Portable Firefox

I'm trying out a "modded" Firefox, for lack of a better term, that is designed to be installed to and run from a portable media device, like a USB drive (what I'm using) or a CD-RW with packet writing enabled. Basically, I can now bring my browser with me anywhere - as long as there's a Windows PC there that I can use it on. It has some things disabled - like saved forms, multiple session cookies - to minimize the read/write access to the drive that it's on. I've got all of my key extensions installed, and I've added Bookmark Synchronizer so I can synch the bookmarks on it an on my home machine - pretty much everything I need. Only downside I've noticed is that it takes longer to load.

Thespian convention was Friday night; I worked at Best Western, and had a pretty slow night, overall. The fire alarm was fixed, thank goodness. Setting up the breakfast sucks, but wasn't that bad, really. I just had no idea what I was doing, and they seemed to have gone out of their way to make it difficult for me by not defrosting any OJ, or gravy, and leaving out a whole pitcher of milk for the WHOLE day. Eww.

Finished my and Bridget's taxes - getting all of our federal income taxes back, and about a third of our state taxes, so we'll be doing pretty good in a few weeks. We're doing good now, actually, since Bridget's $5000 loan check came in. Party! Kidding, of course.

Who to kill first...

Today was pretty screwed up, and I just don't know who to blame it on. Somehow, a couple of weeks ago, the conference hall was booked for today - which is specifically a violation of the contract Jay and I drew up, wherein I have exclusive rights to Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not so bad, really, since it was only going to be used from 5 to 6. I could still hold my advanced ad college classes.

Wrong, of course. They would need the room until at LEAST 7:30, which meant I could hold NO classes.

I know that all of the girls know I teach karate out there, because I've talked to most of them about it, or Jay has mentioned it to them. So why was it booked in the first place? And why did the people who booked it wait until the DAY of the event to push back the times?

I'm so aggravated right now, I can't even express it.

3,600,000

Three million six hundred thousand nickels.

That's $180,000.

It weighs 23 tons.

And somebody stole it. Disappeared from an 18 wheeler in Florida. The driver is missing too.

That's a lot of nickels. According to The Today Show  it would take a year to turn that in to cash at a rate of $500 a day. Talk about a patient thief.

Or, of course, just pay in nickels for the rest of your life.

Birthday!

Today was Bridget's birthday, and unfortunately it was not all I, or she, had hoped it would be. I had thought of planning a surprise party, but funding cut that short. My work and her school schedle kept us apart most of the day, and then a combination of lack of sleep and the changing weather put me to sleep for several hours - ancelling TKD class in the process.

To top things off, Bridget wanted a plan king cake for her birthday cake; no filling, just plain. Unfortunately, the only place in town that has king cakes at all has no plain, only strawberry with cream cheese. *sigh* But everyone is calling to wish her a happy birthday, so she seems happy.

Happy birthday Bridget!

Blah blah, oochety smoochety

I did an entry several days ago, but the internet ate it. I swear.

Things go well, here. School has started, and I think I'll enjoy my classes. I'm working some mornings at the hotel again, which means slightly more stress, but I get to hang out more with Jay. We cut up all day today. He's very different as an employer when you spend time with him.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time rocks. It captures the spirit of the original 2D side-scroller, and wraps it with gorgeous graphics. The camera could use some work, though.

It occurred to me earlier this evening, and this may be my favorite part of the game, that I think they used the same melody for the healing as they did in the original game.

We are nearly done with Thief 3. The story arc has been quite good. And strange. One of the city quarters is in utter chaos - people killing each other EVERYWHERE. It's tough sneaking past Hammerites waving hammers or casting spells, and city watch thrusting swords, and Pagans with swords and spells, and the random sword-wielding scoundrel on the streets. I think we just have to fight some undead and then the main baddy, and we'll be done. Sounds like fun.

Bridget, of course, would disagree and say fighting undead is NEVER fun.

Next on my list is Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, and 3rd person stealth game, so we get to sit and watch as I creep ever so slowly and silently in a modern setting.

Oh, and I fixed the guest computer at work. It had gone haywire. Yay! for me.

Christmas... a few days early

I'll be bringing Bridget to Lafayette tomorrow to spend a few days with her parents before I head down myself on Christmas Day, so I decided we should hold a small present exchange here early, since what I wanted to get Bridget wouldn't carry easily back and forth.

See, I dislike Christmas trees - the maintenance, the set up, just about everything... I could live without, easily. Bridget, on the other hand, LOVES them. We've ad some discussions about getting one this year, but our roommate has also had som misgivings about getting one, so we held off. I talked to him today about getting her a small one, and what do you know, he'd been thinking of the same thing! So, we went off and bout a smallish tree, some ornaments, lights, and two bicycles that bridget has been wanting so we can go riding together. My roommate and I set up the tree, laid the oraments underneath it, and set the bikes up around the tree, and I led her in, hands over her eyes, to the tree. She gasped, giggled, and immediately started setting up lights. She loved it. And that makes me happy.

Poeple have been aksing what I want for Christmas - nothing, really. I'd be just as happy if I got nothing. However... if someone feels the need to get me something... I've been trying to rent Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" on DVD for some time. It seems like the kind of movie i would love... and I would love to own it, even. So, yeah. "Seven Samurai" on DVD.

Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow

Officially one of my favorite movies of the year. In the running for most favorite, even.

This movie captured the feeling of the 40s and 50s hero serials, comics, and cartoons so WELL. I felt like I was watching the old Fleischer Superman cartoons I had as a child. In fact, this movie is remarkably similar to one episode called "The Mechanical Men" (no, I didn't remember that - I looked up who made the cartoons, and a list of the episodes, and the titles reminded me of the episodes).

The movie knew when to be funny, it knew when to have a heroic moment, and it combined them both very well. Of course, being a sci-fi fan, I loved the retro era "futuristic" feel the whole movie had. There's a short story... I wish I could remember the title... about a man who can see what the present time would be like if the future imagined by the sci-fi writers of the 50s were true - we all know the pictures of "The Family of the Future" and their flying cars, and the curved glass buildings - that's kind of how this movie felt, at points.

Angelina Jolie - why did she have that role? She had like 5 lines, and maybe the same amount of screen time. The other actors did well, I felt... but I think they wasted the money on Jolie.