Thursday, March 28, 2013

Vacation is so close...

...and this makes me very happy. Even though I am taking three 12 year old's to the beach, I shall not be at work and that is truly a good thing.

I only need to skate through tomorrow and then a full week off lays ahead. I hope you all have a great Friday and I will ramble at you on Saturday.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

One a Penny, Two a Penny...

European readers - clocks go forward this weekend.

Also this weekend - for the western Christian traditions - Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday - for those of our readers who celebrate now, Happy Easter.

And it's Hot Cross Bun time!! Lightly toasted, nothing on them, yum!! Hot Cross Buns, Hot Cross Buns, One a Penny, Two a Penny, Hot Cross Buns

Now if the weather would just improve a bit... (that wind is bitter!!).

Have a good Easter/weekend. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you.

Ze

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Why??

First - for our Jewish readers - Good Passover to you. For our Hindu readers a joyous Holi to you. For our Zoroastrian readers (of the Fasli tradition) a blessed Khordad Sal.

................................................

And now - the post title - why?? Why do people plagiarise?? Why steal somebody else's writing and pretend it's yours?? What possible satisfaction can you get from it?? If you get dozens of compliments telling you it's a great story, and you're a great writer, how can it possibly make you happy?? Or make you feel proud?? Or give you any feelings of satisfaction??

Because it isn't you they're praising. Those are not your compliments. They're praising the real writer of the story.

So why do it??

More puzzling - why do it twice?? With the same story. After you've already been caught once. It isn't just cheating - it's stealing. You're not a writer. You're a thief. A dirty little, low-down, cowardly thief. And you know who you are.

And you're an idiot. You steal a story. One written by a BNF - one of the biggest BNFs in that fandom. An original story. A really recognisable story. And you didn't change a word of it. Just the names. Did you think you wouldn't get caught?? And then when you got caught and the story (and account) were deleted, you're doubly stupid enough to post it again under a different name!!

And just to prove you're triply stupid you've used a story that has been published as a book. And which has sold a great many copies. Did you want to destroy the site you posted your story on?? Do you have any idea what a publishing company can do to a website that plagiarises a published book?? FanFiction.net might host millions of stories but a determined lawyer can still pull the plug on it overnight for things like that. And tens of thousands of people who post there will lose everything.

You've proved yourself to be monumentally stupid - don't demonstrate that you're a selfish and self-centred little prat as well. Don't steal. Write your own story.

I really don't get it. How can anybody feel pleasure when they know they've stolen another's work, how can they enjoy the praise when they know it's not theirs?? It baffles me.

Ze

Monday, March 25, 2013

Mediocre Monday

Not much for you tonight. Have at it!

Tamara

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday Wrap

We did make it today to the Great Oz movie. Tamara liked it. The rest of us could have skipped it. The week ahead will be slow. All the kids leave us tomorrow meaning the house will once again become very quiet. For me vacation is close at hand. I have this week and then my daughter's spring break arrives. With two of her friends we will head to the ocean for some rest and relaxation. I will get through the upcoming week with that knowledge.

Hope you all enjoy your updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Married Life not too different from Domestic Partnered Life....

E and little e are off at Ultimate Frisbee. Cal has a friend over so I elected to stay home. Didn't want unsupervised fifth graders breaking something (or themselves).

Our day has been quiet. We took the kids to a two hour self-defense class put on by a local Kung Fu dojo. It was a fund raiser and the kids had fun. Hopefully the money raised put them closer to their goal. It was a great idea for a way to raise money.

Tomorrow we may go see Oz the Great and Powerful. We didn't expect any wedding gifts but our wedding witnesses gave us a bunch of Regal Cinemas gift cards. Very cool and something all of us will enjoy.

Enjoy those update and your weekend.

Tamara

Friday, March 22, 2013

Weekend is here!

One more thank you to all you well wishers for Tamara and I. The week at work has felt very long and I am looking forward to sleeping in a bit tomorrow. Full weekend of kid events but no work so all will be splendid.

Enjoy your updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Hype & Finally Legal

A wee bit of hype tonight from Allaine and I quote, "No guests tonight. A major announcement will be made concerning 2013 and the future of F4F Radio." Tune in to tonight's show: www.blogtalkradio.com/allaine/2013/03/22/to-be-announced-literally to find out what it is.

As you know, E and I took that extra step and got an honest-to-god marriage certificate on Tuesday. Our domestic partnership was slated to turn into us being married under the law of Washington state in June of 2014 I believe. We decided it was important to take the time and do the deed for real before then. It was also important to show the kids that we're fully committed to one another and consider all of us a real family.

I was amazed at how much more real it becomes to folks when you say you're married.. The domestic partner term just doesn't pack the same punch.

I'd also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who sent us congratulations emails. I know we both considered ourselves in this for the long haul. I must admit it's nice to have a legal way to show it. Thank you, votes of Washington.

Tamara

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

My (Peanut Butter) Cup Runneth Over

First day of spring - and guess what - yep, it rained. Again.

