myJaxonIf we don’t go crazy once in a while, we’ll all go crazy. - Hawkeye

Today is a sad day….today we took Chaos to the Humane Society. Neither Jesse or I wanted to do it, but we were at the point where we really didn’t have much of a choice anymore. She hasn’t been using the litter box; she won’t come into any room where we are playing with Ian. We tried finding her a place at a shelter, but with it being kitten season, every place we tried was full. Jesse and I are coping, but we’re both broken up over it. She’s been our little girl for the last three years. She went to DC and back with us. This was her fourth apartment and she has taken each move better than the one before it. I just wished she had taken to Ian the way she had taken to the moves. I’m going to miss her….we’re going to miss her.

So I’m going through my old “news” section from myjaxon.com and while not all of it is worth keeping, there was some parts that I thought I would share. I’ll start with the oldest stuff first.

Dec. 9, 2005
Today I received my review at work. While I was expecting some of the remarks, I was not all that happy about the bonus. I wasn’t expecting a lot, but at the same time, I was expecting something a little bit nicer too. After all, I worked my a$$ off for 10 months getting this case to trial, went to trial and stayed in New Jersey for 3 months, and I won’t even get into the number of hours I put in. The bonus doesn’t make it seem like the work was really worth it. Now I’m not so sure it was. Of course, I have not been in the legal field long so this may be a good sign that I’m doing something good. They did promote me to a junior paralegal. That has to say something; and yet, I still do not know if the merit bonus was worth the time I spent on this case. Once I figure it out, I’ll let you know.

Dec. 10, 2005
I had some good news today. Well, the news doesn’t involve me personally, but a friend of mine. Shabbs became a daddy last night. Zsolt Leander was born yesterday (the 9th) at 3:22 pm, weighing in at 6lbs 10oz. Both mama and baby are doing good and they are planning on taking Zsolt home tomorrow. Shabbs is the first one of our group of friends to have child. Jesse is happy for them, but he is also annoyed. The problem being that I am in baby lust mode at the moment and whenever I see baby pictures, it gets worse. At the moment, I have my cats.

Feb. 14, 2006
What else has happened, oh yes, I had the strangest conversation with my mother. I found out that she is hesitant to read my website because she feels it’s a personal invasion, like she is reading my personal diary. Strangely, she didn’t bring this up, but my aunt did when she remarked that I had some “personal comments” on my website that maybe shouldn’t be there. Yes, my website is kind of like my journal, but there is nothing posted that is private. If I wanted to keep it to myself, I would. I don’t have to put everything up here and I don’t (notice the gaps in dates). However, I think my husband said it best: “If I discuss it here, I have nothing to hide. I am not perfect, nor do I pretend to be. This site is open to everyone - if you want to understand me, this is the place to read. I don’t feel the need to hide - I am proud of who I am.” All through high school I tried to be what everyone wanted me to be. Once I got to college, I said to hell with them all. I stopped trying to please everyone else. It was too stressful. Believe it or not, I have feelings and they are not always what everyone else wants them to be. With that said, yes there will be stuff posted that maybe not everyone will want to read or will want revealed. You don’t like it, tough, deal with it. I’ve had to deal with a lot in my life, now it’s your turn. And that is all I am going to say on the topic.

Mar. 4, 2006
I know, I should have just added to the one below, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to mention something Jesse has been doing. He has started a weekly article series called “Useful Utility”. Basically he discusses a simple linux utility that people may or may not be familiar with. While I am not going to find it useful (Jesse admins my Linux box), it might be useful to other people. Either way, I know Jesse likes to write articles like this so I’m happy he’s doing it.

Mar. 8, 2006
For those of you who do not know this, I have Restless Leg Syndrome or RLS. While it isn’t that bad, it can mess with my sleep a lot. Considering it’s a sleeping disorder, that makes sense. Well, anyway, when I was first diagnois, I was on something called Clonozapem (not sure of the spelling) and that wasn’t good. According to Jesse (and a few others), I started to get really ditsy/flaky. When I hang out with a bunch of computer geeks, that’s not good. Since then, I was taking Valerian Root, which seemed to be working fairly well. However, lately, my sleep was getting really messed up, so I went to the doctor about it. She [the doctor] gave me a trial size of a new RLS drug called Requip. I don’t know if it was just the change in drugs or if it really works, but the last two weeks have been so nice where my sleep is concerned. Even during the last two weekends, I was up at 8am and went to bed around 11pm and was fine. Of course, I was also active during the entire day, but that is still highly rare for me.

Mar. 13, 2006
WE’RE MOVING HOME!!!

As you can see, I’ve already made a few changes to the site. What do you think of the new layout? I’m still making a few tweaks though.

I’m still going to be adding some new stuff, like a random photo display like the General has on his website, but I still have to find one that will work with my photo galleries. Konqueror has this really nice feature that allows me to make a photo gallery using my directories, so I don’t have to upload all of my pictures to a different location or anything like that. The only problem is, I don’t know of any photo plugin for WordPress that can use a directory instead of an application/program. So if anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Another development, I’m going to be doing a complete overhaul on myjaxon.com. Meaning, if you use my cookbook or any of my other pages, they will probably be broken in the near future. Once I get everything working again, I’ll post the new links here. I don’t really use that site anymore, so I’m going to be making some major changes to it. Hopefully it’ll be for the better.

Just a quick FYI….I’m getting bored with my current layout, so I’m going to change it.  I have a couple of layouts I’m looking at, but I won’t be able to decide on one until I can get my hands on the code or see how it looks with what I already have.  Plus, since I have Ian to play with during the day, I’ll only get to work on it at night and since I am not the greatest coder, it might take me some time.  You might notice some weird changes over the next week or so, so please humor me and have patience.  Hopefully this won’t be a painful process and something great with come out of it.

One of the new authors I’m checking out is Lilith Saintcrow and her series involving Dante Valentine. The premise…even more futuristic than Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson novels and a slight take from the Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series.

The first novel Working for the Devil introduces us to Dante Valentine, a Necromance-for-hire who gets hired by the Devil. Not that she really wants to work for him, but he made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. The series was actually pretty good. It can be a little confusing when Saintcrow describes her inventions for the world Dante lives in, but I was able to figure everything out once I continued reading. Once I read what it was, then it was understandable, but she doesn’t always explains things right away. Saintcrow also plays with the “supernaturals” or the Psions in her world. So far I haven’t come across any vampires or werewolves, but there are Magi, Shamans, and Skinlins (which, in layman terms, are earth witches). The one thing she does point out is nobody gets to decide they are a Psion, but it’s part of their genetic code.

The one thing I haven’t made my mind up about yet, is that fact that she made one thing very obvious in the beginning of the story. I’m not going to say what it was, but I was not surprised when, what I thought was going to happen, actually did happen. Although I do have to say, it was nice watching the situation unfold. It wasn’t something that happened within a chapter or two, but it wasn’t dragged out or anything either. Everything Dante went through seemed right. It wasn’t hurried or just thrown in for an added benefit. I think that is why I haven’t made any decisions regarding it yet. While it was glaringly obvious, it was really well done. And you really can’t argue against that.

This novel is borderline too futuristic for me, but it’s still a good read and I’m willing to try the second book Dead Man Rising. Either way, if you like the Riley Jenson or Anita Blake series, check this one out. This first novel was good and it kept me interested.