Long time no LJ, huh? It has been far too long. Things got crazy for me last year, we ended up buying a home in Los Lunas (just south of Albuquerque), first time we've owned a home, so we were busy busy... then Facebook and now Twitter "happened" to me. I need to write... more than 140 characters at a time, though, so I'm back to the world of LJ for now!
Ok, this is such a ridiculous "speech". How much time did he waste thanking people? It's worse than watching the Academy Awards! I sure hope that the electric bill and security bill for the time wasted is being paid by him and not taxpayers (yeah right, huh). Sheesh, just sign your fucking pork spending bill and get on with it already!
I have never been much of a fan of audiobooks. I have always preferred to just hold a book the old fashioned way instead of listening to someone read it to me. That has changed though, and I'm not quite sure what brought it on. I have been downloading them from my library's website and putting them on my Zen (my mp3 player) to listen to while working. Wow! What a great way to pass the time while working... granted, there are times I have to turn it off to concentrate on a more complex problem at work, but most of the time I am able to listen while I work! And, and, and, I'm getting books off of my shelves! I've listened to 3 books (and working on number 4) that were on my shelves, so those books are now travelling, out of my home! Yay for getting books moving!
For those in the US who care, here is a list of some of the NON Stimulative spending that is in the current "stimulus" package... you know, the one the President insists doesn't have any pork in it? Take a look, these are some of the things included in the package... some are ridiculous "bloated government" spending, other things are things that are somewhat necessary, but NOT stimulative and should NOT be included in something they're trying to pass off as a stimulus package. Take a look, then if you feel as sick about it as I do, call your Senator (they're debating this now) and let her/him know you would like them to NOT vote for this!
$24 million for USDA buildings and rent $176 million for renovating Agricultural Research Service buildings $290 million for flood prevention activities $50 million for watershed rehabilitation $1.4 billion for wastewater disposal programs $295 million for administrative expenses associated with food stamp program $1 billion for the 2010 Census $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges and libraries $650 million for the DTV converter box coupon program $360 million for construction of NIST buildings $830 million for NOAA research and facilities $2 billion for Byrne JAG program $10 million to combat Mexican gunrunners $125 million for rural communities to combat drug crimes $1 billion for the COPS program $1 billion for NASA $300 million to purchase scientific instruments for colleges and museums $400 million for equipment and facilities at the NSF $3.7 billion to conduct "green" renovations on military bases $375 million for Mississippi River projects $10 million for urban canals $5 billion for weatherizing buildings $2 billion to develop advanced batteries for hybrid cars $3.4 billion for fossil energy research (possibly including an earmark for FutureGen) $5.1 billion for environmental cleanup around military bases $5.5 billion for "green" federal buildings $300 million for "green" cars for federal employees $20 million for IT upgrades at the Small Business Administration $200 million to design and furnish DHS headquarters $98 million earmark for a polar icebreaker $210 million for State and local fire stations $125 million to restore trails and abandoned mines $146 million for trail maintenance at National Park Service sites $140 million for volcano monitoring systems $600 million for the EPA Superfund environmental cleanup program $200 million to clean up leaking underground storage tanks $500 million for forest health and wildfire prevention $25 million for the Smithsonian Institution $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts $1.2 billion for "youth activities" (for "youth" up to 24 years old) $500 million earmark for NIH facilities in Bethesda, MD $1 billion for Head Start $32 million for home-delivered nutrition services $160 million for volunteer programs at the Corporation for National and Community Service $500 million earmark for the SSA National Computer Center in MD $220 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico $8 billion for high-speed railway (including an earmark for Harry Reid's LA to Las Vegas MagLev) $1.3 billion for Amtrak
Just Stop It! Hollywood (and moviegoers too actually) need to stop stop stop stop producing (and watching, funneling more money into the insanity) all these damn remakes!! I know there are original ideas out there, as myslef and many friends have read hundreds of books which could be made into great films! The problem is that they can get away with paying writers much much less for revamping an old screenplay than they can for adapting a novel or god forbid creating an original story! If moviegoers would just snap the freak out of it and STOP going to see these things, maybe H'wood would slow it down or stop alltogether? Here is a list of remakes that are in *some* stage of production, be it filming, or just talks.....
This is one of the many reasons why i rarely go to the movies.... as for TV, well don't even get me started on TV, that's a whole other rant, and for now, my rant is done...
So I'm slowly but surely working on cleaning out the many boxes of crap we have in our closets. These are boxes full of misc. stuff from our various moves over the past 10 years or so... and many haven't been opened or gone through in literally that long, they get put in a closet, and when we have moved, they get moved to another closet lol.
To give you an idea.... this morning, I found a small variety box of Christmas cards, some nice ones that I could have used over the years too! Inside the box was nearly a full book of stamps. "Love" stamps... for 34 cents!!
2008 turned out to be quite the year for me as far as Bookcrossing was concerned. In June, I did the BC table at Pridefest, giving away 173 books in 2 days! I also donated more books (mostly children's) to 4Support, this year I had collected and gave them 169 books!
For wild releases, I went above and beyond this year. I managed to release 915 books! That brought me over 2000 all time! Of course, it was so much fun, and I've had some great journal entries out of them all too!
So let's see what 2009 will hold for me.... *evil snicker*
I had a great year as far as reading is concerned. I really enjoyed the vast majority of what I read (only a couple of duds this year), and managed to read 52 books!
irritated
amused