Cyberland or Stalkerland?

Paul and I watched Dateline the other night and got to see 19 adult men go to a house where they thought they were going to be able to engage in sexual acts with a 12-, 13-, or 14-year-old child (either male or female). You may ask how these men were inticed to the house. Let me tell you. It was through a group called Perverted-Justice.com that poses as young girls and boys in regional Internet chat rooms. The posers did not in any way solicit or approach the men, rather allowing them to initiate conversation and the sex talk. I added a link to the left if you want to check these guys out. They've worked with law enforcement and gotten 39 convictions out of their work. They are a group of volunteers from around the country that do this to help stamp out the evil perpetrated by pedophiles on the internet. So please, if you have children that in any way use the Internet-TALK TO THEM!!! Tell them about the dangers of chatting/IM-ing with strangers! Show them the Dateline if you can get a hold of it. There are many children from seriously dysfunctional families that these guys LOVE to get their hands on, but YOUR children do NOT have to be victims if you teach them how to be proactive and use extreme caution when on the internet, especially in chat rooms. Try it for yourself if you don't quite think it's that bad. Sign up for a Yahoo ID and pose as a 12-year-old. Go into any chat room and see how many men quickly IM you and start in with the sex talk. No parent wants their child to be exposed to this and you can go to Perverted Justice to get some tips about how to make your child's internet experience safe and fun. Okay, rant done.

Hope you all had a good weekend. I have a cold that finally decided to kick my ass all over the place. And let me tell you, I am not a good sick person. Poor Paulie had to put up with my supreme crankiness but he's a heck of a trooper. Even made me eat since I've had no appetite at all since the cold hit (yeah, that's only about 48 hours, maybe I'll lose a pound or two, lol). But did manage to get all my reading done for the rest of the class and the take home exam done. Didn't get my rough draft for a paper read yet, but I'll do that this week.

WARNING: Boring computer stuff below...feel free to skip and ignore. Did a software update on my desktop and it pretty much fried out my internet browsers. Spent a little while reading up on the issues in the Apple discussion forums and it turns out this update has been causing all sorts of problems. Did it on my laptop and no issues there, so I have to try to figure out what got flamed.

So, that was my fun and exciting weekend. Got to spend the time with kleenexes shoved in my nose and tossing and turning. Have taken heavy drugs (well...Nyquil, but I'm sure that's a near-illegal narcotic) for tonight so will sleep well (I hope). All for now and see ya soon!

Love,
B

Soothing sounds of hammering...

As I'm typing this I'm hearing the questionable sounds of construction being done on the house. The boy couldn't take it anymore so is ripping up some moulding around the living room and redoing it. Please don't ask me why. You have to let them have their little quirks or they'll go nutty. He's feeling fine (obviously) and is already scabbing over on the majority of the spots, so is probably not contagious anymore. Doctor doesn't need to see him again unless "something changes" or he has concerns. I have a paper to write this weekend, so I'm waiting for my iPod to charge up to help me find my "quiet space" or at least a semi-quiet place since all I can hear right now is a hammer and saw (don't worry, not at the same time, of course).

We're refinancing a credit line on our house, since lo and behold...I got my credit up. Everybody should check their credit once in a while because I had all these bizarro things on there that was putting a serious dent in my rating. Example-I had a Kinney charge card (a shoe store) from 1996 or something that never had a charge on it, but yet was reporting it as BAD credit!! That was a shocker. Honestly, didn't even remember having the card. Got stuff like that taken off and my score jumped 40 points! Woohoo! So, now I'm no longer a detriment and can take on some responsibility of the debt that Paul has. Being a grown-up sucks. Although my illustrious school loans are still there (I guess making a wish isn't enough for them to go away, haha), I'm still relatively debt-free. This is all a devious plan on my part of course. Sheesh. Well, I'm done boring you all and am going to immerse myself in the FS world for awhile and try to get something accomplished today. Have a great weekend!!

Love,
B

Poxy Paul

Well, as I'm waiting for a backup to be completed at work, I'll fill you all in on the latest and greatest. It's official. The boy is all "viral-ed" up with chicken pox. Fortunately, it's not terribly serious-literally maybe 100 spots all over his upper body, none on his face at all. He's awfully lucky that it's a weenie strain of pox!

Most likely, I'm in no real danger of getting it, since my mom says (NOW!!) that I had chicken pox twice. I told her to stop smoking that crack-it's obviously affecting her memory. She's told me my entire life that I better stay away from people with chicken pox since I'd only had it when I was less than 3 months old-which is the same as not having it at all I guess. Supposedly, she suddenly remembers me having it at age 4-8. So, here's to hoping that Mom isn't thinking of some "other" daughter she had. :)

Paul is banned from work until the 15th, so we'll see who survives the weekend. He's been cooped up for about a week, so he's starting to go stir crazy. He wanted to start tearing shit up yesterday, but thankfully didn't. I was so sure that I'd come home to a huge mess. I've got quite a bit of homework to do this weekend, so I wont' be any sort of entertainment at all.

