23 posts from March 2007

Nothing about The X-Files is ever straightforward, but it seems quite possible that the long-awaited sequel to the X-Files movie could get back in production some time soon.

The story dates back to last June, five years after the Fox show went off the air and nine years since the release of the first X-Files movie, when series exec producer Frank Spotnitz told EW that most of the plot to a big-screen sequel had been ''worked out.'' Then, in September, David Duchovny reportedly confirmed that he, Gillian Anderson, and creator Chris Carter were all willing to do a second movie but that some legal issues — relating to Carter's lawsuit against 20th Century Fox over syndication profits — had to be resolved first.

Although Carter did not return calls for comment, according to a recent report, the legal dustup might soon be over. If true, Anderson's manager Connie Freiberg tells EW, ''there's no obstacles other than the delivery of a great script.'' We'll keep you posted as all this sorts out, but have faith that the truth (and a second movie) is out there.

Have you ever been driving, remembered something you wanted to write down or remember for later? You don't have a pen and paper handy, or you can't pull over to make a note, or worse, you try to multi task while driving? Problem solved with free Jott service. Call the toll free Jott number, it beeps, you leave a message.

Jott then simply and elegantly goes to work for you. You're audio voice memo is sent off and gets transcribed and send it back to you as an email with both the original audio as well as the text of what you said into the phone. Jott doesn't stop there. You can import your contacts from Gmail, Outlook/OE and other sources and Jott voice notes to friends and colleagues. How cool is that? Apparently you can blog with it as well. For the unorganized, it's another tool in your arsenal to bring chaos into order. For those more than slightly anal, like myself, it's a neurotic list maker's cyber dream come true! Let me know if you've tried Jott or would find this useful!

I guess I just bought me some. I've already confessed: I'm a make-up/product junkie, and I like the champagne stuff although I'm cursed with a beer pocket, so I research my products and try to invest wisely. I am already "doing" a few high end makeup lines that I swear by and that you'd have to pry out of my dead hands before I gave them up . For face and skin care I swear by Philosophy and can't get enough. I say that with one caveat. The hair marinade and conditioner. That stuff puts the N in nasty, and I don't mean "good" nasty, I mean dag nasty.

Alright, so to the wild stinky monkey love... My friends have raved to me about the Ojon hair line and the restorative treatment and I've seen and heard other rave reviews. I've even sampled the stuff at Sephora (I know how to work those girls for major deluxe samples and the like) and it seemed worthy. I was just waiting for a good deal on QVC to spring for it. Voila, like magic, yesterday's "Today's Special Value" was a full size 5 piece Ojon value pack on easy pay for two payments of like $29 with tax and shipping. It even came on 90 day auto delivery, which I took. Included was the infamous restorative treatment, the ultra hydrating shampoo and conditioner, a styling cream and some "miracle" break through hair spray (I never use hairspray, but the whole kit was cheaper than two products alone) that isn't based on resin, but rather some rain forest elastic fiber. I should get the whole shebang on Tuesday, March 27th.

Well, just went to MakeupAlley.com once again to read the reviews on all the products again, so I can get psyched about how this stuff is going to transform my dry, colored and highlighted, blown dry, flat ironed coarse curly hair. This is one of the newest Ojon restorative reviews courtesy of user jamejame:

Okay - are we sure the translation for that tribe's name is really "people of the beautiful hair"? Because I'm thinking "those stinky headed people from across the river" might be what they were trying to say. I tried it in both the ways described on the package, it smelled like total s&*t (on burrito night), and did absolutely nothing great for my hair at all. Oh, and it cost a gajillion dollars. For that money, I could have flown myself to the natives, had them smear my head with s&*t, come out with the same hair I went in with, and maybe even had some wild stinky-headed native monkey love while I was there. Hindsight, ya know?

Of course, after I near peed myself with laughter, I though, "Oh crap", I hope the auto delivery wasn't a mistake! LOL Eh, I can cancel it, so we'll see. My deluxe sample tells me this will be a winner for me, but I don't know about the other products. I'll be sure to drop a review in a few weeks. It may be my holy grail, or I may have been duped into buying a bunch of worthless products without Amazon experience and the wild, stinky-headed monkey love! Oh my!

Have you noticed a climate change in the area where you live over the past few years?

Sorry all you tree huggers, those too busy or brainwashed and who have not delved into both sides of an issue, or those who love to drink that Kool Aid (and there are plenty of you or at least, you're the vocal minority, aided by the big media), but I'm about to take a stand that's going to really piss you off today. (Many of you I call my friends, but that doesn't mean we have to agree on everything to get along in life, we just agree to disagree). Maybe, via comments, you'll piss me off too! I decided to answer the QotD, so you're gonna get my brutally honest opinion, not some PC milque-toast answer to keep you reading my blog if you don't agree with me...

You know, I do believe scientifically that the earth's temperature has gone up a degree or two. I don't believe it's going to wipe out the species. Many of the phenomenon currently attributed to global warming were occurring before the rise of the industrial age, with no explanations of those events, even 100 years ago. We certainly are finite in our knowledge and don't know everything about our planet to explain every phenomenon. If you believe the earth has been around for billions of years, then you must know, as many scientists on the other side do, that we've gone through cyclical climate changes. Or do you really believe this is the first climate shift?

Here in metro NY, the first half of the winter was unusually warm, I mean like late spring warm. If you believe all the hype, allow "inconvenient  truths" to permeate your mind, boy, that's all the evidence one might need to jump on the global warming bandwagon. The second half of the winter was so unbelievably bitter cold and we had snowfall after snowfall. That, in one fell swoop, would have you believe that there is no warming trend, the first half of the winter was a cyclical fluke. Are either evidence, one way or another?

