I did warn them...

[stoney321]

So my daughter's (#2) teacher discovered that I am a Master Gardener. The school has a greenhouse that has been sitting idle for two years. I've asked repeatedly if I could help them fill it, help with the classes, etc. She grabbed me in the hall today as I dropped Em off in her Kindergarten class (still the cutest class in the whole school, omg one boy wears a CAPE!! And one little girl pops her thumb out and smiles at me, then pops her thumb back, heeee!) and asked me if I would be in CHARGE of the greenhouse. Man, I suck in leadership roles. I'm a great starter and motivator, but I BLOW with the follow through. Can't I just be a worker drone? It's what I do best. Apparently NO ONE has volunteered any help. BAH. If it all falls to pieces, I warned them.

*buys a new notebook for scheduling, or I am LOST*

I continue to enjoy Studio 60, but I did think that the big "number" they did was a bit lackluster. Like I mentioned in my "Rules for Writing Comedy"panel at WriterCon, if you have your characters tell a joke, 9 times out of 10 the "laugh" is going to fall flat. It would have been better for them to have discussed what it was, and have it playing in the background while the dialogue rode over it. Anyone remember Steve Martin hosting during the Chris Farley years when everyone said it sucked, and had the "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight!" musical number at the opener? That worked. It worked because it moved all over the studio and had more inside jokes. Okay, so I'm just outing myself that I believe Sorkin can't write sketch comedy. But he writes other humors well, so no big. Maybe if Tina Fey's 30 minute show flops (not that I WANT it to, I love her and Alec Baldwin) she can join the writing staff. Punch that stuff up a bit.

Saw an interview with Lorne Michaels who said that he's "chosen to be flattered" by the 2 new shows this season based on SNL. Hee!

Heroes was still entertaining enough to keep me around. I loved the characters: Cheerleader, Hiro (ha. Hero. Ba dum bum ching!) and the Indian geneticist can drag me off into a corner and have his way with me, ungh. It needs to tighten up, and I have NO IDEA what's up with Ali Larter's character. Meh. Pick up the pace, yo. Oh, and the actor that plays the younger brother that thinks he can fly? That actor is bugging the CRAP out of me. He's like... a weiner. Not intriguing. But I do like Hiro and how he effectively (imo) gives the exposition for the show, and the cheerleader is fun to watch get broken up into pieces. What? :D Watched "How I Met Your Mother" and I have to say... why? This isn't a good show. Okay, Neil Patrick Harris is entertaining, he always is, but that's not enough to keep me watching the very pretty Alyson Hannigan mugging for the camera with her wide eyed "I am pretty and adorable! See how much I open my eyes? LOVE ME." *shrugs*

Things that rock: my buddy Jennifer (who made a HUGE donation to my 60 mile Walk-A-Thon to raise money for Breast Cancer Research - GIVE ALL YOU CAN!) giving me a new ball-cap. Pink. With a ribbon in front. Awww. She's a sweetheart. She's also promised to be there at the finish line on Sunday to watch me stagger across the line, and that is a GOOD FRIEND, people. I can only imagine the smell and sight of me... BLEH. (Short walk today - 5 miles, 4.75mph.) I continue to hate my FM radio/pedometer and will no longer carry it because ARGH. Unweildly. Anyone have recs on an iPod type mp3 player? I don't nevessarily feel the need for the name brand - just something with loads of space and good fb?

Off to accomplish many tasks! Have a GLORIOUS Tuesday!! OH! and even though it is the 27th now (just barely) on the Eastern Hemisphere, it's not officially my girl cherusha's birthday until tomorrow. So Ru... I didn't forget. :) ♥

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Anyone have recs on an iPod type mp3 player? I don't nevessarily feel the need for the name brand - just something with loads of space and good fb?

I got my Shuffle at ebay. I paid 34 bucks for it including shipping. I love it, and it's perfect to carry for walking. (I use it in the gym...)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

DOOD. Sweet! I will look into that, THANK YOU!!

[crevette.livejournal.com]

There is no funk like 3day funk. Seriously.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha! YEAH. One thing that could help me... our finishing spot is the Fort Worth Stockyards. Hopefully the smell of mingling longhorns by the hundreds can mask the Oduer de Stoneee. :D

mp3 rec

[leila82.livejournal.com]

I have a Rio Karma - 20 gb, and I've had it for almost 2.5 years. No problems, no drop in battery function that I've noticed. Occasionally it will freeze and I'll have to reset it, but...it's electronic, it's not going to be perfect, you know? The downside is that it doesn't have all those quite accessories, and I really really wish it had an arm band thingy like the iPods do, for working out purposes.