Completely throwing out this bit of randomness. I'm archiving our data folder to do a backup and that's what I'm waiting for, is it to make the archive. It's said it has 5 seconds remaining for the last 10 min. Fun. After that FINALLY gets done (Windows SUCKS!!), I'll copy it into our nifty backup disk and go home. Just been waiting...waiting...waiting some more. I think I'd better stop blogging before I make any one who's unfortunate enough to read this cry or pass out or whatever. Sweet. It's done. I'm outta here!

Love,
B

Did the chicken or the pox come first?

Do you ever have those moments in life that you're not sure whether to laugh your ass off or cry? This isn't one of those. I'm too busy laughing to worry about it. My poor hubby has been tentatively diagnosed with possible chicken pox. I can laugh because it's not very bad if that's what it is which we won't know definitively until the lab tests come back on Friday morning. I'll be sure to update you as to whether it's chicken pox, shingles, a severe allergic reaction, or perhaps genital herpes all over his upper body. Ha. He'd be in such big trouble if that last were true. The bad thing is that I've never really had it and neither has one of my co-workers at work, so that'd be a serious bummer. Paul says he's had it, which if that's the case, we need to go get a PowerBall ticket or two, since obviously he's bucking the odds in getting chicken pox twice.

Okay, here's the things I've learned about chicken pox over the course of the last day or so (the internet is terribly useful and since I live in Kansas-uberconservative-it must be the work of the devil).
1) It can take up to two weeks after initial exposure for the rash to show up and you are contagious most of that time.
2) After the rash shows up, you are actually contagious until they scab over.
3) Internet pictures of pox are nasty-they invariably pick the most horrible pictures to parade around, so not very good to self-diagnose.
4) Just because you've had chicken pox, this does not necessarily make you immune to it. It depends on the severity of the first go round.

Those are just a few of the things I've read. I recommend webmd.com, they always seem to have the most information without starting panic attacks, although they have none of the grisly pics some of the other sites do. If he would let me, I'd take a pic of him and share, but I don't think he'd go for that right now.

Off subject here, but I just purchased a hair straightener that nearly requires a loan. After doing tons of research on the internet (THE DEVIL!!!!), I found the best one for the money and Paul is letting me get it. I think it's my Christmas present from him and I just don't know it yet. When X-Mas rolls around and he's forgotten to get me a present, I'm sure this will be brought up and that's okay. In case anyone is wondering, I've purchased a Sedu from Folica.com. Sadly, it's on sale ($50 off!!!) and free shipping. I say sadly because the amount off is how much I spent on my first straightener. But, it's still cheaper than the other ones I've seen that got bad ratings. This one had 380+ reviews and 4 and 1/2 stars out of 5. I'm a sucker for customer reviews. The one I was trying to get off eBay, got nailed over and over again for suddenly stopping working, or shorts in the circuitry (although the extreme excitement of never knowing when it's going to start on fire is tempting). I'll let you know how the new one goes...can't be any worse than the one I'm using now which is yanking out my hair every time I pass it over my head. By the way, yes, I have "straight" hair. In my advancing years, it's getting wavy. Not curly. Not straight. Wavy. In a bad way. Someone please tell me this is normal. I used to have perfectly straight hair when straight hair was not "in" and now that straight hair is "in" I have wavy hair. WTF? I didn't even know it was possible for your hair to change. Learn something new every single damn day.

Alright, for those of you who have requested a DVD, I'll be trying to get that done this weekend. I'll send out an email if I actually get 'er done. I think that's all for now and please no one faint that I've updated this so much recently. And, I've added some fun links to the left. They include other's blogs (both friends and family) and a few other sites. The snopes and urban legends are where I go when someone forwards me an email that I don't quite believe. They're both great resources when your bullshit meter goes off. Usually, it's something that's been floating around on the net for years and years and is total crap. But once in a while, I do get surprised. Like the one that raisins will kill a dog. Totally floored that that one is TRUE! So, have fun looking up goofy stuff on those. Talk at ya soon.