That being said, there is no consensus among scientists that global warming exists, but if you pass around one sided information long enough, it becomes "truth", no matter how inconvenient,  and starts to brainwash the sheep. Movies made by Hollywood and politico's passed off and honored as "documentaries". Progressive big media droning out their ideology as objective reporting. Most good people who believe the hype are far too busy with their daily goings on, and if asked, barely know who name of their representative, who is secretary of state or what the "D.C." in Washington D.C. stands for, yet have adopted opinions they've heard touted as iron clad scientific "truth" presented over the airwaves, rather than bothering to investigate the whole of the argument for themselves and coming to their own conclusion. Sad but true.

The rest of the true believers are for the most part are, IMHO, ideologues, their beliefs rooted in elitist neo-socialism (btw, show me one good model, I challenge you, or will you show me yours, which can't fail like the rest, LOL? )  and this is all part and parcel of their  "progressive" mindset. Some even believe it's part of a bigger global conspiracy, but I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole. Funny, the media, political factions, even the internet, unless you really dig deep, flood you with arguments FOR global warming, but never are so open minded, as they claim to be, to present the opposing arguments for the silent majority on the other side. Unfortunately, digging for the other side of the argument so one can make up their own mind after filtering the facts, takes considerable time and effort, which few expend.

From the Wall Street Journal, this article quickly and succinctly sums up how I feel (written by an MIT science professor):

Don't Believe the Hype
Al Gore is wrong. There's no "consensus" on global warming.

BY RICHARD S. LINDZEN
Sunday, July 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT

According to Al Gore's new film "An Inconvenient Truth," we're in for "a planetary emergency": melting ice sheets, huge increases in sea levels, more and stronger hurricanes, and invasions of tropical disease, among other cataclysms--unless we change the way we live now.

Bill Clinton has become the latest evangelist for Mr. Gore's gospel, proclaiming that current weather events show that he and Mr. Gore were right about global warming, and we are all suffering the consequences of President Bush's obtuseness on the matter. And why not? Mr. Gore assures us that "the debate in the scientific community is over." [full article link]

Anyway, 'nuff said, that's my opinion. I don't see any direct evidence in my day to day life that it is any warmer or cooler than at any other time in my 43 years of life. I'd call myself an independent thinker, I hold no particular overall philosophy where someone could pigeon hole me to ascribing to one mindset, ideology or world view or another. This is what my considerable research and my own powers of deduction have lead me to. If I'm wrong, I'm prepared to go to hell in a hand basket. Until then, I my advice to Al Gore is you better get some solar panels or a windmill, as you're massive home is taking tons of fossil fuel to heat. Your private jet travel too. If you're gonna preach "green", your lifestyle better be "green", or you got no street cred with me. It's just more greenhouse gas polluting the atmosphere for a world wide progressive agenda...can you say Kyoto**?

**Touted as a world wide treaty against global warming, but proven that it's initiatives would not impact the reduction of emissions. It's really a protocol for socialistic redistribution of wealth, hindering the efforts of 1st world countries and giving 3rd world countries a leg up and a license to pollute.

clipped from scrapadelic.libsyn.com Tue, 30 May 2006 SCRAPADELIC VIDEOCAST #7: The Pen Tool This week I'll show you how to remove a background using the pen tool. Yes, it's the dreaded pen tool! This tool takes time to master but once you get it, you really GET it! And once you get used to it you'll find yourself using it a lot. The pen tool is simply a tool to create a path. It operates on the premise of Bezier curves. I won't go into a long explanation of Bezier curves, I'll just show you how they work. I hope you get a better understanding of the pen tool with this tutorial. Like anything, it takes practice to achieve good results. Note: This week's episode is longer than usual, therefore larger in file size. It may take a few minutes to load the video. NEXT WEEK: Using the Channel Mixer to improve an old photograph. Happy Scrapping! Ronna Digital Kit used in this tutorial: Afternoon Tea Direct download: SCRAPADELIC_VIDEOCAST_7__The_Pen_Tool.mp4 Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:13 AM Comments[5]

Free Digital Scrap Download for the month of March .:also:. Online Phrase Book for Scrap Titles and Tags @ Peppermint Creative.com

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Somebody explain it to me, 'coz I don't get it. What the heck is the deal with micro blogging? Does anyone here at Vox "Twitter"? If you do, you need to let me in on the secret. I mean do I really want to know you are drinking apple juice, answering your email, watching Deal or No Deal, scammin' someone, about to hook up or relieving yourself? Have we removed ourselves via electronic gadgets from everyday interaction with people that we have to let the whole world, complete strangers know our every move in order to feel connected? No wonder why I love the European lifestyle, where people actually socialize face to face over meals, drinks or what have you and they have a month off for vacation, instead of being a slave to the grind. Anyway, I'm stunned and amazed. So if you Twitter, are you a "twit", or am I just too old to "get it"?

clipped from news.yahoo.com Zhou Guizhen, who is 86-years-old, shows one of her bound feet where the bones in the four small toes were broken and forced underneath the foot over a period of time, at her home in Liuyi village in China's southern Yunnan Province, February 2007. Villages in China where women with bound feet survive are increasingly rare but the millennium-old practice nevertheless took almost four decades to eradicate after it was initially banned in 1911.(AFP/File/Mark Ralston)