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I have an electric fly swatter! My grandparents brought a bunch over from the Netherlands years ago, but I'm sure you can get them here. They're lots of fun. The only thing is, you have to make sure you actually kill the fly when you shock it. A lot of times the shock just temporarily paralyzes it.
During my geology final yesterday, I realized that I could actually make the landscape in my novel make geological sense. I had to turn over a piece of scrap paper and map out the events that led to the world being the way it was. It was great. If you want inspiration for physical world building, I highly recommend taking a geology class.
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Somehow I forgot to click onto genevieve42's link to Amazon-dot-com till today...the item seems to be slightly larger than the one I saw, but it would definitely do for what I want. And it was cheaper, too...I may order one for myself as well...I think I'll chance ordering it before Christmas after all...
By the way, ordering something from Amazon-dot-com that's not a book / CD / DVD doesn't hold any terrors for me...I've done it before with other things...the one that stands out in my mind has a backstory:
Several Christmasses ago (should that have two "s"s or three?), I got this odd-shaped Circulon pan for a gift, twelve inches, but high on one side and low on the other. I liked it, liked it a lot, use it a lot, too. But it needed a lid. They didn't have them in stores. I tracked down Circulon on the web to see if they had a lid for it (I didn't want to mate up something that didn't "belong" with the pan---I've had trouble with that sort of thing before). They didn't sell them directly, but they did through a couple of online realtors, one of which was Amazon-dot-com...and the rest was easy.
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Why must we repeat what has already been said, it's an internet site, you can just go read what has already been said. But alas here it is again, hamster feet smell like shimiqua's hair gel.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I recognize the quote, but I can't recall where it's from either. That's really going to bug me. Thanks Zero, apparently it's catching.
I have a feeling it's from Robin Williams. At least thats how the voice sounds in my memory. Maybe Aladdin. Oh, yeah. It is! Followed by "Watch out they spit", and then "He's got the outfit, he's got the elephant...Gonna make you a star."
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Not sure where to put this, but it's a little too offbeat for the thread on writing.
A guy has a 70-minute video tearing apart The Phantom Menace. So you fans out there may not want to watch it, plus there's some sprinkling of colorful language (including a couple of f-bombs). Though it tears apart the movie, the guy touches on aspects on writing that we all need to be aware of, and he makes some great points re: character, plot, etc.
This isn't for everyone, but if you've got a twisted sense of humor, and you didn't like The Phantom Menace, you just might enjoy this rant.
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I don't know you any of you remember Road Rovers, but I did a google search and found a Road Rovers DVD Release Petition. If any of you remember this show or even care please sign.
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rich, I think that because you've made it clear exactly what the link is for and what people will find when they follow it, it would be okay to leave it there.
What I don't appreciate is when someone posts a link that has nothing to do with writing or the purpose of this forum, and the poster of the link doesn't say what the link actually goes to (so I have to check it out--and I would rather not be exposed to some of the things that people have posted links to recently).
Your description is detailed enough that people can decide whether to follow the link without having to actually follow it.
quote:I have a feeling it's from Robin Williams. At least thats how the voice sounds in my memory. Maybe Aladdin. Oh, yeah. It is! Followed by "Watch out they spit", and then "He's got the outfit, he's got the elephant...Gonna make you a star."
Yes! Yes, that's it! Thank you! I've been wondering about it for days.
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You're very welcome, Zero. I'm always glad when all those years of watching TV and movies come in handy. ~Sheena
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posted
Some of you may remember my Saga of the Search for the Electric Flyswatter from a few days ago---if not, we're still on the same page, so scroll up.
Anyway, I ordered it from Amazon-dot-com, right after posting...and, this morning, there it was at my P. O. Box. I might've had to wait for Monday if somebody I knew hadn't been sorting out the mail right behind it.
It's not precisely the model I saw, but it will do for the purpose I intend it for. I got two of 'em, one for me and one for my brother. I haven't actually plugged it in yet---put the batteries in and turned it on, actually---but it's really the wrong time of year for flies and such. (My parents have a bee infestation at their house, but my mother usually traps the errant bees inside the house and releases them back into the wild. A flyswatter, electric or otherwise, would not work as a present.)
quote:but it will do for the purpose I intend it for. I got two of 'em, one for me and one for my brother.
