✔ December 10, 2012 ✔

Happy Monday! What a long 3 days it's been since I was here last. Let's see, going back to Saturday ... I cleaned the shower, fed the cats & dogs, folded some laundry, dusted the televisions, & neatened the front & back porches. I went through the mail, had a hot dog for lunch, knitted the final panel on the knitting machine, checked Twitter & YouTube & then Pete & I picked Josh up from work, & then came home & cooked wrapped hot dogs & beef stroganoff w/ pretzels & popcorn. We ate well. :) While we were out

getting Josh from out near Frisco the FD had a call but I was too far out to make it back in time. I didn't get back until they cleared the scene. Pete was doing his thing for a while, so I loaded up Sims & created the front porch on Sapphire Point. Then I loaded up Lone Wolff Manor & played until Pete was ready to watch Fringe before bed. Sunday I cleared my e-mail for the week, had a boiled egg for breakfast, went through the Sunday paper, checked

facebook & then showered to head out to lunch with Pete before picking Josh up. Well, that plan didn't pan out. By the time Pete was ready & we were in the truck ready to pull out the driveway, there was no time to do anything other than go straight to Frisco & get Josh. After we brought Josh home, I tried again & this time we actually made it out for FOOD. But, as usual ... lunch happened SO late that it ended up being dinner. I hate

skipping meals! Anyway, my lunch/dinner was Steak 'n' Shake. I crocheted 1 end of the afghan (I crochet the other end & I'm DONE!), Kyle made a quick dinner & I had some of that in addition to my extremely late lunch earlier, checked Twitter & then loaded up Sims. This time I worked on one of the bedrooms in Sapphire Point & then loaded up a house I build called Coventry & played that until Pete was done in his office & ready to watch TV & head to bed. Only it never happened. Pete went all night & when I'm playing Sims I have no concept of time out in the real world. I'm in the Matrix & that's all there is at that moment. Next thing I know, Josh is coming in saying it's time for him to go to work. It's 5:a?! Holy crap! Pete & I drove Josh to work & then Pete went to work & I went back into the Matrix. I added another bedroom to Sapphire Point & then loaded up Northmont. I really like Northmont, it's one of my better houses that I built, but this game is messed up & after searching all over the Internet, there seems to be no fix for it & I'm stubborn & don't want to delete it & start from scratch, so I have to play this really annoying glitch that LUCKILY is on only in this 1 game out of over 100 that I have saved. My Sims stopped aging in this game, which meant no getting married (my Sim's girlfriend never aged up from a teen, just as he never aged up another day after becoming a young adult on his birthday). I finally had to invite her over & use a game cheat to force her to age up (even though she wasn't a member of my household). Once I did that my Sim was able to marry her & they got pregnant. Now ... being stuck, I had to find a way to have the game progress ... SOMEHOW. I found out that when I 1st load the game, the Sims age at midnight as they're supposed to, but that only works ONE time at midnight. The next night they're all stuck again & when midnight rolls around, if they had 19 days before their next birthday ... they STILL had 19 days before their next birthday. DARN! I found that if I save the game anywhere between 11:p & midnight in the game, then exit out to the main menu, then reload the game, they'll age at midnight. ONCE. SO ... EVERY game day at 11:p I had to save, exit to the main menu, & reload the game. I'll tell you, that gets old fast! I did manage to at least get some quality game time in (in between exiting & reloading). My 2nd gen Sim Michael Goth met & FINALLY (once I figured out how to force the game to progress) married Therese Bruce. They had a son, Quinn Goth (3rd gen). Quinn is a genius loner. A Sagittarius who like Indie music, shawarma, the color Irish green, & is easily impressed. He's already gotten pretty far with his logic skill & he was still a child when I closed down the game for the day. Winter faded into spring & it was a below freezing 22° at midnight. Brrr!  Quinn has met & is most likely going to marry Crystal Swift. They met on his 1st day of school & are really close now. Their dog Kira got stuck at the top of the stairs so they had to put her up for adoption. The next time I load the game I'll adopt her back into the family. The only other notable things in this game is Gunther Goth is now like 104. I have max lifespan set to 100, so he's living on borrowed time. Glad he was doing so well that he was able to live this long! His wife is long gone, remember in my last Northmont blog I said she got evicted from the household for cheating with Iqbal Alvi? Michael did SO well in his life that he was able to turn in MANY lifetime happiness points as a young adult. He started with the age freeze, so he doesn't age up & is the only one not SUPPOSED TO age up. He even had enough after that for a food replicator & something else. He did REALLY well. He completed his lifetime wish of mastering painting & guitar & since he's going to live forever now, I let him go out & get a job at the theater as a musician. He's going to be raking in the cash in no time & there's no expiration date once he makes it to the top. Level 10 paychecks indefinitely. Michael's wife Therese isn't aging though. Even with the exit out & reload which works for 1 game day each time, Therese is frozen. She hasn't used an age freeze potion but is immortal just like Michael. At least on Michael, when you look at his age, it says "Days until age up: Never". On hers, it's just 20 days ... always. Stuck. This is REALLY annoying. I'm SO glad it's only happening in the ONE game instead of more. The FD helped out a neighboring town with a structure fire ... an apartment building. I picked Josh up from work, tried to update my iPhone apps but the app store is stuck (blank white screen while it was loading & then just stopped) & I can't get it to go past that, so I gave up on the apps for this week & here I am. I'm SO exhausted! I really want to go to sleep ... SOON! I hope Pete doesn't work late tonight. I don't know how much longer I can hold out before going face down on my keyboard. And now facebook is down. I can't reach it from my PC or my phone, but I can hit any other sites without delay. Facebook won't even THINK of loading. I keep getting "Problem Loading Page" ... "Server Not Found". Lovely. On a happier note, when I picked Josh up from work today & bought some great looking pork chops on sale along with stuffing & gravy. That'll be tomorrow night's dinner though, I'm way too tired to last through all that. Tonight is going to be a QUICK dinner of macaroni & cheese with ground beef in it.

