Or even every other day. That’s not to say nothing’s been going on, though. I’ve just been working on other things, like, well…finding a job, which by the way, is not going so well. But more on that later.

Taking my cue from old friend dotk over yonder on the East Coast, I’m gonna hit ya’ll up with a mega-update post. True dat, yo.

The job search. Oh, the job search. Hopefully something turns up in about nine weeks or so, because I don’t know how unemployment extensions work. I’m still looking, every day and have even given up the job site emails in favor of that crazy new-fangled RSS. I’ve gone pretty ape-shit over RSS, but that’s not for this part of the mega-update. A friend of mine from the bookclub I belong to gave me a tip about an employment agency a couple weeks ago and yesterday I had an appointment. The online testing I had to complete prior to the appointment kind of pissed me off: for the Word and Excel portions of the testing, I was unable to use keyboard shortcuts that I know work because I’ve been using them for fifteen years. Oh, that made me so mad that for those questions, I didn’t even fuck around with going through the menus. I just skipped them altogether. My emm was a bit concerned about it, but I told her my scores would be high enough for it to be apparent I knew what I was doing. I was given my results yesterday and am pleased with them overall, although I know both would have been closer to 100% had those goddamn shortcuts worked the way they’ve always worked in the past. I might be all about open source, but come on! I cut my teeth on Microsoft products. The typing test results shocked me so badly that I asked the woman with whom I was meeting if she was certain that was accurate. I do not type 62 WPM and I never have. I think maybe 50 WPM was my previous high score. The best part about the testing was this: although the testing website said a Mac could be used, upon scrolling down a bit further, I was informed the test was only available on Windows machines. Wha…? Whatever. I had to go to 101 and use the emm’s laptop!

This isn’t a well-publicized bit of intel, but I am getting ready to go out of town in a couple of days for a week. Star Tattoo Girl turns three today and since the emm and I were not able to attend last weekend’s birthday party, we thought visiting afterwards would be grand. I talked to Birthday Star just a little while ago and she is very excited about seeing Grammy and Auntie Mickey, but who’s more excited out of the lot of us, I’m not sure. It’s probably a tie. I still remember so clearly three years ago when the sister called the factory to tell me about the baby (no one knew what Smudge would be prior to birth), the (wo) answered the phone before I’d even had a chance to process it had rung and from around the corner, called to the brand new Auntie Mickey to talk to the sister. Those types of things I miss about the (wo). I’ve been giving a lot of thought to sending her an email, and from what Betty told me, the (wo)’s been thinking the same thing, but just doesn’t know what to say. Neither do I, naturally, even almost three months later, so perhaps it’s just better if I let it go and walk away totally.

The second part to Sarah Jane Smith - Fashionista Fever! has been written and posted here, but is waiting in the wings for some final edits to come from Wes at scary-crayon. This installment is much more image intensive than the first and although the opportunities to totally dis Sarah Jane regarding her clothing were not as numerous this time around, I managed to write about a thousand more words, give or take. It’s still snarky, though; I wrote to a friend of mine in New York and told her about it, saying, “…for all its snarkiness, I hope a sense of my absolute adoration of (Sarah Jane) comes through, too.” And I’ve utilized Lightbox this time around, since I really like the way it looks on other websites

More news on the Doctor Who front: I have officially bought my first Doctor Who toy - Dalek Sec! I don’t count the sonic screwdriver as a toy, per se, since not only can I scare the straights when I press the buttons and it makes noise, but I can also write notes to the straights and leave them on their car windows. In regular ink or invisible ink! I really hope he arrives before I leave so I can play with him on the airplane. If there were any air marshalls to be found on my upcoming flight, what are the chances they may be fans of Doctor Who and wouldn’t taser me into submission if I started saying, “EXTERMINATE! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR BEINGS!” in my very best Dalek voice?

And even more news, via a few different sources: The Brigadier will be appearing on The Sarah Jane Adventures next season. YES! I can’t even express how excited I was to read this and am now waiting even more impatiently than before for the new episodes.

I’m not sure when it happened or why, but I totally heart the Brigadier. And I fer realz heart Harry even more.

