dead?

long live the ghost of Ray B. West.

eek

woah...

so i have a chance to teach a bunch of 10th graders webdesign, as part of the home-school group my mum and siblings participate in.

when i was in tenth grade, i didn't even have my own email address, did i? my how times have changed...

anyway: anyone remember the most helpful techniques rylish used when he taught us?
anyone think i'm crazy to even think i'll have anything close to the kind of patience you need to teach anyone anything, much less children?

i've been looking into free webdesign software... there's apparently some open-source stuff: Nvu. Mum says they've formerly used FrontPage. As FrontPage is being discontinued last year, this is probably not so smart a move...

Anyway, I'd love to hear ideas or other forms of support from all of you lovely fellow-alumni. This is a pretty cool opportunity and it pays well in spite of the limited hours, but I'm basically scared out of my wits.

Networking (don't tell cheryl)

So I got an e-mail from a former roommate who wanted to know if I needed a job. I told her no, but I'd pass it along to people I know from the major.

JeriLynn, I know you read this, maybe you can pass it on for those losers who forget it exists.

Its at Gecko Software, they are wanting to hire a tech writer, part time, who has a quirky personality (the boring ones don't last long apparently) and web/graphic design experience is a plus.

Interested: contact Kim Lyon at klyon@geckosoftware.com

Why?

Hey, why isn't our new design for the English dept.'s website up yet? I thought it was supposed to be up by now!

Anybody know?

-jeri

New Year Resolution

Right now I'm watching Supersize me! on tv. I think it goes along with the New Year resolution fad that people have in January. I'm not big into New Year resolutions. I believe in all year round resolutions.

One of the things I got with my first paycheck was a membership to the gym. When January hit the amount of people doubled. My dad and I are betting that by the time summer hits, most of them will be back to their regular ways. AH well. Better machines for the rest of us that stick it out.

Today at work they gave me the annual report to do. I've been doing the weekly report on my own quite nicely (once stupid male masoginist were introduced to the idea that I AM NOT A SECRETARY and can now do my job). The 2006 annual report is due Feb. 28th. But I'm not worried. They just barely finished the 2005 annual report before Christmas, and the 2003, and 2004 annual reports the month before that. I will be doing the job that 3 engineers were splitting ... do I want to make a joke here or leave it to you all to assume?

My best gift at christmas (besides Balderdash of course) a Barnes and Noble card. I now own two books that I haven't even read yet and have plans to buy two more. I'm in heaven.

Tasty and fragrant frailty of delicacy!

It's good to see most of us posting again. It appears we all had a nice Christmas. My brothers and I finally got the guts to tell our parents to come visit us for Christmas (since we've been splitting the day between our parents for 12 years, which has made me hate the holiday). Soooo, me and Jay had a quiet little Christmas at home with Liesl. I actually forgot to get her a gift, but I figure that she won't hold it against me, and I do buy her stuff all the time. She did, however, suck on a gift from my dad until it opened.

But I did find a good gift for her one-year birthday. It's a Chinese-made grocery cart. And, like "All Your Base," has some very amusing translations. It also uses at least three different fonts in. . . get this. . . ALL CAPS! Read on.

Product Name: SUPER SHOP

Descrption 1: Collect all these exciting new set!

Descrption 2: High quality, Funny cookware sets, It will give you infinite pleasure!

Descrption 3: Special for you of children design.

Descrption 4: The best cooking companion for all day long playing.

The best, however, is the box for a fake product. The picture is of a bowl of corn flakes.

Product name: Tasty Pine Cracker

Product: Tasty cookies

Motto: Tasty and fragrant frailty of delicacy

Description: The fragrant frailty is tasty, and guarantee you on eating to still want to eat, nourishment plentifulness, old and little all fit, welcome taste!

Jay and I figure "Special for you of children design" probably means "Made especially for children". But we also think it could mean "Designed by children". And what about "fragrant frailty"? I think they looked in a theasauras under "delicate" and came up with "frail" and decided that would work. And is "plentifulness" a word at all?! And, who in the world would eat a cracker made out of pine?!