Avatar makes its world premiere (2009):

On this day in 2009, “Avatar,” a 3-D science-fiction epic helmed by “Titanic” director James Cameron, makes its world debut in London and goes on to become the highest-grossing movie in history.  Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, the box-office mega-hit was praised for its state-of-the-art technology and earned nine Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director.
Set in the year 2154, “Avatar” tells the story of disabled ex-Marine Jake Sully, who is recruited to help conquer and colonize Pandora, a faraway moon that is home to a mineral deposit coveted by people on Earth, whose energy resources are almost depleted. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, a group of nature-loving, blue-skinned, half-alien/half-human creatures intent on protecting their own eco-system. (Cameron hired a linguist to create a unique language for the Na’vi.) Using an avatar to explore Pandora because the air there is toxic to humans, Jake falls in love with a Na’vi princess and goes native, eventually working to save the Na’vi from the human colonists.
Cameron wrote the script for “Avatar” in 1994; however, at that point the technology didn’t exist to produce the movie he wanted. In the meantime, he penned and directed “Titanic,” the 1997 blockbuster that garnered 11 Oscars and became the first film to gross more than $1 billion internationally. Prior to “Titanic,” Cameron helmed such hit films as “The Terminator” (1984), “Aliens” (1986) and “The Abyss” (1989), and became known for his imaginative use of special effects. In 2009, he told The New Yorker: “[‘Avatar’] integrates my life’s achievements…It’s the most complicated stuff anyone’s ever done.” Among the technologies used to make “Avatar” was performance capture, which turns an actor’s movements into a computer-generated image.
At the 82nd Academy Awards, held in March 2010, “Avatar” won Oscars for best visual effects, cinematography and art direction.

Beau geste:

1: Graceful or magnanimous gesture. 2: An ingratiating, conciliatory gesture.

Sending flowers, as well, is a beau geste that is always appreciated by certainly not expected.

"Beau geste" is a phrase borrowed from French; the literal translation is "beautiful gesture." Beau Geste is also the title of a 1924 novel by Percival Christopher Wren, featuring 3 English brothers who join the French Foreign Legion to repair their family honor. (The novel spawned several film versions, including 1 starring Gary Cooper.) Wren didn't invent the phrase "beau geste," which 1st appeared in print in 1900, but the publicity surrounding the novel & subsequent films likely contributed to the expression's popularity.