Around the villa, there’s not too much to report at all. The toy box project I was so stoked about a few months ago has pretty much stalled for the time being. Right now, it’s acting as my dining room table/workbench/desk away from the TARDIScloset and because it’s in such sorry shape, I don’t feel badly when I nick it with a box cutter or my water glass drips on it. I suspect that will all change once I get it gussied up, so I’m really pulling back on that right now. I made a lightbox this morning just because. It’s certainly nothing fancy and I still need background paper for it, but all in all, it came out quite well. I’m very happy with it and as soon as I get Dalek Sec, I’m going to give it a try.

strange cousin susan continues to be tweaked; I updated to Wordpress 2.6 just this afternoon, after backing up the files and the databases with a handy little plugin I found, since the directions found here about database back up might have been written in Greek for all I was able to understand until the plugin saved my bacon, so to speak. I’ve added an RSS feed and found a random image generator so I can showcase the collection of lady pictures my friend Anneke gives me trouble about. I’ve also finally gotten a PGP key, although it was generated from GPG, since that’s free and from what I can tell, the same thing. Searching for my public key on a few different key servers turned up some old keys I’d forgotten about, not to mention a couple on Mysterious Stevenson. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost eleven years since then.

I’ve realized how painfully long this post has become, so I’m going to hold off on the recent trials and tribulations with various open source programs, not to mention the overall love affair I’m still carrying on with it, despite those disappointments.

Click on the picture - it works!

There have been other things filling my days and sometimes even my early morning hours. No longer am I waking up at 1:30am or 2am like I was for a while. Now there are nights I’m just going to bed at 1:30am or 2am. That hasn’t happened too often, but in the last week or so, I’ve definitely noticed a change in the hours I keep at the end of the day; mornings are still early, but not ass-crack-of-dawn early, though. A nice change, after all the years of getting up early for work and then in the last few months at the factory, getting up even earlier for work.

Sarah Jane mp3s are being uploaded pretty regularly; I’ve got only two more serials left to re-watch as back-end work for Fashionista Fever!, so I suspect this will slow down by week’s end. But, then there’s always the last two episodes of Doctor Who with which to work, not to mention season one of TSJA…

Entirely too much time is being spent creating images for lol capshunz, but I’m having entirely too much fun with it. I’ll eventually need to incorporate more than just Doctor Who capshunz, but due to the insane number of screen caps I’ve got scattered amongst two laptops, that might not happen for a while.

Fashionista Fever! has taken on a life of its own and is now a multi-part project; “A Clotheshorse is Born” has been uploaded and will cross-post on scary-crayon tomorrow. I had no idea I’d have such a blast writing it, but as I said to Wes in a recent email, “It’s been really quite fun, the obvious joy of rewatching all the S! J! S! serials again notwithstanding. Writing again has been good for me, makes me use the brain I feel sometimes atrophying.” Thank goodness, since there are at least three more installments for sure, with the possibility of at least one additional critique of non-serial specific observations - what some may call total over-analysis - but we’ll see.

In order to make these projects (and any others) more accessible, I’ve included direct links to each one’s page in the left-hand sidebar. Handy!

Lest anyone think I’ve been working on these outside projects and watching movie after movie (I’ve pretty much abandoned TARDISvision because everything I’ve watched recently has been a repeat - or a three-peat - until last night, actually) exclusively and conveniently forgetting I’ve now been unemployed for two months to the day, believe me, I haven’t. There’s a pretty rigid schedule I’ve instituted and have been very successful in adhering to it Monday through Friday. Afternoon naps are pretty much a thing of the past, although I will admit dozing off yesterday after lunch while trying to watch “How Awful About Allan.” To be honest, saying I tried watching it isn’t exactly right: I dozed off during the beginning credits. There was something about combining the talents of Aaron Spelling, Anthony Perkins, Julie Harris, and Joan Hackett into a made-for-television vehicle that signaled snoozeville.

Speaking about TARDISvision, I need to post an update. Yes, it’s true. I finally watched a current episode. With the tenth Doctor. And companion Donna Noble. Just as this season is coming to an end. Since this is the first show I’ve actually watched this season most of the references to previous current episodes went right over my head as I watched. But reading the wiki article refreshed my memory on a few others. I was going to bitch about the causal nexus/”Logopolis” reference (thank you, wikipedia!) just now, but then realized how sickly ironic that would be, since there was a certain reference to a certain companion working for a certain magazine that totally didn’t go over my head.

The only other two episodes I’ve seen from this season were “Poison Sky” and “The Sontaran Stratagem,” and I was sick as a dog for both; thus I don’t count them at all. Perfect, since I’ll have almost a full season to get me through the upcoming drought.

All business at the beginning, all play at the end!

Let me get the business out the way:

Yesterday I had my first interview in four years. The woman with whom I met was quite personable and I liked her a great deal, but when she learned my salary requirements and I learned her salary budget, friendly smiles were exchanged and we wished each other luck in our respective searches and I was on my way home.