Re: mp3 rec

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's one I've heard of. Cool! And honestly, I don't like the arm bands, so that's not a hindrance. I'd rather clip it, or stick it in my pocket.

GOOD TO KNOW! Thank you!

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

If you just want to put a playlist of songs to walk to, I'd suggest an ipod shuffle. I have a Mini Ipod (which they don't seem to make anymore, grr), but my feeling is that you either buy the big thing with all the space (for a fair amount of money) or you get a shuffle. Because you're home most of the time, it's easy enough for you to switch your shuffle music up now and then. If you had a commute by train/subway or were travelling for work all the time, I'd say go with the full ipod, but you don't really seem to need to be able to store ALL of your music on it.

When is your walkathon? I didn't notice dates on your pages.

Good luck with the school gardening gig. I don't like to be in charge either. But I find that my personality is such that without good leadership, I tend to want to take over rather than do what an idiot tells me. So maybe this will be a good thing.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

The walkathon is October 27-29th. Last weekend of the month, so when it's finally decent weather in Texas. :) I wouldn't mind the shuffle feature. Mostly I don't care about Video iPods - I don't need to look at a tiny ass screen. I want to be able to play several hours of music while I'm walking/training. The order doesn't matter, so shuffle is good, thanks!

And haha to your comment re: "I tend to want to take over rather than do what an idiot tells me." YEAH. If someone tried to teach the group to stomp on the plants when you put them in, or to water every day, my hed asplode. Hee! I need to make a pink ribbon icon...

[southernbangel.livejournal.com]

Seriously, what was Ali Larter's power? Everyone else's was clear but hers. . . wasn't. Or maybe I'm just not hip with the superhero powers. Dunno. Overall, I enjoyed the show and the coming weeks look pretty interesting. Of course, it's unknown whether the future episodes will actually be interesting.

No recs on iPod thingie (Maren loves hers so she'd probably one to ask). I still rely on my walkman. Don't tell me I'm not up with technology. :P

[major-thom4321.livejournal.com]

Good it's not just me then. I couldn't figure it out either. However it does look like her image in the mirror enjoyed butchering the thugs.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Her power was to mock herself!! Yeah - I get that she represents the "power for bad" side of the coin, but AMBIGUOUS.

I have a CD player with fat Bose headphones! NICE. That's SUPER EASY to walk around outside with, hahahahaha!

[brandil.livejournal.com]

So I apparently missed S60 and Heroes. Evidently, I fail at this TV thing.

You know you wanna be in charge of the greenhouse - imagine all the plants you can grow and nurture and all the children that you can infuse a love of growing things in. Just pretend the rest of it doesn't exist.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

GAH! Heroes is re-airing tonight at 7, for the record. (Maybe 8 in your time zone) And I can point you to the torrent file for Studio 60, if you use bittorrent? THey're GREAT.

(And if I could work with the little kids in the greenhouse? YAY! They're so sweet and easy to cuddle...)

[knotted-rose.livejournal.com]

I must admit I enjoyed Heroes more than I thought I would. I loved, loved, *loved* the Japanese guy. It was great exposition. And that Indian geneticist? Yowser. Wow. Yowser. Yeah. Liked him more than's healthy, I'm afraid. *G* It was so obvious when the whiner dreamer and he were in the car together, how *good* he was and how *bad* the other guy was. . .

Best of luck with the green house!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

The geneticist has the most GORGEOUS British accent. Mmmmm, quite posh, he is. I want him to have better material to work with. And Hiro is FUNNY. I like that. The "dreamer" brother gets on my NERVES. (And I think he and his brother are supposed to be the "leads" which irritates me.)

And thank you!

[entrenous88.livejournal.com]

I've got a shuffle, which I use on and off. But it only holds about 100 songs, which I think you'd be totally sick of by the end of a three-day mega-walk like yours. Plus, if you get a larger capacity/memory one, you can always keep music files on that rather than on your comp, and free up some space that way.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

One good thing is I CAN'T use headphones/headsets during the acatual walk - I could be disqualified! (Safety reasons, you see) So, I'd only be using it for training walks. But those are getting closer to 4 and five hours as the month of October wanes, so maybe a shuffle isn't going to hold enough music to keep me cheered? Hmmm. How long does yours play?

Oooh! Maybe I could download books or something... I will keep investigating, THANK YOU!

[major-thom4321.livejournal.com]

I have a iPod Nano, the one Gig model and use iTunes. Using them together is very simple, it is also very easy to rip music into iTunes. However you cannot use iTunes in most standard MP3 players, but by recording the music to CD and then ripping it back to you music library you can.