Bert & Ernie from Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop & Ernie the taxi driver from the movie It's a Wonderful Life.

Cold spell leads to tragedy in Iran (2003):

Unseasonably low temperatures in Tehran, Iran, lead to the deaths of at least 40 people on this day in 2003. Rarely do such large groups die at the same time.

In general, death from freezing occurs when the body's core temperature reaches 77 degrees Fahrenheit, a fact discovered by Nazi doctors during experiments on prisoners at the notorious Dachau concentration camp during World War II. In 1994, however, a two-year-old child in Canada survived a body temperature of just 57 degrees suffered when she wandered away from her Saskatchewan home.

When core body temperature goes down to 97 degrees, neck and shoulder muscles tighten and extremities begin to ache. When it gets to 95 degrees, mild hypothermia sets in and involuntary trembling and shivering occurs as the body tries to generate its own heat. Two degrees lower and amnesia and short-term memory loss is common. When body temperature reaches 88, shivering is no longer possible and people experience general numbness.

In some cases, a phenomenon known as "paradoxical undressing" occurs, in which a person about to freeze to death actually rips off their clothes. The effects of hypothermia can also be delayed--in one instance, Danish fishermen stuck in the North Sea for 90 minutes were able to walk on the deck of a rescue ship before falling down and dying.

One notorious incident of hypothermia occurred at the Four Inns Walk in England in 1964. The race involved 240 racers (all in excellent condition) hiking 43 miles over the English moors. Although the temperature never fell below freezing, the wind and rain caused three people to freeze to death and put another four in critical condition. Researchers later determined that a key factor in the deaths was that the victims had failed to take in enough calories during the hike.

The 2003 freeze in Tehran was unusual in that so many people died in a single night. The previous year in Moscow, between 5 and 10 people froze to death every day during the winter for a total of more than 300 in the city alone.

Don't hurry out of the water. After you soak, turn on the shower & stay there, resting your head on your knees for a few minutes.

I love automatic bill pay & use it to pay many of my household expenses. All of your utilities can automatically zap, & you can have mutual funds that do this as well. It's automatic discipline that means you collect early payment discounts & are never charged for missing a bill.

Lychee is a type of what?

A. Vegetable

B. Fruit

C. Bird

D. Spice

Answer: B. Fruit

Mistletoe is what state's floral emblem?

A. Nebraska

B. Kansas

C. North Carolina

D. Oklahoma

Punctuality means different things in different locales, but in general, guests should arrive at or shortly after the time stated on the invitation. Typically, "fashionably late" means no more than 15 minutes late. Being early is actually as bad as being late. Circle the block if you must, but don't surprise your host.

Springpad:

(I like this app, I just installed it. Yes, the Apple App Store was still stuck. I had to reboot my phone.)

Springpad – Organize and Share What’s Important
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- “One of the 50 Best iPhone Apps of 2012.” – Time
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5. BOOKMARK sites for reading later - never forget an important article or book.
6. FOLLOW our tastemakers and others to be on top of trends and useful tips.
7. BUILD your personal to-do list with reminder alerts.
8. COLLABORATE with co-workers on a project with notes, videos, links and tasks.
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From "Favorite West Village Brunch Spots" to "Essential Beach Reads," the notebooks you curate could be valuable to others. Springpad lets you easily share your notebooks with just a best friend, your whole family, or even the world.
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Use old carpet scraps to insulate your compost. The carpet scrap set over your compost will help keep moisture & heat in, speeding up decomposition.

What new name did animal rights activists urge the town of Slaughterville, Oklahoma, to adopt in 2004?

Which part of the eye reacts to light 1st?

A. The retina

B. The cornea

C. The lens

Which president—the first to be born in the U.S.—was the only one who didn’t speak English as his primary language?

Martin Van Buren, the eighth president, who was of Dutch ancestry.

Why did Jews carry spinning tops with them when they met to study the Torah during the reign of Antiochus IV in the 2nd century B.C.E.?

They didn’t want to be caught violating the law barring them from practicing their religion. When soldiers approached, they would hide their books and pretend to be gambling with the top—a forerunner of today’s four-sided dreidel.

You think you're __________ but you're not. It's better to start thinking you're __________.