Today I have another interview, again in Irvine, but on the other side. Well, I think it is. When the emm and I took a spin there last night, we got all fa-kyed. Add to that my general and alarming ability to get turned around at the drop of a hat. Or an unexpected the turn of a steering wheel. So, I’ll don The All Black Interview Outfit again today, cursing the near 100 degree weather, very much like I did yesterday.

I’m hoping next week turns up some better possibilities because this week was devoid of them.

Thus endeth the business of this mullet post.

While I’m on the subject of mullets and therefore being distracted, please let me draw your attention to one Billy Ray Cyrus…

Then…and now. Obviously, the hair cut has changed, but definitely not for the better. What the fuck goes through this dude’s head? Yeah, we all the know the mullet is just frickin’ bad, but who told Billy Ray his current look is a good one?

If I may continue on this tangent, please allow me to submit today’s Billy Ray and the elusive Jordan Catalano from My So-Called Life (ca 1994):

Okay, so the hairstyles might not fall into the separated at birth category, but there are strikingly unsettling similarities here. The most troubling is the fact both of these men think/thought this was a good look and no one told them to get their eyes examined. Some friends these two have, hunh?

Getting back on track to the play at the end of Friday’s Mullet Post…

After writing three pages of Fashionista Fever!, I’ve come to the conclusion there’s far too much to have the article be a one-off type thing. I haven’t even scratched the surface yet, so I’ve decided to make it an on-going series. I think there might be enough material for three parts, maybe four, which should keep me busy. While IM’ing with Wes about it last night, I came to the conclusion if it were multi-part, it would give me a better chance to really focus. My emm’s read the first draft of Part One and found it very entertaining and even laughed at one point.

Continuing with my recent infatuation with, and Johnny-come-lately appreciation of LOL, I’ve put up a new picture here. It’s totally non-Doctor Who-related…please, I know it’s hard to believe, even with just the one I’ve done.

So, when I haven’t been writing and LOL-ifying and getting screen caps, I’ve been tweaking the blog: moving, removing, and adding. At least I’m not changing the theme; I really like the five-column layout a lot. A lot-a lot.

I’ve also been downloading a mess of open-source programs and subsequently adding them to my dock. Oh, that poor dock. I used to pride myself on the austere look it had. But that austere look has disappeared, to be replaced by this:

This page pointed me to all the new apps, all of which I like quite a bit. I only know one other Mac person, so I doubt the link above will be of any interest to anyone but her.

And thus endeth the play of this mullet post.

…or how I’ve managed to procrastinate all flippin’ day and now find there’s more behind-the-scenes work to be done before I can get this article off the ground? With the tele-top misbehaving over the past couple days, I’m loathe to even attempt this back-end work on it. That leaves me the trusty Mac, which I can’t use at the moment because I’m working on something else that’s hogging my only disk drive.

You might be interested to know exactly how I’ve dragged my feet and fucked around since about half past six this morning; really, it’s not even fucking around-well, some of it isn’t. I mean, paying bills and balancing bank accounts and grocery shopping shouldn’t be seen as such. Neither should doing laundry and the dishes, nor eating lunch.

But perhaps some other stuff falls into the feet-dragging category: working on new pages at strange cousin susan, but only after creating them once and deleting them purposely; uploading sound files for one of the new pages here; trying to figure out why HandBrake wasn’t doing what it said it would do; Twittering; getting lost at Flickr, wikipedia, and boingboing; reading Azumanga Daioh; organizing files on the computer, even though it wasn’t really a pressing need; tweaking Adium’s appearance ad nauseum; looking for new system icons; and watching two parts of a Doctor Who serial having absolutely nothing to do with my article. At all. Oh, and let me not forget this: plucking my eyebrows. Yes, that absolutely had. to. be. done. today.

Thank God I didn’t paint the toy box. It was far too warm and might have taken away precious time from fine-tuning Adium. Again.

In trying to consolidate the pages I’ve got here, I’ve moved femmelectric and celluloid-a-go-go to Strange Cousin Susan;specific categories have been created and the original pages have been deleted. My initial idea was to include that monster list of movies and television shows I’ve watched in this post, but I think I’ll bury it somewhere back in February, just so it doesn’t take up the entire front page here.

In a nutshell, celluloid-a-go-go will simply be a category where I’ll post recent screenings, with or without any attendant information and pictures.

the category called femmelectric is simply a repository of pictures and blurbs about women who catch my eye for whatever reason. Most entries will focus on studio system actresses, as well as silent movie actresses, as well, but really, any X chromosome is up for inclusion.

Now back to Strange Cousin Susan’s regularly scheduled ramblings and such.