Anyway, we've laughed at it a lot.

Chelsi, all those gifts are wonderful. You are so spoiled! Let me know when you're ready to read "The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands."

Hollie, I wish I could laugh that much. Sounds fun to me.

Amelia, you are quite the little photographer. Why are we switching blogs again?

In other news, Liesl eats rice cereal once a day now. She is also using a high chair for that. And, she rolled over from her belly to her back-- on purpose-- the day after Christmas. She thinks she's pretty great, now, but she's growing up too quickly to suit me. But we love and adore her. She is still so snuggly soft and sweet.

Well, love you all. It's nice hearing from you!

Merry Christmas Darlings...

Happy New Year too! Oh how I love Karen Carpenter. So, sorry I haven't been keeping up lately. It seems, however, that I'm not the only one. I hope everyone had a magical Christmas. What did everyone get? We got soooooooooooooooooo much! I guess that's the one benefit of marrying into a divorced family. My favorite gifts were the following: some gorgeous crystal and pearl jewelry from Spence, a sexy, tiny little 7.2 mega pixel camera from my family, a HUGE jewelry box to hold all of my gaudy bling from my mama and daddy, a 7 man tent from his mom and step father, a karen handbag from his mom, a swiffer sweep and vac from my g-ma, and....drumroll....A MAGIC BULLET (brother and sister-in-law)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not talking about one that kills warewolves, I'm talking about the mini food-processor/smoothie maker. I have wanted this thing for at least 6 years now. It's my favorite infomercial. We got it because Spencer's brother and I share a bond in that we LOVE the Food Network. He picked it out because he's always wanted one and he knew I'd love it. YAY! Don't worry, I've used it 6 times already.

Listen to me, rambling on about my presents. My Christmas was wonderful, even without the presents. We attended my mother's house for Christmas Eve...it was so fun. We slept at Spencer's mom's house though...it was really hard to leave my family on Christmas Eve. Then it was great to get to be a part of new traditions with my other family. The best part was watching my three-year-old neice. It was wonderful to see Christmas through her eyes. :) I wrote Spence a story and painted pics to go in it...that was great to see him open too...I made him cry, which is ultimately my goal in all my gift giving endeavors. We gave my two 6 month old neices these toys that shoot balls into the air after they drop them into a tunnel...it was the cutest thing ever to watch them play with it. They were so facinated! I like giving gifts even more than recieving them! Ps. If you're looking for a killer couples gift, go to lovopoly.com You can make your own customized game sheets for Monopoly. My sister-in-law bawled like a baby when she opened it.

Elsie and I graduated. It was actually a lot of fun, mostly because I had my Els. The week after finals I read four novels. It was FABULOUS!!! I can't wait to scrapbook and paint!!!! I think I might even start teaching ballet again! I'm so excited. I'm not going to lie though; I will miss it.

Well, speaking of free time...I was going to do this before Christmas, but I didn't have time, then I lost the book. So, now that it has been found, I would like to introduce you to Merry Christmas Amelia Bedilia for my lil' Amelia.

Merry Christmas!

Sorry I have been lax in checking and reading the blog. Besides work, I have taken care of the majority of the christmas shopping for my family this year because my mom was going to school and working full time. Then I had to finish this teddy-bear afghan for my brother and sister-in-law (they're expecting a baby in March. Hurray another nephew!) I thought I was going to be done on Saturday but its a block quilt and when I put the blocks together it was too small so in a frantic panic I've worked on it all weekend (whenever they were around) and I finished it last night at midnight. I am so happy. But tired. Very tired.

as my brother would say: Merry Freakin' Ho Ho

My younger sister and I both got games last night (we open one gift on Christmas Eve, our exchange gift). So we played Balderdash, and then Apples to Apples. During Apples to Apples I was laughing so hard I stopped breathing, and my older sister was afraid I was going to pass out. That didn't stop her from making funny commentary however. It was good to laugh so hard but my head hurt the rest of the night and today my stomach muscles hate me.

