Java Jane's Good Stuff

QotD: Stop Me If You've Heard This One

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 11:02:42 -0500

What's the infamous story people tell about you?
Submitted by Cherney.

OMG, there are sooooooooo many, some I'll tease you with here! If you asked this question in the last 9 years, the answer would be "none", as post kids, I've turned into the model mom and have pretty much renounced my former infamy. I'm still "crazy mommy", but not "infamous" crazy mommy! Prior to my kids, I've been pegged with monikers that ranged from "dePunka", and "Dangerous Deb" to "Wild Woman", and I always gave my friends and acquintances a new tale or adventure to tell, although fortunately, I always knew where to draw the line. My long term friends always ask me to write a book journaling some of my best stories, and we love to laugh as we relive them! Maybe one day I will write that book.

If asked, I don't know which of the many stories any given person might tell. There was the time in high school when we were reading the Merchant of Venice and the teacher was reading aloud the "boil and bubble, toil and trouble" intro lines and out of the blue, I felt compelled to I let out my best witch cackle at the top of my lungs, reminiscent of the wicked witch of the West's, "I'll get you my pretty, nah, hah ha ha" in The Wizard of Oz. The teacher and class fell to pieces in laughter and we laughed the whole rest of the class period. There was the time when I was in college where my girlfriend and I were flirting with some guys at the diner after being out all night, had breakfast with them, and all of a sudden, when we exchanged information, I realized the one guy was my former 7th grade teacher (albeit, he was cute)! Yuck! Maybe they'd tell of the time I worked for the U.S. Courts in Washington D.C. and while going to work every day in a conservative suit I cut my hair into a full on mohawk.

Could it be the time I worked for SONY in Los Angeles and due to sheer moxie talked my way into an extra roll on the 80s TV hit "Hunter"? Maybe it was the seat of my pants move across country, leaving a great job in NYC to move to L.A. with no job and knowing no one. Could it be the time I spent in Spain and all my adventures there, including dating a pop singer? Possibly it would be the time I went camping with my friends all of us clad in black leather and how we were stalked outside our tent by a black bear and ended up sleeping in the ranger's cabin??? Yeah, we were true hardcore campers - all clad in clubbing gear!

There was the time my girlfriend and I jokingly (and rather innocently) passed out "MPS" coupons to cute boys vacationing at the summer resort we worked at in high school, and when they got the idea they might cash in while we were out on a boat ride/water skiing trip around the lake, we dove off like a shot into the lake and ended up having to swim more than a mile back to shore. (Talk about naive and stupid!) That brings to mind memories the mad Algerian who stalked me all across Spain and wanted to take me back to Algiers and have me tend to his aging mother while he went off to cabaret all day. Yeah, that's right up my alley, bud...

It could be the time when my girlfriend and I were convinced we were being sold into white slavery in a Valencia night club. THAT is a story to be reckoned with, but at least led it lead to meeting our rescuer, a native San Franciscan living in Spain, which turned into a relationship, and later, once the relationship ended became an enduring friendship. Matter of fact, his sister flew in from the Bay area recently and we booked a hotel suite in Times Square to give our kids a "vacation" in Manhattan for a week and we did the whole tourist thing, something jaded, native NYers rarely do! Another friend could tell of the time driving back from a beach vacation where during the whole trip back, guys in a neighboring car were holding up signs to meet us, etc. and we were holding them up back inside our cars driving. We actually stopped and had dinner with them! Man, that would be a scary thing to think of my daughter doing today... I have so many exciting, interesting and sometimes hair raising stories from many moons ago, I don't know which one any given friend might relay about me, as there are far too many, many, too many to chose from, and many I just wouldn't share with strangers in a public forum, in order to protect the guilty, even if names were changed. LOL.

All I can say is I enjoyed my youth to the fullest, and because I'm generally confident and outgoing and not afraid to approach or be approached by too many people from all walks of life, it's opened many a door to adventure and light hearted craziness which have lead to many an infamous tale to be told. Yep, there were some risks (albeit only a few) that I took, that in hindsight I realize were flat out stupid. Thankfully they ended up well. Overall, despite being outgoing, adventurous and at times a touch crazy, I have maintained rewarding, solid friendships, and have many exploits and adventures for those involved to recount from the 80s to the early 90s. I think, along with all the infamous stories my friends have to chose from and might tell, along with any given story, I fancy they'd mostly likely tell of a caring, compassionate, true blue friend who has never betrayed their secrets or trust and who cares about them like family over the decades and that is what makes me most memorable and infamous to the people I hold dear...

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Free Legal File Sharing

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:57:06 -0400

4shared.com - free file sharing and storage

Many scrappers use this as a place to post their digital wares for download without using up server space or bandwith. I had several podcasts up, which I since have pulled down due to their popularity and the drain on my webhost's bandwith. Right now he's charging me a lot of money. I may downgrade packages, but I would like to put my podcasts back up. I think this is just the place to do it! What a great resource. So far, servers have been running admirably well for this free service. Two thumbs up!