Went to the pictures this evening. Saw Side Effects. It had excellent reviews, can't understand why. The reviews said it was "fresh" and "unexpected" - I found it slow, boring and totally predictable. Nothing unexpected about it. And the plot was about as fresh as last week's bread. Waste of twenty quid.

Though my cousin did find one good thing about the evening. She wandered over to the Ben & Jerry's counter to get an ice-cream for herself while I bought some popcorn (salted). They had a brand-new flavour. I thought she was going to pass out from excitement. The flavour was called Peanut Butter Cup. And yep - that's exactly what it was, Reese's Peanut Butter Cup flavour ice-cream. She loves those things. She wasn't impressed by much of the US American chocolate she tried when we were there a while back. In fact she said most of it was horrible. But she absolutely adored Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. They were not available over here, much to her disappointment. (They are now). I hope they continue with that flavour because I think it's the only one she'll be buying on visits to the cinema from now on.

See you next week. Goodnight and may your God/s go with you

Ze

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

How Much Wood Would a Woodpecker Peck.

First - Congratulations to Elisa & Tamara on their marriage. Brill. Pleased for you. Have a great day. There had better be photos!!

Next - tomorrow is the Equinox so we wish a Good Ostara (in the north) or Mabon (in the south) to our Pagan and Wiccan readers.

Saw a Lesser-Spotted Woodpecker near work today. Petty chuffed about that because it's the rarest of our three native woodpeckers. It was high up in a conifer, carving out a nest hole. How they don't get whiplash from all that hammering... Incredible. The hole was a perfect circle. I couldn't have done half as good a job of it with the finest chisels you could buy. Hell, I couldn't even have made such a perfect circle with a hole saw. Amazing stuff. I felt privileged to have seen it.

My contract comes to an end soon. On Maundy Thursday to be precise. So I won't be working here after that for a while. I do have a new contract starting up on the Tuesday after Easter, so I won't be out of work. It's for the same end-company but on a different site, on the other side of the river. I broke the bad news to little Barbara yesterday, that she won't be able to join us over the Easter break. I did promise that I would keep in touch, and that I would see if the new site manager would let her join us in the summer - if her mother is prepared to travel that far. (It means 2 buses and an hour's travel from her home.) If they will agree to it then I'll find some painting she can do. If not, well I'll be back at this site in October with a new contract, and they've promised that she can help out during the autumn half-term break. She cheered up a bit at that.

Not a lot for you tonight, I'm afraid.

Ze

Monday, March 18, 2013

Monday Evening

The work week has begun. One day down and a few more to go. Tamara and the boys were off today, but I'm not sure going to the dentist and cleaning inside the van can be called fun.

Tomorrow Tamara and I officially tie the knot. We have an afternoon appointment at the court house and with the kids in tow and two witnesses we will officially become married. Thank you, voters of Washington.

I always knew that someday it would be legal, but I never truly believed it would be in my lifetime. So I get lucky and Tamara will be stuck with me. Towards the end of April during her spring break we will take a short trip to Portland to enjoy some alone time together. Until then we continue on the usual paths.

Enjoy those updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Yes, I'm wearing green today.

It's Saint Patrick's Day here in the US...honestly a holiday I mostly ignore. However, I'm just superstitious enough that I did make sure I wore green today.

Our Sunday was like any other. Grocery store and puttering. Tomorrow the kids and I have the day off. We'll be heading to the dentist and cleaning out my van. Fun for me but not so much for the kids I'm thinking.

Tamara

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Full Day

I do love weekends like this one. We slept in then got up and went to my daughter's Ultimate Frisbee game. We came home, had a late lunch/early dinner and started a nice warm fire. Now we have just been lazily enjoying each other and the evening. Tomorrow we will do some basics and then the boys will return and we'll start another work week.

Enjoy your updates.

Peace, Health and Happiness.

Elisa

Friday, March 15, 2013

Hype!

Words from Rev tonight!
Hey Uber Etc'ers! It's Rev from Cocktail Hour. I wanted to share with you some stuff that we've got going on and what we've been doing.

If it's been awhile since you've stopped by to listen to the podcast, you'll have missed a couple of new venues: Flicks and Swizzle Sticks and Last Call with Colette Moody. Flicks is a show that features films with a theme. Host Nikki Smalls and at least one guest host share their thoughts while, in the tradition of Cocktail Hour, enjoying a tasty beverage.

Last Call with Colette Moody is a special space for Colette to, well, be Colette. You never know what she's going to do. And we like it that way.

We've also had a series focusing on health and wellness featuring author and super fit sweetheart Bev Prescott. Just Wednesday night we posted a new show focusing on how to keep your motivation going.

Right now, the thing that I'm most excited about is the Best of 2012 Awards. We've broken the shows down into three categories and are asking for the listeners to pick their favorite in each. Two voters will win a Cocktail Hour t-shirt of their choice and make the guests and hosts of the winning episodes very, very happy. You can see the eligible podcasts, and cast your votes, by following this link: cocktailhour.us/archives/428.

Thanks to the wonderful Grunts at Uber Etc for all they do to keep our community informed! And thanks to all listeners of Cocktail Hour for making it possible for us to keep having so much fun.

Rev

You heard Rev, go vote!

Tamara