Love,
B

We're not in Kansas anymore Toto

Ah, I could only wish that statement were true. Today, the Kansas Board of Education voted in a 6 to 4 vote, to implement not only criticisms in evolution into our public schools, but redefine science itself "so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena." Yep. That's right. Thank GOD!! That means that I and my fellow lab members no longer have to have any sort of support for a hypothesis that we're trying to get published. We'll just tell the editorial board of Science or Nature that we're from Kansas and they will sadly shake their heads and allow it through, with a small disclaimer, of course, stating that the poor authors are from the "moving backwards in science" state of Kansas. I'm so glad that I haven't gotten my driver's liscence updated to Kansas yet. I'm completely ashamed to live in this horrific state. I'm trying to convince Paul to sell the house so we can get out of this conservative hell-hole, but so far, he's reluctant. I'm so relieved I have no children right now. I would pull them out of the schools with the first indication that this atrocity is actually being taught. I can only pray (haha) that the vast majority of science teachers in the public schools will treat this decision as it should be treated. As no more than religious right hogwash. You can bet a good ol' American dollar that my ass is going to be voting this year in the school board elections. Ack. I'm going to see if the local chapter of the ACLU is doing anything about this issue and donate some skills their way if they'll have me. I'm already a card-toting member, so might as well. Watch. I'm going to become some political ragamuffin through all this. Never piss off an Italian. It's written. In blood.

Love,
B

Holy smokes, I've updated this

Well, hell. Apparently I suck at blogging when I'm busy. Good to know things like that.

Basically, got the grades for the class last Sat. (as in two weeks ago). But first, the director of the program felt the need to come in and rip our asses for 10 min for 1/4 of the class failing (below an 80%). That was fun. Then had to sit through the alphabetical return of our grades. This was extremely stressful since I KNEW I was one of the 1/4. Well, I better get started on some animal sacrifices or something to appease whoever, but I managed to pull out a passing grade. Actually, I was one ever-loving point away from an A-. Tough. But you have no idea how very relieved I was when I saw that lovely 89 staring me in the face. Also, got a 93% on the final I was so very concerned about (that's curved by 4 points, so I really, truly got an 89 on that too). So, whew!

Already started on the next class which is "psychological, social and legal aspects of forensic science." Yeah, I know. That's a serious mouthful. Whoever came up with that name needs to be diagnosed with diarrhea of verbiage. So, more fun times ahead. Learning about dipolar disorder, serial offenders, etc. Also, they somehow managed to pile on even more work. Amazing. I'm completely convinced that the entire purpose of graduate school is to convince students that they don't know shit, will never know shit and shouldn't even attempt to know shit. Luckily, I already have a knack for convincing myself of this, so they can't break me!!! They WON'T break me, haha.

As far as work goes for anyone who might be interested in protein structure. We're pretty much done with the structure of the TB antigen we've been working on. We've already gotten it to "publishable" quality, but we're still holding off since we're plucking off new noes right now. Did I say WE? I meant ME. Damn. I'm freakin' special. And we're doing some really cool stuff with new experiments with it and gearing up to write a grant. Our hands are out and we're desperately hoping someone, somewhere will put some money there.

Just to throw this out there-fur is evil and if any of you buy fur, you're evil. Okay, that's pretty harsh, but dammit. The neato thing the fur industry is doing is they get sneaky with the labeling and you may not even know that you've just bought 100% real fur from some poor animal who is now naked (and dead). So, be careful in what you buy kids!! Here's the "official" poster from the Humane Society and if any of you want this for whatever, email me and it's yours. Also, there's a pledge to sign to lead a "fur-free" life so here's the link to that too at the bottom. Down with fur!!


Love,
B


http://www.hsus.org/

Whew...long one here!!

I have a feeling this is going to be a really long blog since I haven't updated and there's tons and tons to talk about. We'll start simple. My parents came in on Wed. last week and I was a bit late in getting them, but they were still waiting for their luggage, so all was well. Mom and I ran around while we forced Dad to slave over getting a DVD player hooked up (we'd gotten one for Christmas last year and Paul just never did it, so yay! It's finally hooked up and running!). We were actually supposed to be looking for an outfit for me for the party and a shirt for mom, but I got an outfit and Mom got nothing. But we decided on something else for her anyway. Then we drove to NE on Thurs. I had to rush a bit to get to class since my group was supposed to meet beforehand at 5 pm. I totally sped to get there and was 15 min. late, but no group. Oh well. Some members trickled in, but it was really too late to do anything. I had the presentation on a CD and showed them after checking for software updates on my computer through the wireless network at school (don't worry, this is all very important, but much, much later in the story). So, shut the puter down and went to class to watch others present. After that was done (woohoo, got out an hour earlier), my group and I sat down to go over the presentation and suddenly, the laptop wouldn't boot up. Got a windows-like blue screen of death. CD is still in puter and won't come out. Presentation stuck in puter. So hop online to Apple Support and tried what they told me. No luck. Called Tech Support. Closed (since of course, computers never get broken after 7 pm). Eventually called my wittle buddy Ewic, who was nice enough to hold off on a shower to try to help. After much trying, we finally got the CD to come out, but still no booting going on. By this time, an hour and a half has passed and I now have a raging headache. The whole family is hanging out waiting for me, but we had to get this figured out. Handed the presentation over to another member and made the changes to my part of it after profusely apologizing to her for dumping the rest of it on her. There wasn't a ton of stuff to do, except get the references on there and finish up referencing the paper. Did I tell you that Eric was seriously my life-saver? I was considering how to crack the sucker open before calling him.

