Czeltic Girl

The new alchemy…kind of

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | Fun With Teh Intarweb | 1 Comment

Finally, a decent trade-in option for your extra gold. This goes double if they’re not kidding about Fuwari being available as one of the trade-ins. (Seriously, though. Who has “spare” gold laying around? Is this an issue for people other than people who already have too much money?)

Tip o’ the hat to coworker Dan for the link. I needed the chuckle today.

There’s a lesson here.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 | Screed! | 1 Comment

And that lesson is: it’s probably not wise to send editors a poorly-written memo letting them know about upcoming layoffs.

Disgruntled [Toronto] Star Editor Takes Constructive Revenge

That’s an awful lot of red on there. I think a certain publisher would have definitely been hit hard by the “three mistakes in an article and you get an F” policy my journalism classes had. Tsk tsk.

Also, it warms my heart to see the phrase “weasel words” again. I had an editor who was fond of that phrase. I quite like it.

(Via Ze Frank)

How well do you know your movies?

Monday, November 9th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | No Comments

If you were given six drawings per movie, in sequence, none of which show stars, could you guess the film? Paul Rogers wants you to give it a shot.

I could get many of them, but got stumped on a few. And I love (love!) the one for The Third Man. I would pay for a print of that to hang in my house. (Hint hint, Mr. Rogers.)

(Via Coudal Partners

A little more help for Cluny

Monday, October 26th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 1 Comment

Thanks to everyone who threw in some votes for Cluny to win a scholarship in the Class Act Canada contest. He’s made it to the final round!

Ten of the 20 remaining contestants will win an all-expenses-paid education in British Columbia, Canada. A couple more clicks from all of you can help Cluny reach that goal.

Go here to vote. Once again, you can add up to 10 votes per day per IP address. Voting runs through Nov. 6. After that, it’s in the judges’ hands.

Thanks for your help.

Burn, baby, burn!

Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | Design-y Bits | 3 Comments

These make me wish so hard that I had a fireplace in my new home. Don’t know which I like more, though I’m leaning more toward London. If you get the Rome one, you probably also need to get a fiddler.

(via NOTCOT)

Slowly digging out

Friday, October 9th, 2009 | Life in Czeltistan | No Comments

I finally got around to posting my pix from my Toronto trip back in July. You can find them here.

Could have sworn I had a lot more of them. Well, ok, there were a lot more, but let’s just say that after viewing many of them, I question my photography skills. It’s best I stick to these.

Buddy, can you spare some clicks?

Monday, October 5th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 2 Comments

A friend of a friend is currently entered to try to win one of 10 all-expenses-paid scholarships through the Class Act Canada contest. The man wants to be a nurse specializing in geriatrics, and you can help him out.*

You can vote here up to 10 times per day per IP address. You can vote through October 16. On October 23, the top 20 will move on to the next round. Between then and November 6 is the final round of voting to determine the 10 winners.

I have no stake in this, I just think it’s an easy way to try to do something nice for someone, and the world needs more nice these days.

*If you don’t want to help him out, it’s going to look like you don’t like old people. Like your grandmother. Do you really want me to tell your grandma that you don’t like old people? Don’t make Grandma cry. Vote for Cluny.

Off to mete out justice

Monday, October 5th, 2009 | Life in Czeltistan | 3 Comments

Typical: All the times I’ve checked the reserve juror check-in message during the last two weeks, it’s said “thanks, but we won’t need you.” Now that it’s my day to be a reserve juror, it says “come on in!”

*grumble*

Jury duty for me generally consists of sitting in the pool room, bored out of my mind for a day and a half, only to be called up then quickly dismissed. (If you’re going to dismiss me, call me up on day one, please.) The difference this time was that I got to spend Friday afternoon attempting to plan a schedule around not knowing whether or not I’d be at work on Monday or Tuesday, then spend Monday morning trying to plan a schedule around whether or not I’d be in during the afternoon or not. (Who knew jury duty could be made into more of a hassle? Kudos to those who figured out how to do it.)

So I’m off to the courthouse to determine someone’s fate. Or, more likely, I’m off to the courthouse to sit around and read more of my book. At least they’ve got wi-fi now. (Oh, hell. Forgot my headphones. There goes any hope of watching Dr. Horrible.) I wish they could use the same exciting technology as restaurants and give me a little buzzer to let me know if I was called or not. Then I could spend my day digging through files in the Records Office. Ah, well.

Update, Monday night: Guess who’s on a jury. Will end up being more than two days of service, but at least it’s not just sitting around in the jury pool room.

Because some crafts truly are awful

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 2 Comments

And for this reason, there is Regretsy.

I love handcrafted items as much as the next person, but this is so called for sometimes. There are an awful lot of “WTF?” moments out there in the world of handmade crafts. This site nicely compiles them. No links to the actual items — and that’s probably a good idea. This site could be incredibly dangerous when one is a bit tipsy and feeling like a little mischief is called for. (White elephant gifts, anyone?)

I have to admit, though, I’m more than a smidge amused by the meerkat manger scene. But then I used to find it highly amusing when Dad would put little plastic football helmets on everyone in the Nativity scene each year. (The baby Jesus got the ball, of course.)

