web-goddess

Wow! I was just checking my backlinks and discovered that my site was linked in USA Today‘s “Hip Clicks” column last year. They pointed to my review of the Goonies DVD. How cool is that?

Friday Five:
Man, my answers are depressing this week.

1. Would you say that you’re good at keeping in touch with people?
No. I suck at it. You’d think living so far away I’d have learned the importance, but sadly no. I talk to my immediate family pretty regularly, but as for my friends, I’m the worst pen pal in the world. I don’t talk to anybody from high school on a regular basis, and there are only a few college buddies that I keep up with. It’s just hard.

2. Which communication method do you usually prefer/use: e-mail, telephone, snail mail, blog comments, or meeting in person? Why?
Phone with the fam, because I miss hearing their voices. With everybody else, internet communication is the method of choice. (Of course, I’d go for “in person” if I could, but at $1600 a plane ticket, that’s an expensive option.)

3. Do you have an instant messenger program? How many? Why/why not? How often do you use it?
Yep. I started out on Yahoo Messenger many years ago but quickly switched to AIM when I figured out that’s where most of my friends were. Now thanks to iChat and our ADSL connection, I’m logged in 24 hours a day. The time difference to the States makes it difficult, but I occasionally catch folks on there.

4. Do most of your close friends live nearby or far away?
Do I need to answer this? Far, far away.

5. Are you an “out of sight, out of mind” person, or do you believe that “distance makes the heart grow fonder”?
A little bit of both. When you live this far from everybody, you necessarily have to try to put them out of mind or you’d just be homesick all the time. I still get my moments, though, when I realize how much I’ve missed out on and how much I miss certain people.

It’s country music time here in our office. We’ve just been listening to some Johnny Cash and Charlie Daniels Band. The Snook and I were both reflecting on the genius that is “Devil Went Down to Georgia” when I wondered if anyone’s ever done a dance remix of it. A little googling turned up quite a list of covers. We have to get some of these.

• “Devil Went Down to Brixton”
• “Devil Went Down to Scunthorpe” (the punk version)
• “Devil Went to Jamaica” (the weed version)
• “Devil Came Up to Michigan” (the rap version)
• “Cuando El Diablo bajo’ a” (the Spanish version)
• “Cletus Went Down to Florida” (the redneck version)

The Snook is hunting for these online as we speak. We’re envisioning an entire album of covers of this song. 🙂

My (other) little brother turns one today. Here’s the blogged birth announcement from last year. Isn’t he funny? Such a cutie. My sister took that first one, and it’s one of my favorites. She’s also the dork that bought him the cowboy hat. 🙂

Yum. Kris wine. I’m a winemaker. Betcha didn’t know that? (The other Kris broke the secret.)

And just like that, my lifelong dream of marrying Prince William is gone. *shudder*

Antarctic ozone hole is closing. Hooray! The sun down here in Oz can be pretty powerful. At least if I’m still around in fifty years, I won’t have to worry about it so much! 🙂

It’s been a head-down-busy kind of day, and I expect tomorrow will be the same. Bloggage will resume soon.

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.”
Wine class was really great tonight. Our topic was fortified wines (port, sherry, etc.) which I wasn’t really looking forward to, but I learned a lot and got to try a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have otherwise… including amontillado! I also tried some vintage port that was older than I am (27 years old!). I think the tawny port was my favorite. There were these jerks in the corner who talked all the way through the class though. I’m like, what kind of asshole pays $250 for a class and then doesn’t pay attention? And I’m the youngest person in there! I thought grown-ups would behave better.

New Jersey has become the first state in the U.S. to regulate G-Forces on roller coasters. Of course, the law is just pointless election-year pandering, given that it would set the limit at 5.6 G’s and no ride in the country even tops 5.0. Even Cedar Point’s Millennium Force – the tallest, steepest, fastest coaster in North America – is well within those limits. I love roller coasters and the bigger issue to me is the relative smoothness of the ride. We rode the Millennium last year and I thought it was great. No problems whatsoever. The wooden ones though… They shake and rattle me so much I have neck pain afterwards. I’ll take more G’s and a smoother ride any day.