I imagine that most people favor feed readers these days and as a result don’t actually visit my blog much anymore, but nevertheless I decided to change its theme in honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Yes, my blog is now extremely pink, but luckily I am still girly enough that I actually like it! 
I am fortunate enough that I have not personally known anyone (I have been told that my great-aunt by marriage on my mother’s side had breast cancer, but I never knew her) who has been affected by breast cancer, but I suspect that it is only a matter of time.
Therefore, as a way to honor those who have in one way or another had to deal with this dreadful disease, here are a few links. Educate yourself, your mother, your sisters, your aunts, and your best friend today!
Posted in metablogging, politics & society | 5 Comments »
Dear Makers of SmartFTP,
I understand the need for a company to make money. However, I am sadly disappointed that you have decided to abandon the majority of your users (educational institutions and poor graduate students) in favor of the all-mighty dollar.
I have used the freeware version of your product since I cut my FTP baby teeth using version 1.X to learn FTP basics as a poor graduate student. However, I recently learned that you have decided to do away with the free version for private and educational use. Professional software is expensive and for those of us who need professional software but work in education (an area that the government is always quick to cut) it is a great disservice to begin charging this segment of your user population. In an era where open source software is quickly coming of age, it seems a better business model would be to expand your free product, not do away with it.
Thanks for memories SmartFTP, but I am afraid I will be re-investigating my free FTP options.
FireFTP here I come!
Sincerely,
Renée, education professional and part-time poor graduate student.
Posted in news | 3 Comments »
In case you didn’t know, today is Download Day for Firefox 3.
As soon as I have time to play with all the new bells and whistles (not tonight, my nose is buried in Romantic Poetry) I will be sure to put together a post entitled “Why Firefox is the Best Thing Since Sliced Bread.”
And if you haven’t upgraded to a REAL browser yet, do it today! What are you waiting for?!
Posted in pop culture | 2 Comments »
Well, I think I can say that my birthday is officially over.
Today I got the last birthday cards in the mail that I was expecting and the rest of the presents I bought myself arrived. (Can you believe it? I bought myself NO cross stitch stash for my birthday this year!) It’s been a good birthday if I do say so myself. If the rest of the year is half as enjoyable as the past two weeks have been, it will be a hell of a year.
Of course, one of the highlights of my birthday weekend was going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Him yesterday. (I have decided to drop the He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named for something shorter… albeit much less creative.) I am not going to write a movie review, but I will say this: I liked and didn’t like the movie. As a stand-alone action movie with Harrison Ford it was fun. As an addition to the Indiana Jones franchise, it wasn’t really what I was hoping for and frankly I was a little disappointed.
However, after the movie yesterday He and I went shopping for bedding for my new bed. (Yes! He went shopping with me! Could He be a keeper?) As usual, I wanted something nice, but was feeling too cheap to pay the big bucks for what I wanted so I hit the sale rack. And I wasn’t disappointed either. There was a “bed in a bag” set that I liked, but I found a comforter/sham set that I was partial to as well.
The “bed in a bag” was a very pretty set with purple flowers on it, but when I showed it to Him and asked his opinion he did that man-stutter thing that means he didn’t want to disagree but he clearly didn’t have too high of an opinion of what was being presented to him. Lucky for Him, I agreed: The “bed in a bag” was kind of girly! 
In the end, I decided on the comforter/sham set in a pattern called “Summer Rain” and bought some 350 count Pima cotton sheets in a bluish-green-gray to match.
He must not have minded that set too much: After all, he did help me make the bed when I got home!
Posted in good times, photos, pop culture | 1 Comment »
Even though my birthday isn’t for 13 more days, May 9 holds a special place in my heart because according to my mother and the doctor who delivered me, that is when I was actually supposed to be born. However, in accordance with what quickly became the story of my life, I apparently overslept and as a result, didn’t make it into the world for almost two more weeks.
Of course, two weeks later when I finally did decide to make an appearance I did it in literally the most ass-backwards way. You see, I was a breech baby. My mother always jokes that I presented my best side to the world first, but I suspect I was just being cheeky.
Anyway…
This morning I received a visit from someone who, at this point, shall remain nameless. After an encounter we had last weekend, I had been waiting for (and looking forward to) this visit all week. During my discussion with He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named the subject of my birthday, which this year falls the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and on the opening day of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, came up.
When I mentioned to He-Who-Must-Not-Yet-Be-Named that my plans for my birthday included a long holiday weekend in which I planned drive to The Big City to see the long-awaited fourth installment of the Indiana Jones movies in a fancy cinemaplex, his response was that he would hate for me to be alone while celebrating these two important milestones. In that case, I told him, he was welcome to come with me and after he confirmed he would love to do just that, we made plans for… dare I call it a date?
I just hope he doesn’t mind too much when I drool over Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones for the entire two hours!
Posted in holidays & special occasions, pop culture | 2 Comments »
