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Friends LiveJournal for Crafty Retardo.
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| Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 |
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I now have my own tea at work. It's cheaper than coffee and has less calories too. Kim is talking about renting a nice big house and getting flatmates. I admit it's kind of tempting. I like the sense of community you can get from sharing a house with the right people. There's been recent discussions on supporting macrons (the a with the bar over it) in the domain name system, as used by modern written Maori. I've been trying to find out the history of the double-vowel vs macron argument and when/who declared the macron to be the winner. The Maori Language Commission has been unhelpful so far. And speaking in purely geeky terms (problems with domain names, typefaces, etc) I kind of wish they'd chosen the double-vowel option. My five-years-ago self wouldn't have believed I'd be eating sushi for lunch most days. Currently I prefer the stuff from St Pierre's but one of the advantages of sushi is that it's pretty bland no matter where you get it from. One of my urgent high-priorty jobs at work was to set up a jukebox and speakers for the IT room. We now have a shitty old laptop running Ubuntu Linux with the Music Player Daemon (mpd) putting music out to some Logitech speakers. I also installed the Pitchfork web GUI. There's a certain lack of elegance in this solution but it does a really good job of fitting the requirements. Most importantly, it fits my use-case where I just want an easy way to queue up albums (I still think in music in album-size chunks). |
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I will probably not be buying an iPhone 3G. For starters, in NZ the new Vodafone plans launched for the iPhone are laughably terrible. It's a given that no-one is buying an iPhone and not anticipating using it for web browsing and whatnot, so you'd expect that iPhone-specific plans would reflect that with hefty data caps, or maybe even a speed-decrease when you hit the cap instead of an over-use charge. No. Vodafone's iPhone-specific plans are, amazingly, actually worse (for data at least) than even the general voice and data plans they already offered. You might get a few more voice minutes and txts but the data side of it is absolutely terrible. Their iPhone-specific $250/month plan gets you 1GB/month of data. However their generic 3G broadband pro plan gives you 6GB/month for around $100 total, with a $10 discount if you use less than 3G. So the new hotness plans are, bewilderingly, completely outclassed by their old busted plans. But yeah, as I say, not really a biggie because you can just buy the handset outright and use it on your old plans, while pointing and laughing at the absurd new ones as they drool in the corner and soil themselves. The main reason that I won't be getting one is apple's fault. I fairly routinely use my current 3G phone as a modem for my laptop. It's a pretty normal thing to do, actually, if you want to get connectivity remotely. My Nokia N95 does it without any problems at all. It's so normal and routine in fact, that I didn't for a moment presume that any modern phone handset wouldn't do it. However, I found out today the iPhone does not support it. At all. So, I'm afraid that's a dealbreaker for me - and a very strange piece of functionality for Apple to leave out of a handset made in 2008. [Edit: I've just been informed that there may actually be a way to make this happen. I am investigating. I'm still inclined to let the first wave of 3G iphones be field-tested by others, I think. I'll just have a play with someone elses and make sure it can do what I want.] |
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| Have a fantastic birthday you gorgeous man, I'll have a drink in your honour tonight!! :-) | ||||||||
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| Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 |
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I'll be going to Craft 2.0 in a couple of weeks. Whee! These are a couple of the things that I'll be selling:  |
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| Thomas is making us Quesadillas for dinner. | ||||||
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 #267 Kitty Warm Scarf Would you like to see a version of this drawing on some Nut and Bee goods? Let us know by submitting the form here! Thank you! Apologies for the lack of Sweeties this week, we had a problem with our internet connection and it took nearly five days for Telecom to fix it! Vexatious! |
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Pikaland, a website that profiles all kinds of illustrators and designers (with a focus on the entrepreneurial) has just launched their second PikaPackage event, this time including some Nut and Bee contributions!   They're currently running a contest where you can win a free PikaPackage, full of prints and stationery and buttons and whatnot. The packages are also for sale in their shop, and you can read about all the contributors here. Forgive the blatant plug - Pikaland is one of my favourite websites :) |
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So, we had a little competition to see who could predict the price of the iPhone in the NZ market. Rules were a little hazy but it was for the 16GB model on contract. I interpret this to mean the minimum contract ($80/month with $699 for the phone) and here we go: ( The guesses - no one else cares ) Lordp was the winner! I was only $50 off so I'm pleased at my predictive power. And for those people whining at the iPhone plans ($80/month for 120 minutes, 600 texts, 250MB data, plus NZ$549 for the 8GB model)... what were you expecting from Vodafone? Judged against their normal price gouging that's actually pretty good. |