Missed out on most of the family that night, but caught up with them the next day. We started out early, my cousin Sherry, and my two aunts, Elaine and Ida and ran around Lincoln trying to come up with centerpieces for 28 tables that wouldn't require a loan. We ended up with 28 decorative fish bowls with turquoise pretty marbles filled with water and flowers (turquoise) floating in them. Really wanted to do candles but the hall wouldn't allow any open flame. Tied in both the Ruby Red for 40th and mom's original colors though, so it turned out pretty. Got those made on Friday and then Auntie Ida and I went shopping for shoes for her and pants for me since I stupidly left mine in the dryer in KC during the mad rush to leave. Ended up with two pairs of pants, two shirts and a new pair of shoes. Hunh. Funny how that sort of thing happens. At around 11:30 pm I made some changes to my paper, printed it out and then by midnight started studying for my final. Couldn't last long so ended up asleep by 1 pm, but woke up a few hours later and started cracking on it. Felt totally nauseous by this point, completely unprepared and seriously cursing myself for getting any sleep. I just can't pull an all-nighter like I used to. Sigh. Getting old is such a bitch.

Got the final done. Got my grades up to that point then went to lunch with one of my group members and we tried to finish up the presentation (although, nothing to really finish up as no one got us their references, haha). Power slammed a chef salad at Perkins and dashed to class to sit through more presentations. Since I have done public speaking, I offered to start us off with an intro and you all know me. Big mouth and loud. Got through our presentation okay and that class is over. Feeling the pressure now of waiting for grades. Please, God, if you're out there, I promise to never attempt to plan a party the same day as a final again if you just get me through this class!!!

Ran back to Chris' for a quick refresher shower, got prettied up, got to the party. Started out very, very good. We had a couple of surprise visitors that made mom and dad really happy and all these people running around. I don't think my mom sat down for 5 min. Before everything really got rolling, my brother and I presented them with the 8x10s we had professionally done of us and the family. Now, I expected my mom to cry, but I didn't expect Niagara Falls. We had to get a mop to clean her up. I think even my dad was really happy with them too! So another surprise we managed to keep secret.

The only bit of a downer was when one of my uncle's tripped on the slightly (and not marked!) elevated dance floor and really took a nasty fall. He actually passed out a couple of times, so we had an ambulance in to check him out. I think his ego will never recover, but his body did. He's doing okay, but we had a terrible scare for a while there. Luckily, one of the guests was a nurse and she kept watch over him until the paramedics got there. Sheesh. Poor guy felt terrible for "ruining" the party...we had to prove to him he didn't ruin anything and we just soldiered on and had a good time. Well, I somehow managed to not eat and only had two drinks all night long, but enjoyed seeing so many people.

The slideshow was apparently a massive hit and now I've got requests for copies all over the place. I have no idea who wants one so I will send out an email for requests. Don't worry, Paul isn't the one doing it, so you can ignore his $19.95 price tag! Sunday, we baptized my great-niece Macy and Paul and I and Mitch's brother were the godparents again. Service took forever so we barely made it back in time for the baby shower. Ran out of time for getting a gift, so opted for cash. Always a safe bet. Then we went to Tom and Sherry's for dinner and drove home.

Mind you the puter still isn't booting at this point, but yesterday after work I fussed with it for awhile. Tried every flipping thing I could think of. Every single diagnostic comes up totally fine, but still won't boot. All of my computer is still there when I boot in single-user mode, but just can't get the puter to do any damn thing. So, connected the desktop and the laptop by firewire and enabled the laptop. Copied what I needed over to the desktop and did a re-install of OS X with an archive. Everything worked fine. So took a look at my console logs and came up with some odd things. Apparently, at some point after connecting to the school wireless, my computer couldn't "see" my hard drive anymore. After doing some research, came across others having the same problem. Turns out it corrupted my daemon server and basically no go joe. Near as I can figure, it did something to one of the basic preferences and while I changed the most common ones, that did nothing. Someone else I came across wiped them all out and his worked fine. So, didn't have to do what I did, but it's okay since all of my stuff is still there. So, big ACK!! Never connecting to school wireless again I guess although at least now I know what happened and it wasn't something wrong with my disk or with the computer. Total wireless problem, messing with my junk. Now that I've bored you with all that mumbo jumbo, here's some pics of us at the party. (Yeah, that was brutal to make you go through all that just to see some damn pics!)

Love, B