See you in 2010!
I've read so many series books I think I have half of the formula.
The story takes place in a pastoral and picturesque small town along a large body of water, near the mountains, or along a railway line, or all three... usually along the rural Eastern Seaboard. OR The story takes place at a boarding school.
There is a group of very nice girls. There is another group of girls, who aren't very nice at all. These two groups are always at odds with each other, and there is always one especially difficult girl but the nice girls always win out and usually manage to convert one or more of the mean girls to the "better way" in the process. If the story takes place at boarding school, there is always one old bitter hag of a teacher that will play prominently in the story.
There is a group of boys, made up of the brothers of the nice girls and some of the other nice boys from town. There is always one joke of a boy that no one likes but is always included in the activities to serve as comic relief and the boys are always playing tricks on him or teasing him mercilessly. The dolt always redeems himself to the group in some way by showing he's a pretty good guy when he's not being such a lame duck.
These girls and boys are always very civic minded and usually stage some kind of charity event that is threatened in some way, but always comes off well and produces whatever end was desired.
The parents are always minor characters, but 9 times out 10 they appear as kind, loving, patient and understanding friends and confidants.
There is always one adult that the kids love and admire and is their trusty "Go To Guy (Girl)". This person usually acts as chaperone for the group on their outings, although they are so pure of heart they never need one, but something always happens and the chaperone saves the day by imparting their wisdom of experience to the group.
The group always goes on an exciting trip or has a local adventure where either something mysterious needs to be solved or a conflict that needs to be resolved, or while on the adventure they meet up with either a young waif or an older person who needs to be taken under the collective wing of the group and offered some kind of help or rescuing.
How'd I do, did I get it pretty close?
My brother's house last night. A winter wonderland! We were there for his father in law's 80th birthday party. As beautiful as it was outside, the drive home was very slow and took every ounce of concentration. Snow falling steadily, road covered with fresh snow and in that area they don't salt because of people's wells. It was the kind of falling snow that hypnotizes you as it drive through it, creating constant 3D effect as if you are driving through a vortex. Wierd and wonderful.
Nevertheless, it was still absolutely magical out there.
Hope you have a contented and peaceful few days ahead of you:) Happy Christmas!
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me ...
12 ships to plunder,
11 cannons firing,
10 crewmen leaping,
9 sharks a' swimming,
8 rum-filled bottles,
7 lusty wenches,
6 jolly rogers,
5 gold doubloons,
4 eye patches,
3 earrings,
2 wooden legs
and a parrot for my shoulder - Arrr!
QUESTION: Is there any place on my computer I can look to see what "2" version of Firefox was running before the update to version "3"?
It makes me ANGRY every time I try to go online. ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY.
First, and most annoyingly, it has changed the way Vox is displayed to me, as well as several other web sites.
I hate what's happened to the bookmarks menu. I can no longer just click bookmarks from the menu. I have to click command D TWICE AT LEAST for some hideous black and see-through box to open in some random spot on the page. Then it won't allow me to select a folder, it just drops it into the uncategorized bookmarks folder. Then I try to organize the bookmarks and get brutally rebuffed there too.
And I can't stand the round edged address/search bars. Could it look anymore like Internet Explorer? If I wanted to work on pc I'd buy a pc. Stop shitting on my Mac.
And what happened to the tabs? Why do they take up 1/4 of the toolbar height? and I don't need some stupid "+" button to open a new tab.
I also despise the changes to the back/forward, stop and reload buttons on the tool bar.
I hate everything about Firefox 3. I hate it so much I've gone back to using SAFARI! It's that awful...
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! How did it get here so quickly?
Lots to do still as always. Heading off to the gym shortly.
37 days until we BustaMove. Yikes! Did I mention that my daughter has signed on?
The prize list is growing:) Yay. Wooden Monkey has donated a gift certificate:) Thanks. $10 donation gets you in on a draw for all this! Only 57 tickets sold to date.
Towards something more seasonal.
It took:
30000 plus lights
130 extension cords
Over 8000 feet of control cable
Programming time: don't ask.
Most of the neighborhood used LED lights this year, so they are using 1/10th of the power as last year.
What do you get when you mix a Christmas Light show with Guitar Hero? Christmas Light Hero!
Song is "Cliffs of Dover" by the incredible Eric Johnson.
Have a Merry Christmas.
Patricia Brennan from Yale University is trying to encourage male Muscovy ducks to launch their ballistic penises into test tubes.
Full article here - and it really is worth the read. Fascinating stuff to learn whilst eating toast and marmite!
And not just for singing, either!
