Daphne 3.0

Basking in mediocrity since 2004.

7.24.2006

Lucy, you've got some 'splaining to do!

Lucy, my 15" PB, was a bit sluggish. And she lost her lovely chime on startup. "What the hell?!" I thought as I spent ALL DAY on Sunday diagnosing her issues. She's only two years old. Come on, now. Turns out she had a lower memory slot failure. It's been going around. She's not the only one with this problem.

I truck her into the Apple Store for my appointment at the Genius Bar. At first I was a bit discruntled because while they call themselves a 'bar,' there are no cocktails in sight. Hpf! I was expecting a fight. I was expecting to trot out my research on the internets about this being a problem... But, they were wonderful, as usual. The customer service, spectacular. The geeky jokes, laughable.

She's in the shop, so to speak. She'll be shipped back to me when she's right as rain. Apple's paying for it, because it's a "known issue." And their looking into my problem with the optical drive. It has an off/on again relationship with burning DVDs. Genius #2 was shocked! shocked I say! to hear that the Apple DVDs were failing in the drive. I got a raised eyebrow and an, "oooh" for a reaction. All in all, these are the only problems I've ever had with her. Not too shabby considering how much I work that bitch. Adobe CS running all day, every day, in an hot as schwettyballs home office. Not bad at all.

Major props, kudos, gracias, etc. to the Apple Store geeks. They rock. And didn't even have to write a letter to Steve Jobs to get good service. Not one finger was raised to get the rock star treatment.

I still have Little Ricky to work (and blog) on. So all is right with the world. Well, just as long as Lucy comes home in one piece.

what can I say, it's a drive by

1. Swimming at the public pool is great motivation to never eat again. Everytime I'm in the locker room, a swarm (gaggle?) of elderly, quite rotund, women are in there with me. Nekid. Maybe you won't eat again either with that visual.

2. Heat wave, schmeat wave. What's a few 103 days? Fah. My ass is melting off. See point #1.

3. Dog #2, aka Princess Samantha Pants has a phobia. For real. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves since the symptoms for Containment Phobia are exactly what she does. She tore her paw up eating and scratching at the door frame to get in the house. Dawgs.

4. Everyone and their in-laws are coming to town to watch my triathlon. My parents. Their dogs? My brother. His girlfriend. My in-laws. My dogs? My MIL thinks we can "meet up somewhere afterwards as a family." Didn't she get the memo? It's a triathlon. Hello? The only meeting up with afterwards I'll be doing is with all the food I stopped eating (per point #1), beer, a shower and a couch. Not in that order.

5. I un-linked my blog to my business website. Instead I'll blog on my business site with business related issues and ideas. It doesn't have anything to do with what I say on this blog, but I want to use that blog more for commercial gain. If you know what I mean. (money)

6. Trying to find an handyman to replace the door destroyed by dog #2. Yes, we are on the Home Depot Christmas card list, but we just don't feel up to replacing a pre-hung door. OK? Fine.

That's all for now. Must go make some moolah.

7.12.2006

still kickin'

Made it back from conference #1 in one piece. DC was beautiful, when it stopped raining. I adore mass transit and couldn't get enough of the metro, with a stop under my hotel, the city was my playground. If only I wasn't in sessions the whole time. It did throw me off my training schedule. I tried to sub running on a treadmill a few days, which was awesome! At 5 feet above sea level, I can run for miles without my lungs burning a hole through my chest. Even though it was 97% humidity, I could run and run like the devil was chasing me. Then I came home to Colorado and back to gasping for air after a mile.

Now I know you all can't get enough of the triathlon training talk. Oh no you can't. So there's more. I went on a ride today over to Cherry Creek State Park, where the tri will be held. It's about 3 miles to the park. I peddled around another six or so miles and made my way back home. The thing is, we live on a hill. Or rather, Cherry Creek is downhill from our house. Thus, it's uphill on the way back. No matter what route you take. And I've taken most of them by now. So when I'm tired and my legs are screaming for mercy, and the sweat trickles down in places we will not mention, I have to go uphill to get home. Oy.

And what does a sane person do after a 12+ mile ride? Sit? No! She gets off the bike and runs around the block. At one point the running slowed down to a limping crawl, but I went around the block.

I needed it, you see. I had a bad day yesterday. I blew up and was unkind to someone. Not the cursing, temper tantrum kind of blow up, mind you. I was (am?) a woman on the verge. Sending postcards from the edge, so to speak. I'm at the point where I need to run things through my head and work it out on my own time. Then a kind, yet very pushy, soul stepped in and started pushing my buttons. I tried to deflect, I tried to avoid. But she kept asking. And pushing. And prodding. As if her questions would help me at this point. The more she asked, the more pissed off I became. I know I should have been a grown up at the beginning and told her that I didn't want or need to talk about it at this point. But that's just too easy and adult of me. No. I tried to end the conversation as soon as possible, which made her push even more. Finanally I snapped. And then she understood. But it was too late. It was out. On the table. Where everyone stood and looked at it, wondering what it was and where it came from.

But the thing is, I felt so much better after I cried about it. So very much better. And in a moment of clarity I realized that my priorities are completely out of wack. That I've been putting too much energy in one place, and that I need to direct it in another. It became very clear that I'm heading in a direction I shouldn't be. And for that, for that pushy conversation, I am grateful.

End vague references. Back to biking. Must get bike shorts. Ouch. My tush.

7.04.2006

Like Apple Pie.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

P.S. That's right, beeotch.

7.03.2006

All I've got.

The last few, oh, say, weeks, have gone by in a blender. Training, working, bidness, friends, bbq, training, reading, training, bidness... now you're caught up. As I told a dear friend on the phone last night, I'm just trying to get to tomorrow. And another tomorrow. And another. I've got so much self-imposed "todos" on the list that I think I've reached critical mass. I'm out of town next week, going to rain-soaked D.C. for a conference. Then in mid-July, going to Chicago for another conference. We'll see just how easy it is to train for a triathlon while traveling. Why so much training? Let's just say it's a personal demon following me. Or maybe the doubt I hear in my family's voices when I talk to them about it. Or maybe I'm just tired of being lazy. Perhaps it's all of the above.

Then there's the bidness development. I realized that I had severely neglected my baby to focus on other, less important, things. And now it shows with only two projects to get me through the next few weeks. Only two! So after a brief wallowing period, I got back up, brushed my hair, and went back to work trying to get work. I decided that I need to focus (focus!) on one or two groups for networking. Gone are the days of going to every networking event in town. I'm looking at my activities and "todos" and figuring out what to shed, what to keep. Like a Mission Organization for my head. Next "year" (September), I'll be on the board of a woman's group and thus will limit my activities elsewhere. I've also teamed up with a partner in crime to start small business round tables through the same group. They start in September, too.

Until then, I'm just trying to get to tomorrow.