I got my first Craig MP3 player as an experiment (crevette got it for me for Christmas) to see how much I would use it. I thing she spent about $35.00 to $40.00 on it and it did it's job well, it was powered by several AAA batteries.

Like most things, make sure it has the features you want and pay for what you want. Do you need a long play list? If you don't buy a unit with smaller memory. Do you want random play? Do you want it to display photos? How long do you plan on using it per day/week?

Hope this helped a bit.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I want to play my extensive collection of mp3s, basically. I don't care about video or pics, honestly. I've got about 12 gigs of mp3 files - being able to dl'd new playlists when I get bored with the current would be nice, so esae of use is high on my list. I want it to have a storage capacity of four or five hours worth of music, too.

And you helped a LOT. I've heard about the Nanos - nice and slim, which is something I like. I don't want some massive and unweildy piece of equipment on my body. *puts away boombox* Ha. THANK YOU!

[stephanierb.livejournal.com]

I love my iPod, but I have a Mac so it makes sense for me to stick with that brand.

I continue to enjoy Studio 60, but I did think that the big "number" they did was a bit lackluster.

I agree. I thought there were some funny lines, but overall, for a big number, it fell a bit short. I don't know how many sketches we're going to see on the show, but I would think that if it was going to be a substantial number, then an experienced sketch comedy writer would've been hired to be on the writing staff.

It would have been better for them to have discussed what it was, and have it playing in the background while the dialogue rode over it.

Do you mean it would've been better if they were telling the jokes with the music in the background, like those Real Men of Genius radio ads? I've never seen the Steve Martin sketch you're referring to so I can't compare. Also, my brain is in sleep mode at the moment, so I'm a little slow on the uptake. :-)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm glad I wasn't the only one with the "meh" feeling to the Big Number. Yeah - I hope they don't attempt sketch comedy on the show - I don't think that's a strong suite with this group of writers, and they're SO strong in all other aspects of the show, you know?

As for the "playing in the background," I didn't do a good job of explaining myself. Basically, they could have started the Big Number to establish that it's going on, cut to audience members laughing, maybe some of the execs sighing in relief, that sort of thing, then carried on with dialogue of the other characters, like Matt and Benny with the Big Number in the background - so the camera isn't focused on it. Does that make sense? It just went on too long - the direct camera shot of the number that was lackluster, imo.

And the thing with iPod is yeah - I'm not a Mac user, so I don't want to just be buying into the cache of having one, if that makes sense. I feel like I heard about Sandisk from someone on my flist...

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

the Indian geneticist can drag me off into a corner and have his way with me, ungh

Mrowr, me too. There's something about an attractive Indian or Egyptian or Ethiopian that, to me, is like catnip to a cat: irresistable. That lovely dark skin and hair, in combination with that bone structure, is beauty personified.

I absolutely agree about the pacing on Heroes. I told my husband mid-way into it that I'm hoping they pick it up in future episodes or they've lost me. I could understand why, with establishing all those characters, they chose to take it a bit slow in the opener.

And I love and adore my iPod, so call me brand loyal on that: it does everything I want as respects sorting and storing and ease of use with the music, keeps a good charge, and Apple will stand behind it should I ever have a problem with it (my husband had a problem with his and it was replaced with a brand new one, no questions asked).

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's good to know about iPod, re: service. I just want to load several hours of music, be able to change that intermittantly, and not have to swap out the battery after four hours, you know? Thanks for chiming in!

And YES on the Indian man. UNGH. I want to run my hands through his hair, GOOD LORD.

[slasheuse.livejournal.com]

Hello! I am staving off the Woe by lj-ing while the girl showers. She is looking ridiculously beautiful. *sap* ANYway. Hello hello! Would probs be easier if you mailed the stuff to my college address (the stuff pertaining to me, anyway), where I'll be from Saturday or so. Shall email you it in a bit. Hope you're doing well. *hugs hugs hugs*

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

HELLO, SWEETHEART!! Oh, you will have romantic and memorable airport kisses of farewell, and there will be "I love you so much" phone calls in your near future, so there's that to look forward to!

Poor babies. Email me when convenient, much love to you and Laura *hugs hugs hugs*

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

I agree about How I Met Your Mother. I've tried several times to watch and I find it just downright bad. I like Harris' delivery of lines but the things he says are vile and I can't imagine any intelligent person spending time with him.

[zandra-x.livejournal.com]

And wow, LJ, that was not the icon I wanted there.

[semby.livejournal.com]

Studio 60 - that was exactly what I mentioned when someone who missed the episode asked how it was. It was good, but the performance in the show within the show just didn't work for me, at all.