Whaddaya mean, you’ve changed the template again?

And do Daleks dream of pink striped socks? And camouflage pants with tie-ties at the ankles?

Or is that just me?

I finally received my DSL install disk two days ago…it took three days to get from Winnetka to me. I had hoped it would appear the next day and then the next day…but not until the next next next day did I see it. And just as well, since I’ve really had neither the energy nor the desire to start pimpin’ out my computer again. When I woke up at three this morning, I contemplated the following scenarios:

1. Stay in bed until four.
2. Get up and start the pimping, then start getting ready for work.
3. Get up and get ready for work, then start the pimiping.

I opted for the last scenario and am happy to report I’ve got access back into the digital world. Nothing else yet, except NeoOffice, which I downloaded at work one day last week, since it was much more important to be able to access my check register than anything.

Have I done that yet, since it was so flippin’ important?

Of course not. I only managed to get the software installed yesterday morning, multi-tasking as I brushed my teeth. And now I’m off to check one of my Gmail accounts, since it’s not forwarded to my main email account and therefore, has not been checked since…well, for quite a few days.

I’ve got so much to blog about - hell, I had a lot before the computer rebelled against its mistress’s assinine actions. Let me get the machine pimped out before I start in on that, eh?

Ah well. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that rot. I’d been planning for over a week to get some photos of the recent lunar eclipse and wouldn’t it figure? The skies were cloudy and overcast all flippin’ day and into the evening and so my grand plans were shot to the ground, very much like that satellite gone bad. The next lunar eclipse is said to occur in 2012, so I’ve got to wait another four years. Knowing my luck, it’ll be flippin’ cloudy and overcast then, too. However, it being a school night and all, it’s likely just as well because as the eclipse was to achieve its totality, I would have been up way way way past my bedtime. Hopefully said eclipse will occur on a Friday or Saturday night next time round.

Something wacky was going on with the comments earlier today (thanks for the heads-up, Mike) and I toyed with the idea of changing the theme altogether and actually did for a split second. In the end, though, I just reinstalled this particular theme and although some of my customization was lost with the overwritten files, it’ll be worth having to futz with that wee bit than having to futz with an entirely new theme.

Things have been more than strangely interesting at the factory these past few days; if I hadn’t just spent a couple hours working on my friends’ website and ultimately ending up with a stiff neck and a headache about to happen, I’d share the rather pleasant-but-maybe-there-are-ulterior-motives details…perhaps tomorrow, barring any unforeseen disasters with my taxes.

I’ve also downloaded a nifty little program that allows me to lift audio from any video format; that’s been running in the background all evening - after a few false starts, it should be grabbing the entire audio track of School Reunion so I can edit it down for a handful of choice lines for inclusion in my ever-growing collection of Who audio files. These current files will feature Sarah! Jane! Smith! almost exclusively because…well, just because.

Because I am a dork and I adore her.

Despite the great excitement I feel about this latest incarnation of SCS, I’m really, really trying not to let it suck all my free time in the few precious hours I have between factory and sleep. And although I’ve gotten lost more than a couple times in the sheer number of WordPress themes, I’m determined to stick with the Horsehead Nebula for as long as I can. It’s a fitting theme because of my reawakened interest in astronomy, as long as it’s not too difficult. I’d rather work on getting SCS back to rights, complete with those monster lists of links and the badges and…and…and…I hope I can address that this weekend in between getting my blood taken, working on my friends’ website, answering email, and all the normal weekend events. Next weekend is shot because I’ve set that aside for taxes, although I suspect it won’t take me too long to accomplish.

So, back to keeping my time in front of the computer from taking over any free time I might have. In order to accomplish this, I’ve reached deep into the movie vault and have come back with silent movies filling my hands. The Phantom of the Opera and The Thief of Bagdad are the two most recent viewings, with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde up next. I was all set to watch a silent version of The Scarlet Letter a few evenings ago, so imagine my surprise and disappointment when I figured out I’d mislabeled it as silent and it was in actuality one of those new-fangled talkies! Oh! I was so disappointed, but the telling of the tale at the factory provided many laughs, especially when I said I said I really prefer the silents over the talkies because I don’t sit on my couch and think people are really talking about me in a secret language only they can understand.

I’ll have plenty of new screencaps being uploaded when I’ve got enough to fill an entire CD; they’re all on the Compaq, which has really become my telly of choice and I’ve wasted enough CDs with only a few images on them at a time. At the rate I’m going, it won’t take long to fill it up. I’m finding more things about film that fascinate me, but that’s a post for another evening.