These two sentences together conjure an interesting image. Or perhaps that's just me, the reader, imprinting my own relationship with my brother onto the text.
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I completed most of my Christmas shopping last Tuesday...but, believe it or not, I still am on the prowl for a few items.
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I'm mostly done, but I still need a good Rubber Ducky, I forget how hard they are to find during this season and yet I still forget to order them in time for the mail. Me and my co-author exchange rubber duckies. (Because one featured greatly in our first novel together.)
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Pyre, Borders usually has little rubber duckies either in their Paperchase (journals/datebooks) section or on the way to the line at the front. They're devil duckies and have little horns but that might be a good laugh. Otherwise I'd try a toy store, especially a biggie like Toys R Us.
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Till somebody has children, the youngest person I need to buy presents for is eighteen. At first I thought, "Thank God I don't have to go into Toys-R-Us anymore."
But they're still impossible people to shop for, all my relatives. I don't know what they're into, what they'd like, what they need, what operating systems they use for gaming, the works. (None of 'em are particularly into books---though my brother and his family both read and gave me six of the seven Harry Potter books, they're not into anything similar---so I can't shop for them at the bookstores where I shop.)
Two points: (1) I avoid giving clothes---I didn't like this as a kid, and am not to fond of it as an adult, either. And (2), being conscious of the state of the economy, last year and this, I gave up giving gift cards---I give cash.
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It's warmed up to - 13 C here, which feels great. I actually walked to work today, though that was because my car wouldn't start, not so much because of the weather.
It's Dec 21 and I still have to buy a present for my husband.
What's the latest you ever bought a Christmas present? I worked selling perfume on the 24th one year. It was an interesting experience.
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Not this year unless I see something really good, but I have bought presents on the morning of the 24th. And our current family tradition is to give them out on the evening of the 24th.
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Also...I'm reminded of the story of the woman who called the post office at eleven-thirty PM on April 15th, to ask how late the office would be open to get that "April 15th" postmark on her IRS return. When told the office would be open till midnight, she said, "Good...now where do I get those forms?"
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I have certainly been out on Christmas Eve up until the stores closed. Last year I got some balls for the neighbor kids. It wasn't until I was wrapping them on Christmas eve that I discovered one was flat and the little doohickey to inflate it was busted. I was in CVS about midnight and it's that 'seasonal' thing where someone doesn't think we Angelenos would want balls to play with in the winter even though it's warm and sunny. I think I substituted with some little football.
I can't figure out what to get my roommate. He's the last big mystery.
The project I was doing for my boss went well. I got him a pair of burnt orange Vans Chukka Lows and painted African designs on them. He collects African art and likes funky shoes and clothes so I think he'll like them.
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I made my last shopping trip this morning, my usual Tuesday rounds, which involve a Best Buy, a Books-a-Million, and a Publix supermarket. Now, except for work on Wednesday evening, I don't plan on leaving my house again until Christmas Eve itself. No more presents; my buying is complete.
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Oooh, I love wraping presents! Probably also a hold-over from that year working at the perfume counter. It was much more fun to wrap bottles than try to convince people to buy them.
My presents are already done (except a gift basket that needs some cellophane). Even the gift I bought for my husband last night.
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We're having Christmas with both my wife and my families at our place this year, so our tree is laden with quite an assortment of gifts.
What I find most amusing is that while the gifts our inlaws and us have bought are all very modestly sized (there are quite a number of books in there), my mother buys the biggest honkin' things she can lay her hands on.
And while that's okay at some level - she can be herself, after all - I just have to wonder at the sanity of some of the choices. Like we happen to know (based on the shape and a regular visit to Toys-R-Us) that one is an electric piano for one of the kids. Which would be neat, except that we already have a fullsized piano that the kids play on.
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I have been scrubbing my previously flooded basement floor for hours. Now my hands smell musty, like shimiqua's hair gel.
