Clothes to pack:

• Undies - 5 (stop packing the whole damn underwear drawer, this isn't the LOST plane)
• Socks - 5 pr. white, 1 black, 1 fuzzie
• jeans
• jean shorts
• black shorts
• green swimsuit
• white bra
• tan bra
• purple t
• teal t
• blue/lt. blue t
• Jack/Ianto t
• otter t
• anime gym shoes
• crocs
• tie-dye jammies
•  t-shirt
• plaid t-shirt
• light blue t-shirt
  

Plastic case:

• shampoo
• conditioner
• hair-ties
• brush
• razor blade
• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• teatree stuff
• brown bandana
• suns/moons bandana
• blue/green bandana
• deodorant
• nail polish remover pads
• base coat
• top coat
• purple pen nail polish
• tan nail polish
• sunscreen
• ferret mom hat

Wear on the plane: jeans/black t-shirt/Shedd sweatshirt/black gym shoes/ferret necklace/rings

Other that which must be packed:

• monopod
• Dad's eye-fi present thing
• headset for speaking software
• mom's DVDs
• extra yarn
• DVD player
• pillow speaker thing
• sunglass clip
• Mom's jelly
  

Chargers and wires:
phone charger
computer cord
ipod Charger
DVD charger

For the Game:

• Bundled answer strips
• Answer key
• calculator
• pen
• pad (set up for scoring)
• sentence strip chart
• strike cards

Camera Backpack

• XSI
• cards (in case)
• card reader
• charger for XSI battery
• TARDIS harddrive (clear off)
  
• Kodak
• extra battery
• charger
• polarized filter
• computer
• charger
• wallet
• phone
• ipod - headphones
  
• DVDs
• crochet - baby blanket/cottons
• sunglass clips
• meds pouch (kleenex)
  

Tuesday:
Pick up spiffy lot pass.
Get Dad's b'day present and media cards at Best Buy (check on monopod/remote)
Get Sudafed
Get sentence strips for game

Wednesday:
Pack
Write game strips
Charge the whole wide world (2 cameras, iPod, phone, computer, yadda)
Print:
* boarding pass
* parking pass
* game notes
* ferret quote (if updated quote is sent)
Do ferret laundry
Clear all data cards (find AWOL 2 gig)

Thursday:
Get on the freaking plane. Whoo hoo!

Z = zebras... this zebra = the end.  I more way than one. ;)

Finally through that first 'roll' of film.



( Tiger, Beaver, Vulture, Duck. )

Dreamwidth just dropped a bunch of codes on me. Give a holler if you need one (or another one... or whatever.)

Hippo-pota-mouth!

... then I can start on the shots from the Shedd.

This Meerkat sees what I did there.


( M is for Meerkat, Mongoose and... er... frogs. )

It is now:

12:34:56 7-8-09

Nifty. :)

Jaguar (misfiled under Leopard)

The eyes!  I'm so geeked about his eyes. :)  Damn bars in the way...



( L and M are for Lions, Drills and Gorillas. Go figure. )

Okay, the rapid fire on my camera rocks.  3.5 shots *per second*

So when the Kangaroo took off?  Yeah, I shot that.

"Impossible wishes become ferrets."

And the actors know how to handle the stunt!ferret.

And they have it in a properly safe carrying cage with a proper blanket. Yayz for teevee folk who do their research!

My review...

( Jack... ass... )

16 text icons based on "Children of Earth: Day One"  Obviously this means spoilers. Snag if you like.  Comments/Credit would be nice, but I'm not overly sensitive about it.   I suspect this is common sense, but please think about where you use these for a few weeks... them being 95% spoilers and all.  I mean, if you're commenting on a review post where spoilers are expected sure, but your friends (and mods) might not thank you for using them as a top post where Boe and everyone will see them. :)

( We are coming... (but not like Tom Price meant on Twitter) )

My review of "Day One" v.2.0 - Because apparently after 25 episodes, they had to start reusing episode titles.

( We. We Are. We Are Downloaded. )

Okay, can I have the next one now?  No?  How about now?

Oh my head...

More coherent responses in a minute.


Can we have the next one now? No? How about now?

Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Fay chose silver glitter instead of gold") or big (e.g. "and then Rose was arrested instead of Jack") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.


You can find my writing at either waldos_writings or smallwaldo

... only I don't think any of these were actually taken during the finale. 'Cause, you know, Waldo-alphabet. Those got filed under F and ended up in like, post 2 or 3. :p

And I think I can hear the applause from here.  Not for the photos, but, you know for this being the last post of fireworks pictures.  That said... I didn't finish the zoo shots from the other day.  And I went to the Shedd before the fireworks.

