flimsysilence favicon and ofTen

Saturday, 23 April, 2005 at 3:30 pm

Yay! fs.net has a favicon! I don’t know why I decided to do it. I don’t know where the idea came from. But there ya go. I just used the ƒ character (whatever that is … I don’t know what it is >_> has an ALT code 0131) and drew an s around it. woo.

…

*dork* :)

I kinda wish I could make it transparenty-ish though. I could make the background that normal grey color, but then what about the people who change their color settings, huh, what about them??? … Okay I’m just being weird and happysatisfied. New favicon. Or is it really new, considering there wasn’t an old one? … *moves off the subject*

I have this nagging feeling that I just lifted the idea off some other trademarked logo, though … I’ve done things like that before. If anyone can tell me where I got it from I’ll take it down. ^^;;

- - - - -

Today I have been enlightened one tiny little step. When I was in the sixth grade my social studies teacher had this one student read off words on a side board, and the student read “often” pronouncing the T. For a split second, I thought, ‘Oh no, I’ve been pronouncing it wrong all my life?! How stupid am I?’ But then the teacher corrected the student, saying that the word “often” was mispronounced a lot, and that the T is actually silent. So I spent a few more years thinking that …

Lately, though, I’ve been hearing ofTen so much, and it was driving me nuts. Today I heard some guy on the radio pronounce the T, and in a fit of … frustration? I went to m-w.com to see if I could figure out why so many people pronounced “often” that way. m-w.com says both ways are correct though. So then I went to the lovely, handy-dandy Bartleby.com, and found out pronouncing the T has “come back.”

I don’t know, I just thought that was interesting. ehehe.

[edit: WP doesn’t save triple carriage returns line breaks?]
[edit2@4:41: Maybe I’m thinking of ƒx. ^^;; Yeah … in Microsoft Excel or something?]

Earth day, I guess

Thursday, 21 April, 2005 at 10:49 pm

I’m not a very good environmentalist if I don’t know when Earth day is, am I? ^_^;; I even read this bit in the newspaper about how people argue over when the real earth day is, the first day of spring or … whatever tomorrow is.

I don’t know. I tend to advocate saving earth every day. (Of course, actually going outside and doing something about it … that’s another matter. *lazy and doesn’t like leaving the safe, very safe, house* >.>)

Anyway. The reason why I even started writing this post. hah. There’s this thing on Yahoo! (the stuff I liked):

Remove yourself from junk mail lists. Believe it or not, 100 million trees are felled each year to produce junk mail.

If every household replaced one lightbulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, it would be the equivalent of eliminating the pollution from 1 million cars.

Using appliances carrying the Energy Star can save the average family $400 per year in energy bills.

Carpool or take public transportation to work once a week, and walk or ride a bike for short trips. Don’t forget to celebrate Carfree Day.

If every plastic bottle were recycled, landfills would be 2 billion tons lighter. Reusable bottles and water filtration systems make an even bigger difference.

35 years of Earth Day, huh. (Yes, that would explain why I saw an ad on the Yahoo mainpage for the Toyota Prius … I need sleep. Badly.)

my ultimate fanlisting!

Wednesday, 20 April, 2005 at 5:30 pm

I’ve never used this word before, but …

squeeeeee!!

I got approved for The Cardigans fanlisting!!!!! Two years after the first time I applied … the first time I ever applied at TheFanlistings(.net), and I got turned down. It was given to someone who only updated like 2 or 3 times … But yay I got it!! XD *dancey*

Now to actually make it … o.o

childhood book

Wednesday, 13 April, 2005 at 9:40 pm

Weird. Just had to save this somewhere. I was looking at dollcloset.com (found through Noelle’s entry :)) and there’s this one “organza” dress so I looked at it and thought, ‘So that’s what organza is?’ I always thought it was orange or peach-ish or something. *sweatdrop*

I got that idea from this one book I read when I was a kid. And, dood, I haven’t thought of that book in a long time … I don’t even remember what it was called … or what the cover looked like … or anything. But. I remember … it was about these three girls … oh! Okay, I think it was called Ballet … something or other. Yeah. The three girls were sisters, although they weren’t related, they were adopted by this one guy who traveled the world, and he’s absent throughout most of the book … causing them some financial problems … so it was special when they got to go out and buy organza to make dresses they needed. ^^;

Yeah. I remember the cover now. It just had the three girls on it: the oldest, blonde/red hair, who liked acting, I think?; the middle girl, with black hair, who liked tomboyish things; and the youngest … I think she was the darling of the bunch, she lived for ballet, ’cause her mother was a dancer. Yeah. I dunno. ^^;; I think I got that book from the elementary school library for reading the most books in one month or something.

(At present, I feel guilty for participating in those reading programs. It’s not like I needed encouragement to read more. Other kids probably would have been delighted to be top in something. Or … I don’t know. I just think it’s kind of unfair for being rewarded for … doing what I usually do. Kind of like when I was student of the month once in middle school because I brought up my hideous English Language Arts grade from a C to a B. [I was being lazy and slacking off.] I thought, I get notice for doing what I’m supposed to do?!)