Posts: 3072 | Registered: Dec 2007
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We-Are-Toys was ducky free when I checked a week ago, I finally got my hands on a mad scientist one from Funfinity (Or something close to that.) One of my friends did all of his Christmas shopping on the 27th. He really cleaned up with all the after Christmas sales. (Incidentally he's the same one I'm giving the duck to.)
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I wrapped what I had in hand last week, then wrapped as I went. Not that it gives me any great joy, putting all that effort into something that'll be undone in seconds...
I used almost the last of my "distinctive wrapping paper"---I like to buy something a little odd and use it several times over. These past three years, it's a light-blue with "Let it snow!" printed in neat sequencing all over it. But now it's down to the end of the last roll.
You can never get the same wrapping paper from year to year. I'll be on the prowl through the discounted piles over the next week...but, more likely, I'll buy three or four rolls of something else next year.
(Not that I haven't had failures. Once I bought this odd stuff---I liked the pattern, but the stuff tore up when I cut it, tore up when I wrapped things in it, and tore up when the wrapped gifts were handled. Useless. I wound up buying new stuff at the last minute and rewrapping everything.)
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Once every couple of years I go to the 99 cent store and load up on gift wrap, tape, gift bags and tags. Then I use it until I run out. Sometimes birthday presents end up in Christmas wrap. This year I had plenty of leftover from last year so that made it easy.
Last night my boyfriend and I wrapped presents and this year we were smart enough to clear off the table so we'd have a good place to work. It went well and we had fun. There are still a few odds and ends left but it seems like Christmas is rolling smoothly, knock on wood.
quote:Not that it gives me any great joy, putting all that effort into something that'll be undone in seconds...
Hey! That's how I feel about preparing an elaborate meal. Or any kind of meal, come to think of it. If I can't fix it as fast as it's going to be eaten, I'm not sure I want to bother.
I've been in the mood to spell merry as marry, so I've just been going with it.
I still have a bunch of wrapping to do and I need to clean my room. (A tradition from when I was a kid, Christmas didn't come to a dirty room. Santa would come and say, "He doesn't need any more toys he's up to his ears in what he already has.")
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Sally: Dear Santa Claus. How have you been? Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year, so I have a long list of presents that I want.
Charlie Brown: Oh, brother.
Sally: Please note the size and color of each item, and send as many as possible. If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself: just send money. How about tens and twenties?
Charlie Brown: Tens and twenties? Oh, even my baby sister!
Sally: All I want is what I... I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
---A Charlie Brown Christmas
I always thought that if Santa ever got that letter, Sally would get what's coming to her.
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Hey! That's how I feel about preparing an elaborate meal. Or any kind of meal, come to think of it. If I can't fix it as fast as it's going to be eaten, I'm not sure I want to bother.
I don't know...I've got a friend who raved about a homemade piece of lasagne I gave her...most of my family expressed appreciation for the homemade spaghetti-and-sauce I put together Christmas Eve...and, when it comes down to it, I like to eat well, and, since working in the fast-food industry cured me of wanting to eat out on a regular basis, cooking it myself is the only way to go.
instead of italics, but let it stand, let it stand...
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dougsguitar
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posted
Well, down here in Texas... The weather folks called it a BLIZZARD! We had our first white Christmas in over 80 years! It was great! I must contemplate the tendancy people have around here to park as many automobiles in as many ditches as possible when the roads are covered with that pretty white powdery stuff. I guess they are so happy they decide to just spend the night out in it. The roads look like armageddon practice night. My Texas roots go back to the early 1800's on both sides, so I have the full right to call people here... wak-k-k-ko,crazy when it comes to dealing with a (GASP) blizzard. For all you folks who know what a real blizzard is, Denton got... (get ready for this) two andahalf INCHES of snow! Yes, yes, I know, I know... and I appreciate all your heart felt sympathy for our natural disaster Peace! Doug
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i hate the desert. there is too much sand, rocks, not egnough snow. cant waite till i get to colorado, my buddy offered me a job to work on his ranch, and i took up the offer.
also i found 35acers for 150,000USD in the area where my buddy lives. man i cant waite.
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If you want inspiration for physical world building, I highly recommend taking a geology class.
I've been wondering about it for days.