I'll try to be a little less spammy for the rest of the night, but I want to get these edited, sorted and posted while I have the time and inclination.

One of my favorite of the whole 400.  Giant Space Amoeba much?

Almost done, I promise...

Before we get back to your irregularly scheduled fireworks...

My camera is so badass it stops flying helicopters. Not perfectly or anything, but... you know, *flying* helicopter.

... if you know me.

Many purple shots...

Favorite one of this batch...
( Skyrockets in flight... afternoon delight... )

They say the cheetah is the fastest animal on Earth...


Or, possibly I'm still getting used to the long shutter times on my new camera. :)

So, I added the flash because that decreases the shutter...

Why that made it look like there were no lights in the exhibit, I haven't worked out yet.
( Cs, part one - cheetah and colobos )

The beavers live in the Children's Zoo and I can totally see why.  TRES entertaining.

Beaver torpedo!


( More beavers beaving... )

So the new camera went to the zoo.  Still have a *lot* to learn, but about... 1/5 of the shots came out decently. :p

More with The Alphabet According to Waldo.  This is Numbers through B, excluding Beavers, who get their own post, because they were being WAY cute. :)

3 Meerkats.  The guy on the left was apparently rolling in the red dirt in their exhibit.


( B stands for: Meerkats, bettongs, Mandrill and blue-headed bird )

Comcast was supposed to be at my place between 8 and 10.

At 9:30 I called to say, "No really, I need to know he's on the way because at 10:30 I *have* to leave." I get told that I'm still within the window and on the list.

10:30, I have to go and no one has shown up and no one has called to say, "Gee I'm a bit behind." Total fail.

2:00 RCN calls (while I can't take the call) and leaves a long rambling message that alternates between 'today' and 'Friday' and I *think* tells me that my appointment for Friday between 4 and 8 p.m. has been changed due to the holiday scheduling. It's now between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. so please cancel any holiday plans YOU had so you can sit around for us to MAYBE show up. Uh huh. Sure.

4:30 I get home call Comcast. They can't decide if I had an appointment or not, but they'll try to get someone out tonight. No, wait. Tomorrow. Between 1 and 4. So much for the (admittedly loose) plan I had tomorrow to go do some shooting at the zoo. (That looks bad, doesn't it?) I may or may not have threatened them with nasty things if they don't show up this time.

6:00 I'm futzing with what Sithdragn suggested - make my mobile my modem. Can't get it, can't get it, can't get it, call T-Mobile. T-Mobile dude, "Yeah, this is the sucky part. You have to get on line before you can get on line. You have to download a script."

*HEAD DESK!!!!*

So I've dragged my ass to the library again to download the script. So far, I still can't make the damn thing work. I think the nifty little illustrated instructions I got are for 10.4. I'm on 10.5. I may or may not have said 10.4 on the phone. Damn. Of course I'm in the library so I can't exactly call. Hm... trying anyway... let's see if I get kicked out.

So incredibly sick of hassling with this. Isn't a stable internet connection a basic human right at this point?

ETA: Made call for 10.5 software patch while in library. Not kicked out. Didn't even notice any dirty looks. :>

Seriously, there is not sdjfeoirgjkldfnva;gj!!! in the world for my current mood.

Yesterday:
Me: Hm... no internetz. Callz RCN.
RCN: Yes, you haz internetz fail. We can fix. In a week.
Me: Okay, that'll be me calling Comcast now.
RCN: Wait, wait! Maybe someone will cancel appointment and we can call you and come faster.
Me: You do that. Hello, Comcast?


Comcast: You can haz internetz! Come Monday morning and get modem and all will be good.
Me: Yay, internetz.


Today:
Drag arse out of bed early to be at Comcast at 9:00. Get to Comcast, get nifty Internetz in a box. Hook everything up. No internetz.
Me: Hello Comcast, there are no internetz in your box.
Comcast: Yes, internet fail. We can fix. Tomorrow morning.
Me: Less than great, but fine.

So I drag the computer around the corner to the coffee shop I hate, but has a big sign outside that says "FREE WI FI!". I order a smoothie, which takes roughly 2.6 years to actually make and sit down. Only... Wifi fail.

Me: There are no internetz here.
Coffeeshop guy: Oh yeah, I noticed that before. AT&T are supposed to be getting back to me on that.
Me: Argh. Also, this smoothie sucks. Who puts whip cream on an ice based smoothie? Fail.