Umm … yeah. How can it be 9:40 already? *grumbles and gets ready for bed*

car problems

Monday, 11 April, 2005 at 6:43 pm

I’m bored! I’m not supposed to be bored! I’m supposed to be happy that I’m not in class! Gah!

Okay now that I’ve said that … Saturday I asked Mickey to change the oil in my car, because it’s been about 3,000 miles since the last change (50 miles short, nyeeeh). He looked at it … and maybe Daddy looked at it too … and he talked to Mum about this odd bit of information he discovered. I’ve got too much oil in my engine. :O Or, that’s how it is according to the dipstick. Mickey said there was about 2 inches length from the “max” line to the actual line the oil is at.

Mum pulled out this folder of stuff on my car, where she had the receipt from CarMax about the last oil change. The receipt had a charge for 4 quarts of oil. My owner’s manual says my engine should have 5 quarts in the engine. How could one quart less be two inches over the max line? The previous oil change was at EZ Lube, and they put in 5 quarts. Or that’s what they charged us for anyway.

Mum told Mickey to just use 4.5 quarts, then if it’s not up to the max, then put in another .5 quart. But he said he’d rather know what he’s supposed to do. Bah. So Mum has to take my car in to CarMax to ask them about it. (Yes, Mum, because I cannot talk to non-educational staff about anything in any sort of intelligible manner [not that I talk to teachers or counselors in an intelligible manner either …], and besides, I still don’t know how to get to CarMax. ahaha)

Now for the other, more worrisome matter: The CarMax receipt said the oil change was at 15,000 miles thereabouts. Okay, fine, I’m at 18,150 somewhere. The EZ Lube oil change was performed at 8000 miles? Or something really horrible like that. Before that … we bought the car. *headdesk*

In normal circumstances, going 7000 miles before an oil change is … horrible. Too bad my car isn’t under normal circumstances. There was some article in the newspaper about … umm … darn, I don’t really know. Dodge engines, or Chrysler engines, or DaimlerChrysler engines, or Dodge Stratus engines, or to get extremely specific, 2.7 liter magnum Dodge engines. I don’t really know. One of those. Or something else I haven’t listed. But anyway. The problem is that the engine tends to develop “sludge” in … uhh … oil areas. *blink* Hey, I never said I knew car engines.

The article mainly talked about this one woman who got oil changes every 7000 miles, since that’s what the car company recommends, saying that’s all it takes for good maintenance…. So we (Mum, Mickey, and I) pretty much just ignored the article … resolving to get an oil change every 3000 miles. (I wasn’t worried because I hadn’t realized Mum went longer than 3000 miles for an oil change more than once.) Then … I think, I forget … something changed … oh, there was this webpage online where a guy said he got an oil change every 3000 miles, he even has receipts, and his engine still went bust. And that he’s selling replacement engines for $3000. *sweatdrop*

But other than that, Mum didn’t find any other problems people had with the 2001 Dodge Stratus. Not really. (Some people had/have problems with their Chrysler Sebrings veering suddenly out of the lane. o_o Creepy.) Mum pretty much said, “Expect your car to die on you anywhere from 30k to 70k miles.” I said, “Then are we going to buy that replacement engine?” And she said, “No, we’re just going to buy another car!” me: “But I want my car to last 60k miles! I don’t know that I’ll find a car that I like this much!” Umm … yeah. ;-; I love my car, dangit! Although I probably won’t buy another car from DaimlerChrysler, except for maybe vans … even Tadash admits Chrysler isn’t good, and he likes them! (bg info: Mickey likes loves Chevy, Hidek likes Ford, and Tadash likes Chrysler.)

I used to like Dodge … but now I’m not so sure. I probably wouldn’t buy a Japanese car, ever … even though they have good reliability (government regulation; where the hell is our government?!), just because I don’t believe they’d drive like a Dodge. ^^;; *loves how Dodge cars drive* VROOM VROOM! *laughs*

Okay I’m not insane, keep those white jackets away.

Yes, because I have Mickey for my brother, I’d already tentatively picked out my next car, at his insistence: Acura TL. (There’re two Acura TLs in the staff parking lot on campus. ^^ And I saw a third one on campus last week.) The TL is, um, a luxury car. >_> (Hey, Mickey is looking at the Cadillac CTS! Don’t look at me like that!) I think base price is $32,000. Yeah. Uh. I definitely wouldn’t have that much money by the time my car gets to 30k miles. I think by then I’d just barely have a job. Or … maybe I’d still be finishing college. *eep*

But I love my car! I’d planned to keep it for 8 years, or longer! I love it that much! I just can’t imagine that I’d find a car as cool as mine! Well, I could, but probably not with good mileage and (fairly) good reliability along with it. And a $20k price tag. ehehe. *sigh* Pray to God my car is fine! ^^

4/15/05: Asked Mum; it’s the 2.7 liter magnum engine that has the problem.