Heroes had a few things that annoyed me, but was exciting enough that I'll definitely keep watching.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yeah - they shouldn't do the SHOW show. Just stick with the show. Heh. THe great thing is you know EXACTLY what I meant by that.

:D

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I want to bitchslap everybody who says that they need to show the actual sketches (including Crazy Christians) because ZOMG no you don't. In fact you shouldn't. I think your idea of having it playing in the background while other stuff goes on is the best.

Rules of comedy aside, part of the problem is that if you're there talking about Matt and Danny being the second coming of comedy no matter if the sketches are being written by the ressurected corpse of Richard Pryor himself there's always going to be SOMEBODY who thinks the sketch isn't funny and therefore you've shot the premise right in the foot. Keep the sketches offscreen and we can always imagine what they're like.

Also? The audience is killing it. Remember on the panel when I talked about don't have the other characters laugh at your character's joke? It's one thing if there's an actual live studio audience providing the laughing, but when it's a fake studio audience who is clearly being directed and/or dubbed to sound as though they are peeing their pants at the ZOMG comedy in front of them it kills the humor dead for the actual audience sitting at home with their five cats.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

It's never a good idea to set yourself up for a fall - OMG this is gonna be HILARIOUS, watch! You've just told the one asshole in the audience to not laugh, basically.

I've not come across anyone who's wanting the sketches - honestly, they don't have those kind of writing chops. It's a completely different type of comedy writing. He should stick to what he does best: witty banter in the Altman style with a sucker punch of deep meaning.

[serenelystrange.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you've already been told, but I would recomend ebay for soem kind of mp3 player. Even the brand names arent too badly priced. And, can I just say, I am so glad I wasnt the only one who found the Indian guy yummy, because he really really was, lol. :)


Also, I just wanted to know, is there some particular reason you removed me from your friends list?(i was doing that "who friended you today" meme type thing)I happened to see your name, along with Dovil's for that matter. Anyway, I just want to make sure I havent offended you in any way. If it was just routine cleaning, or whatever, no problem. I just hope I havent pissed you off or anything. Please let me know. This isnt some lame attempt for attention or "please refriend me!" thing. I'm just curious. Ok, I'll stop rambling now, as i do. :D

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm definitely going to check into Ebay, after so many of you recommended it! As for my reading list, I change it all the time due to time constraints. I don't mean offense by it. Time's money and all that. :) (Of course you didn't piss me off, or anything! I'm hard to piss off, actually. Heh.)

[anelith.livejournal.com]

The school has a greenhouse! How wonderful! Oh, you know it'll be a grand project for you, even if starting it may be a bit daunting. The best thing is that you'll be able to do it right, from the very start, if you are the one getting it off the ground. There aren't many parents in the community who could do such a thing, I'm sure.

I put off reading your thoughts on Heroes because we didn't get a chance to watch it until last night. I thought it was wonderful! Agree with you on Mohinder (?), the Indian character, very much. Yum. But the one who captured my heart entirely was Hiro! The dialogue between him and his friend, full of Star Trek references... priceless. Ron and I are probably dense, but we didn't see the final bit with the brothers coming so it was a very nice surprise to *be* surprised, if you know what I mean. I have thoughts on how this power is going to work; wonder if I'm going to be right?

Hope you find what you like in an mp3 player! Ron gave me an iPod for our anniversary this past June and I love it.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Man, the teacher pulled me aside yesterday and got a Gleam. You know that gleam, don't you? Apparently I'm heading up the WHOLE PROJECT and they're shouting numbers at me, and telling me that they eventually want an outdoor learning center, too, with hands on labs and..

OH MY GOD, I WANTED TO TEACH KIDS HOW TO GROW WEE PLANTS!! *cries* I am NOT good at administration AT ALL.

Hiro! DIdn't you love him? I loved how perfectly he played the comic foil.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Hee! DearHub had a cape in preschool. It was a red hand towel, with a glitter-glue stripe, that his mom safety-pinned to the back of his shirt at his request, daily.

(whispers)He still has it.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Heeeeeeeeee!!!! Oh, that's ADORABLE. When The Boy stopped playing make believe like that, I was so sad.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

SNORF. I think you're a natural leader.

One of the Master Gardeners down here has organized an awesome program for returning soldiers which includes gardening as therapy. I'm gonna send you the article as soon as I find a stamp.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Dude, I fall apart when it comes to organizing other's activities. Not my thing, yo. But I appreciate the vote of confidence!

Oooh, that sounds awesome! The DCMG do something similar for kids coming out of Juvie hall, too. It's amazing how much it helps, right?