system.
Me using the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary is like a person who's never spoken English being given a link to Wikipedia as a dictionary. You have to know the words to learn the words!
The next word I looked up was defined by three synonyms, only two of which I had any faint idea how to translate.
This is going to be a long homework assignment, and Charles is already asleep... *sigh* (Not that he was going to help me with my homework or anything, but I don't like waking him when I get into bed after he's been asleep a while.) | | comments: Leave a comment |
| So, instead of doing my homework like I probably should have, Charles and I went to Disneyland yesterday. It was a lot of fun, esspecially since it was free now that he's a Disney cast member. We had a lot of fun, we went to Adventureland and New Orleans Square. (I couldn't believe he'd never been to the Tiki room before, so we had to start on that side of the park!) Of course, we were analyzing everything we saw and figuring out how things worked. =P
Pictures are on my Yahoo pictures page, though it's a lot of pictures of things we saw and not that many of us. But you can look if you want, of course! It's here.
PS. We got a new bigger bed, and I love it | | comments: Leave a comment |
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