So I drag myself back to my place and get in the car. Screw it. Library time. Drive to the library that is roughly 2 miles west and a few blocks north of me.

And I get this:



I am now at,"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME????!!!???!!!" levels of pissed.

But now I am at even-more-out-of-the-way library. Seriously. 3 levels of fail just to get online? This is insane.

So if anyone's looking for Waldo, tell them to keep looking. :p

And I have stuff to do tonight and I have an important place to be tomorrow (which I need to get the pertenents off the web page for) and just... internet FAILZ SO HARD!!!

I got +13 at the NCIS_LFWS's most recent round. No negative votes. *If* I've done the math right, I was the only person who voted who didn't vote for my story (and I'm not allowed to vote for myself), which means everyone voted me either first or second favorite.

Thank you to anyone who sees this who voted. I appreciate it. :)

So geeked! :)

Now to spam the world with the story. :)

The other G's - Gorillas.

( Gorillas go below the cut )

G's part 1.  The G's in this folder got a little out of control. Mostly because I got a few fun ones of a couple different animals. (Like 4 Gibbon pictures).


Speaking of Gibbon.  Check out how long that arm is!  That cracks me up!  (Lincoln Park Zoo)

Found another folder of photos I've been meaning to post.

Beaver.  So cute.  Look at his little paws! (Lincoln Park Zoo)

Dude, I'm having one of those nights...

News caster:  [Locally well known car sales dude] is accusing an area plastic surgeon of stealing his wife's heart.
Me:  Dude!  There's organ harvesters in Illinois???  (I'm sure there are, but...) And a plastic surgeon is in on it?  Did she die during botox and he figured he'd cash in... oh.  Romantically.  She's now dating doctor dude and leaving car dude.  That's different.


More photos...

Clown Fish (Shedd Aquarium)

But first... a quandry.

This weekend is Gay Pride.  My first year in Uptown I went by myself and had a pretty decent time.  The next year I went with Highlife and got truly pissed because more than once someone said something like, "Be careful or they'll think you're one of them."  Last year I said 'screw it' and didn't go.

I want to go this year, but I want to go WITH people I can have fun with while I'm there.  Anyone in the area interested?  Anyone from 'close enough but not that close' can certainly crash on my futon.

Anyway... photos.  I just dumped a gig worth of stuff off my camera.  I've been like a bazillion places between camera dumps and, in my infinite wisdom, I didn't sort the photos by event - I sorted them alphabetically.  (Brilliant, eh?)  So as I get things cropped and adjusted I'll be dumping them here.  Alphabetically.

This post?  A and B.

So what's with the Jellyfish, the Pigletts and the Frogs?  They got filed under "Big jellyfish," "Baby pigs" and "Blue and yellow frogs."  Go figure.

So we start with... Anemone (Shedd Aquarium)  If I recall correctly this one is called a Strawberry Anemone.

So... I'm thinking it's time to get a 'real' camera.

An SLR where I can change the lenses and... whatever. Only, I know next to nothing. So, those of you who know something about something... what do I need to think about, know about?

I'd like to stay around ... $600 if I can. If I can't, let me know what I really should be bracing myself for and why.

P.S. Apparently I was being unclear... I mean a digital SLR. I am *so* over film. :) Sorry Kodachrome.

So I'm one of those folks who believes in a certain amount of natural selection. If you can't figure out that the hot coffee you ordered is hot, you kind of deserve what you get when you burn your tongue. I think it's silly that they have to put "THIS HOT DRINK IS, you know, HOT" on the cup.

So there's a nut commercial where this chick is her therapists office and she says, "I think I want to burn this place down."

And the therapist isn't paying attention and says, "That sounds like real progress.

Place goes up in flames. Go figure.

So the standard disclaimer on the bottom of the commercial?

Do not commit arson. Not even once.

Yay for people who know they have to have stupid disclaimers because stupid people are stupid, but are willing to basically say, "Yeah, we have to make this stupid announcement, so we're having a bit of fun with it."

Underwear aren't political, are they?

You have to wear underwear in Florida.

Because "the observable lack of undergarments and exposed undergarments" are unacceptable attire.

So apparently if we can't see them you're in trouble, but if we can see them... you're in trouble...

Interesting... right on the heels of "but I don't have the full picture" post, is this article saying, basically, "Do any of us have the full picture?"

Finally, something I feel comfortable linking to.