Not that I condone this action

Friday, September 25th, 2009 | Grammar! | 5 Comments

But I won’t really argue with it, either.

I know so many people who would love this

Monday, September 21st, 2009 | Bloggity goodness, Shameless Consumerism | 2 Comments

Pizza boss: A pizza cutter that looks like a power saw.

I would have to make power saw noises while I sliced my pie. I think I could let myself slide on the safety goggles, though.

(Via Rare Bird Finds)

This was supposed to be happy fun week.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 | Kitty! | 9 Comments

But the excitement of closing on my house was far overshadowed by the sadness of losing Norm.

She was 19 and not in the best of health. Wednesday and Thursday, she ate very little. Friday she ate almost nothing. By Saturday, she’d stopped eating at all. I wasn’t sure she’d make it through Sunday night. But she did. She made it through Monday, too. I kept hoping she’d go in her sleep, but for all her systems that were failing, her heart was still going strong. This morning, it was clear that even though she was so weak, it might be a while yet. I had little choice but to call my vet.

In two more years, Stormy would have been with me half my life. It was really hard when we lost Cliffy a year and a half ago. Norm and I spent a lot of time pretty much attached to each other after that. Coming home tonight to no cats at all was really hard. The house feels empty (and not just because I’ve moved a bunch of stuff over to the new place already).

It’ll be a little strange to not wake up during the night tonight and not find a paw in my face or someone licking my hair. I’ll miss Norm’s little meow (and her not-so-little demanding meow) and the hassle of trying to use the computer while a cat sleeps across one arm. I’ll even kind of miss her annoying habit of letting herself into the bathroom while I’m in the shower, leaving the door open and letting out all my nice steamy air.

She’s reunited with her sister now, up in Mom’s little pet cemetery (seriously — whomever owns that property next is going to think odd things of our family if they start digging. Cats, dogs, horses… there’s a lot buried up there). I miss them both dearly.

R.I.P., Normie. I miss you, little girl.
July 1990 – September 2009

April Winchell, also wonderful

Friday, September 11th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 2 Comments

April’s got her “Second Annual Mother of All 9/11 Posts” blog entry posted. You know — in case you missed any “Nine-Elevenalia.”

I should probably apologize to my coworkers. I read this at work and was chuckling pretty hard before I even got past the animated gifs. Haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to the mp3s yet.

Ian Frazier, you are wonderful

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness, Life in Czeltistan | 3 Comments

Were the Cursing Mommy an actual weekly column, I would be adding it to my bookmarks and feeds right now. I’m sure Cursing Mommy and I would get along like a house on fire.

I also have a sneaking suspicion Ian Frazier was eavesdropping on me as I was packing and cleaning this weekend. It’s possible I may have sounded like this a little. Ok, a lot. But it’s not my fault that both the Swiffer and my beer kept misplacing themselves. Also, 5-gallon drums of paint are heavy. That stupid thing can just stay there in the trunk until I get keys to the new place.

What? Oh, sorry. Was re-living the weekend a bit there. I’m done now.

(New Yorker link courtesy of The Morning News.)

I’m a word parent

Friday, September 4th, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 3 Comments

< sally struthers voice > Every year, hundreds of words fall out of usage in our language. While this isn’t always a bad thing, some rather charming little words are often lost to the ages. You can help save them. < /sally >

Oxford Dictionaries has a nice little site where you can adopt a word to keep it from falling out of usage. Pick your word and then use it in conversation where you can to keep it alive.

I saved three words today. I suspect I’ll actually be able to use prandicle quite often.

(Thanks to BB for the fun link.)

You know what this will lead to, right?

Monday, August 31st, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 3 Comments

A Book Lover’s Guide to IKEA seating can only lead to a renaming of all of IKEA’s sofas and chairs. (Ok. I’ll admit I’d probably look at seating named after Kjell Eriksson.)

I’m staying away from that Franzen chair, though. I have enough difficult furniture.

(via The Morning News)

Again, for the record

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 | You Call This News? | 2 Comments

I’m not in DC.

I am, however, sorry to hear about Teddy.

Dear Monday evening,

Monday, August 24th, 2009 | Life in Czeltistan | 2 Comments

I’ve had enough of your crap. Get out.

Moose kisses,
Czeltic Girl

The following few bits of joy from the last half hour are the only things saving this craptastic evening. I want to hug them: I Can Has Cheezburger (most notably this photo), Gay Perry, and a quick review of today’s XKCD. (Pretty sure Gay Perry is the only one of those three things I could actually hug. I’m ok with that.)

I’d have a cocktail, but Rocket Science Girl here packed up the liquor cabinet, and the beer I have in the house isn’t cold.

Really, spammers?

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 | Bloggity goodness | 2 Comments

About half of today’s attempted spam comments had something to do with Simpsons pr0n.

Stupid Rule 34.

For the record

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 | You Call This News? | 1 Comment

I am nowhere near DC today. Sometimes Kennedys just die on their own. I can’t be held responsible for this one. (And yes, I’m ignoring the fact Eunice got very, very sick the last time I was in DC. She recovered, ok. This one’s not on me.)