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Restored Heritage Photos

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 20:40:14 -0400

My Mom at 8 Years Old

Baby Margie Photo 1933

I am working S-L-O-W-L-Y at putting a heritage scrapbook together with the plethora of old family photos from as far back as the late 1890s. Although I'm blessed to have access to them, most of them are worn, scratched, badly damaged and faded. Every photo has to be scanned and then lovingly and painstakingly restored in Photoshop. I'm a PSCS2 novice, but I've done my best to learn on my own and apply my traditional art skills. My life is so busy, it's hard to make time to learn and do the things I want to do. Anyway, to appreciate the work that went into these, I'll have to post the original photos sometime. These two are of my mom, who was born in 1932 to Italian immigrant parents in NYC.

The photo on the left needed to be desaturated and then I tweaked some things, but it's one of my favorites of her. The one on the right was badly ripped, scratched, had spots all over it and had pieces missing and was almost completely yellow. The original was hand tinted at one time. This is what I came up with the limited time (and skill) I had to work on it. (If anyone knows of tips/tutorials for this, please drop a link in comments, thanks!) I still need to go back and work it some more, but compared to the original, I think mom will be pleased. In working on the photos, it's hard not to be amazed how much my 8 year old daughter, looks like my mom.

People say my daughter looks like me, and although I look for the most part like my mom, my daughter looks more like her. That's a good thing, for my mom has aged beautifully, and even after last year's bout with breast cancer taking it's toll on her and hip replacement on the horizon, for a nearly 74 year old woman she is aging gracefully and looks phenomenal, without any outside enhancements.

Anyway, my life is so busy and the business of scanning and retouching and printing enough photos to even begin putting the scrapbook together has taken more time than I anticipated. It's my parents 50th anniversary this year, so I may put some of them in a simple Picaboo album, so they can enjoy them, and continue the slow and easy pace I'm on for the art book heritage album I'm planning on crafting. Hopefully that will get done in my lifetime or my daughter will have to take over where I left off!

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One of My All Time Favorite CD's:

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:52:17 -0400

Ministry - Say You're Sorry

Ministry with Sympathy.
Desert Island material for me.
"Say You're Sorry" is probably my favorite track.
Can you believe big Al ever made this album???
Also love the 12" Singles CD which features
"Everyday Is Halloween"
"Cold Life"
and
"All Day"
All this music is played on:
Generation 80s [alternative] Retro Radio

With Sympathy

Ministry

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"Get Joost" or "Save the Broadcaster, Save the World"

nobody@vox.com(Java Jane) — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:46:29 -0500

I'm never lucky. I can't even win $2 on a lottery scratch off. But bad luck seems to follow me like the plague. You don't know the half of it, trust me. I kinda feel like Hurley on LOST, but the bad luck happens to me, not just those around me, and at least he won the lotto!

Anyway, as I mentioned yesterday, I signed up to be a beta tester for "Joost" (pronounced "juiced"), but there is a significant wait due to the anticipation surrounding this service to even see if you will get selected. (I'm a tech and web geek at heart, so I have to be right there at the front of the line to at very least check out any new gadget or service, if not to buy/subscribe.) They did mention during the beta sign up if you knew someone who had already beta tested and had tokens available to pass along an immediate test to friends, it was probably the best avenue to explore if you wanted to be guaranteed trial access anytime soon. Of course, as luck would have it, I knew no one with a token, no less anyone who even knows or cares what "Joost" is, even though it's one of the most searched and blogged about sights on the net right now.

No one ever has knocked me for lack of resourcefulness, so just for grins I surfed over to Technorati and clicked on "Joost". I read through a bunch of blogs with posts on the topic, and low and behold, my luck changed right before my eyes. I hit the $2 scratch off so to speak. I found a most excellent blog, whose feed I subscribed to since it was that good, but he was also offering tokens to the first few people who read his post, dropped him a comment and agreed to post about their "Joost" beta experience in their blog. (I will tell you who the unknown blogger is so he can get mad props when I review the service itself, as I don't want to cause mass hysteria for him right now.) He read my comment and had me hooked up in a New York minute. Even though the invite came from "Joost" last night, as of now I still haven't entered the site. My luck went south the minute I thought I finally found some, and due to yesterday's decision by the RIAA and powers that be, independent webcasting may shortly be no more. Now I'm busy saving internet radio and my station, my passion, once again.

I was the RIAA's whipping girl as I was so vocal in my last stand against their corporate grift and attempts to snuff out independent and hobbiest webcasters. Now I'm off to mount the second crusade. I'll have plenty of time to get "Joost" when and if the music dies.

To that end, I'll keep anyone who believes in basic freedom and rights, despises wanton corporate greed and feels they don't want 'net radio to go the way of terrestrial radio - 98% full of Britney Spears and other inane and worthless programming - posted on how they can help in the next day or so. I hope that's most of you. In the meantime, I'll also satisfy my curiosity and redeem my token tomorrow. As I promised the unknown blogger, I'll let you know about that too.

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