Took Gaia to the Green City Market. Ferrets can go: on a CTA bus, to the Green City Market.

I think roughly 1/4 of the people who noticed us said, "Oh my god, WHAT is that?" Now, I know not everyone is a huge ferret *fan*, but I would have expected more people to *recognize* one.

Lots of little kids wanted to come up and pet her. One set of kids - about 4 and 5 years old - were adorable. Mom was packing up their flower stand about the time Gaia finally had had enough of being carry-ferret and decided that the grass wasn't the worst thing ever.

So these kids came running up. "Wow! Look at that little dog! It's so tiny!" I must have had to correct them about five times. "She's not a dog at all. She's a ferret. It's a different animal." I'm still not sure they quite got it.

By and large, Gaia is still of the, "OMG! Not the *grass*, mom. I mean, really, GRASS? Do you know what's down there? It's *wet* and there's *grass* and *dirt* and that's just not *natural*, mom" sort of ferret. But eventually needing to potty and wiggle over-rode the OMG!Grassness of it all and she got a good walk in. She kept wanting to go under tables because there were no walls to walk against.

But she got much attention and seemed to have fun with it all.

Chat, if you're interested in a Farmer's Market, we could go on Saturday (to this one or one of *many* others in the city). We can take her and/or Magick. Thunderbutt is not so much the social ferret any more (if he ever really was) so I think he'll stay home.

So it's "Strawberry Fest" day at the Market - basically everyone and their dog was selling strawberries. I was totally sold at this one stand where this *amazing* little seven-year-old was the sales girl. She very, very confidently told me about the two varieties of strawberries they had and how this one has more flavor, but this one has more sugar, so which one you want depends on what you're doing with them. So I grab a crate and she says, "Here try them first." So, okay, I try one. And then she pretty much insists that I try the other ones too, to be sure I get the ones I like best. So I get the ones I want and I grab some cider and she wraps everything up for me so I don't get my backpack all messy, counts out the bills I give her... all very businesslady like. And then she notices I have a fuzzy thing in a carrier and became a total seven-year-old girl. It was hysterical!


ETA: Oh, and then on the bus on the way home, I put Gaia's carrier on the seat next to me while I futzed with my iPod... and she broke out. That was a few seconds of 'very entertaining'!

How do you not slash this picture?

I mean, seriously. Also? Running the ad with the bit that says, "How are you going to play this?" "You'll come rescue me."

Oh yeah, all I have is the not-exactly-a-pilot and some stills, but I'm so gonna slash this show hard.

So there was an effin' huge hail storm somewhere in the US today. They showed it on the national news. And there was guy from the Fire Department helping to move a stuck car. I missed the name of the town, but for arguement's sake it was something like William Township.

So the back of the guy's shirt?

WTFD

Yes, my internetz-soaked brane has decided he's from the What The Fuck Department.

• Food  I ordered in sucks.  "Medium Well" hamburger is very Josh-Lymonesque in it's hockey puckness.  Fries are cold and chewy.  Apparently they got the message to change the cheese, but the first half of that message that said "no onions" did not compute.
• Very weird mop ad has me grossed out.  Ad suggest that if you spill a can of soda on the floor you should use this mop to clean it up and then wring it out into a glass.  And drink it.  Ew much???  I don't give a damn how 'tough times are', I'm not drinking that.
• Cough is still torturing me.  I do know that this is a part of me getting *any* kind of virus and that it will torture me for about three weeks, but my back and chest muscles are killing me and I'd like it to be OVER now, thanks.
• Still not completely sure which pictures I should send in for jury.  The bicycle one is good, but there's one little thing on the cropping that bugs me.  But if not that one, then which one?
  

On the good news side, tomorrow is my first real day of vacation. Ah...

I'm getting ready to send in my 'portfolio' to iStock - 3 photos they use to evaluate whether or not you've got the 'right stuff'.

I've narrowed it down to... um... 12.  Which is where you come in.  Under the cut are all 12 photos.  They're full size, since that's how I have to submit them, so it's going to take a minute to load.  After that is a poll... which 3 do you think I should send in. PLEASE narrow it down to 3.  When I look at them I either think I want to send them all ... or they're all crap.  But I need exactly 3

If you know stuff about stuff, PLEASE feel free to leave comments about what works for you and what doesn't.  (Yes, sithdragn I'm looking at you. :)

I love the visual of calling someone a slut in sign language. I'm not sure I can describe it adequately, but if you sign, it's the one with the dominant two-hand rotating on the open 5 hand.  You know the one. ;)