fiddly bits and happy christmas

hello. this is amelia here. i'm posting as granddaddy west because recently i switched my various blogs over to the new blogger (speaking of: new pointless hobby) and so my regualr login is all changed and this is just easier than figuring out how to post as me.

as soon as blogger will let me, i'll switch our dear old blog over as well, if nobody minds. it could use some shaking up. maybe i'll design it a new header bit too, while i'm at it.

anyways. i've moved home and abandoned shae... it's pretty weird. i do miss my job out there, but i am looking forward to whatever happens next for me.

everyone have a great christmas and throw some snowballs at somebody for me. :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hey, y'all! I guess we are all quite busy. Life is good here. Liesl is growing up quickly. She's such a funny baby. She has this really irritating squeal that she uses when she's impatient or bored. We've started feeding her rice cereal, too. She's still too young to sit up on her own or roll over, so she's still pretty immobile. I like that because I don't have to child proof quite yet. Soon, though.

Jay is on vacation. Another year and he'll be graduated. I can't wait til he has a regular job and no homework. If you can call active duty regular.

I actually called Dr. Laura a few weeks back. She was a jerk to me, too. My goal when I first started listening to her was to find a reason to call her. Now I did, she's lost her charm. But I still listen to her on occasion. I don't listen to Rush so much either. I got sick of the radio.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all! Congrats to Chelsi and Elsie on graduating!

xo-jeri

I actually have news

First of all, for those of you who were wondering, my grandma is out of the hospital but isn't able to take care of herself or be left alone for long periods of time. She can't take of her colostomy bag so because my job hasn't started because I was waiting for a security clearance from the government I was basically babysitting.

JeriLynn - she doesn't have demensia (or not that bad) she just doesn't have any sense of modesty anymore because of the periods she's spent in hospitals and a stint in the nursing home. It was her solution to a problem ... and if you follow her train of thought its logical, in a way. And I'm glad you like the bracelets. At thanksgiving two of my aunts found out about them and I made some for my two cousins, one who is less than a month old and the other who is six months old.

After that incident my dad started shopping around for assisted living centers because he says we can't provide her the care she needs anymore. She was all sorts of pissed at us, but my mom pointed out that she couldn't be left alone and I would start work soon. We just didn't know how soon. So, we found this really nice, small, homey place and she moves Saturday.

I get a call yesterday from my aunt. My security clearance has come through and I start work on Monday. She's going to drive me the first day so I need to be at her house at 5:30 a.m. to get there in time. Did I mention that the place I'm working will have over an hour commute by bus each way? What was I thinking? Oh yeah, this is a great job, and I have tudent loans I need to pay back.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!

Huh? It's almost December? What?

Hi, yeah, Liesl's four months old today. Wow, time flies.

She puts herself to sleep now. Very nice. She plays with her hands and squeals and blows bubbles. She is very fun.

So, this is how flustered I've been since she's been born: I asked her pediatrician about the rash all over her body. She says she's sensitive to the laundry detergents. I've been using Dreft for fabric softener, which should by safe for babies. Well, it turns out, the Dreft I have is not fabric softener, but detergent. So I've been soaking Liesl's clothes in soap, which would explain the rash.

Holly, thanks for the bracelets. You are a doll. I look forward to a Christmas card from you. I hope to do my own, as well. I doubt I have everyone's address. Go ahead and send me your addresses to jelyfisher@gmail.com. Please. Also, Holly, in that survey you sent me, I didn't laugh when I read about you finding your grandma in the nude. That is upsetting, though I can see the humor too. Dimensia must be very hard to live with.

Well, I love you all. I only check my email about once a week now, I'm so . .. everywhere else.

xo-jeri

count down

i have one week left out here.

and i just finished revising this little writing project: a photo essay

i can't say how interesting it is or isn't to anybody but me, but there it is.

Happy Turkey Day

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am thankful for many things. One is the post office. I love to mail things ... weird I know. I also like to buy stamps. If I don't have your address I need it, because I am sending out Christmas cards (my parents think I'm weird because they have NEVER sent out Christmas cards but I have for the past 4 years and they don't know where I got the idea) and I need everyones addresses.

Some of you I'm lucky enough to have your address already so if I have it, and you don't want a card, tough cookie. This and wrapping presents makes my season. Luckily my mom hates to wrap Christmas presents so there is always plenty to wrap!

Don't write your addresses here, e-mail them please.
hollie.street@gmail.com

Hope everyone travels safe tomorrow (or whenever) and has a good day!

farewell flamingo

somebody show this to cheryl for me:

the end of the pink flamingo

i also added some coolio links to the sidebar.

i'm also coming home in 2 weeks!

hooray!

three weeks and counting

for wilson:
a cool game design job
check out the footnote on 'isle of wight'. hilarious.


as far as i know i'm not booked for any speaking engagements.
so... um. don't get your hopes up?

:p

No news is good news...

I miss you guys! I'm really sorry I couldn't make it up for the Halloween party, but it just wasn't a good weekend. I will be coming up to visit again soon though. As soon as I figure out when I'll email you all.

Work is going well, nothing specifically good about it. I get up, get ready, drive for an hour, work until 4:30, drive home, go to the gym, eat dinner, relax and then do it all over again tomorrow. Being graduated is so glamorous! :D I am enjoying work and it feels like I'm accomplishing stuff. I do wish I were more outgoing so that I'd have more friends, but I'm sure that'll come as I'm there longer. Hopefully they'll pick me up as a permanent employee. My directly over me boss has said three times in the past week to people other than me, that he hopes they'll make me permanent, so that seems promising.

My personal life is still boring, no prospects... but that's okay cause I figure when I move to salt lake in January when I get hired permanently or somewhere else when i get a different job, I can find a neighborhood pub (so actually a bar) and become a regular and join a bowling league. Basically that means I'll be turning into my uncle, which i just realized and is very frightening!

In other peoples' news... Lisa and Mark Ferrara (she said he was considering taking her name) just bought a house! It's off of 10100 So, really close to where Lisa and I work. She showed me pictures and it seems really cute.

Well, like I said, no news is good news, and I have no news!

Love you all!

I used to be known as Crimson Cinderson, Tawanda, and Catwoman. For this month, I am Cranberry Jeri. Happy Thanksgiving.

Hi everyone! How are you all? It's good to hear from all of you. I am doing well. Liesl is three months old now. And I feel completely adjusted. I can keep my house clean, work, be a mom, cook, be a wife, and play a little, too.

I just haven't started running yet. I made significant progress today, though: I woke up to my alarm and actually got out of bed.

Before getting back in bed and going back to sleep.

Well, I have no news. Life's pretty good. I love my little girl a lot. She's fabulous. And growing up way, way, WAY too quickly. Babies are fun.

I don't have a lot of friends, and I miss you guys. Luckily, Chelsi's coming over this week to be my personal fashion consultant as I get ready for the military ball and family pictures this weekend.

Thank heavans elections are through. That's all I can say.

Love you all!

-jerilynn

how much do you hate comic sans?

do you hate it as much as these people?

attn: jerilynn fisher, there are some pretty fun free fonts on that site. i've downloaded them all just now.

more about comic sans:

from the designer himself
at design observer
in boston

and speaking of fonts and design, i've fallen in love with veer.
just look at all the cool stuff they have for sale. i think i will buy that tin full of pins for myself for my birthday...

mm. yes.

What's wrong with this?

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Did you know that 80f Stanford students could not find the error above? Click Here to see if you were right or to get the correct answer.

I actually found the error, but I couldn't figure out how to put it into the drop down menu so it would say I got the right answer. The "O" is a zero in the list. Whoever wrote it needs to go back to basic English. When they give the correct answer they use "your" instead of "you're". Is it wrong that annoys me?