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Remember Black Harp at 12. Come along. All the cool kids will be there! Edit: Nice turn out (11 people, slight lack of females (2! including me) but hey I like guys). |
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People who I only really know through various online services and who send me friend requests on Facebook should probably include a message with their nicknames, because I do tend to keep my friends list pared down to just my actual friends. So I end up saying stuff like: "A friend request from [Real Name]? Who the hell is [Real Name]? Hey Sweetheart!? Do we know a [Real name]? No? .. Fuck. Let's check their interests ... Monty Python, Science Fiction ... that's probably someone I know somehow ... what else is there ... World of Warcraft .. 70 Mage on Proudmoore .. Oh! It's Elfburger! Why didn't he just say he was Elfburger in the first place?" |
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This morning I made burritos for breakfast. Then I cleaned up while listening to The Front Lawn's Breakfast Anthem/Mess Song. Now I'm binging on The Front Lawn, it's been a while since I've listened to them. |
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Okay, so. Superbishops. Special, super, bishops. That only guys can be. Because obviously they're needed, now that women can be regular bishops. Oh course, when women get to be Superbishops, I guess they'll have to make Ultrabishops, or Hyperbishops or OMEGA BISHOPS. Can't really have women being in charge, after all. What happens if they have to make an important decision and it's that time of the month? Or maybe they're distracted by ribbons or kittens? Where would we be then? Fucks sake. What the hell is WRONG with people? |
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| Monday, July 7th, 2008 |
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Still no sign of Marlene. Geraldine thought she had seen her outside but all I found was another shy kitty that seemed rather hungry. When I came home from work, spending probably about an hour in the garden and around the house just calling her, one of the few times I've done that tonight, probably annoying the hell out of our lovely neighbours. Lovely because I actually knocked doors to ask if they've seen her and if I could maybe call the cat in their garden. They all let me and were absolutely sweet. But nothing. So I made and printed 150 flyers that I spread in the entire area, in mail boxes, on cars, bus stops and pretty much every spot that looked like it'd hold one. Photo of the cat on it and a note there'd be a reward. If only I can get my chicken back. When I went outside for the second time earlier I just broke down crying. I haven't been crying a lot while I probably should have. Losing the cat hurts me so much more than losing John. It's a tough thing to say but the cat was my child. I raised her from so very little, feeding heeeeeeeeeeevery few hours even in thenight, I sat next to her when she was nearly dying from cat flu with super high temperature twice and I just love my wee kitten. I just hope she's alright. I looked at the sides of the road as well but nothing. Leisa reckons she keeps hearing her around the house near her room. I'm still hoping but it's getting less. I just spent so so much time calling her, you know. I checked every garden and dark corner I could get to in the entire area. And John, I told him and he said it'd just make him mad that she was gone. The he corrected my english because I gforgot to add a "have" somewhere. Which made me just close down the messenger. I don't need that. I just meant to let him know in case for some bizarre reason, as cats are, she pops up there. At 2am I'll need to leave to bFM. I might just put myself into bed for a wee while. |
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*evil laughter* You ladies on my FL already know that I drag everyone there... :) |
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The GODDAMN Internet! I HAS IT! I guess Telecom fixed our DSL at the exchange today, because we have connectivity again, and no tech has come out here. Honestly, it's like stepping free into the sunlight after a long and injust imprisonment. |
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OMG WE HAVE THE INTERNET AGAIN I am still very angry about the whole thing, but at least it's back now. I have been checking email occasionally (I am very grateful for JSR's cellphone facility), and posting orders as usual, but am behind on everything else. I hope to catch up as much as I can tonight, and sketch_sweeties will resume tomorrow!
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http://www.hicksville.co.nz/Nga%20Pakiw Oh cool my new roomie Barry! I was looking on google if I could find some of his stuff online |
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Got good news today re acceptance to the design school I wanted to go to to update/bring into existance my programming skills. Phew! Awesome! Not so good: This morning around 5am I went to the loo and Marlene must've snuck out of the room in the dark. When I came back she was gone. So I walked through the kitchen to check the back door and there she was, outside. But it was around zero degrees and I was in a nighty, so I went and got some warmer clothes, then back to the door to call her but she wouldn't come. No luring, nothing helped. I thought, well, she managed to find the way out by herself and we had been outside together during the day to just show her how it looks like, so she'll get back in by herself. I left all doors open, in spite of the icy draft but no kitty. When I woke up again, all stiff and sneezy and even worse - coughy and sore throaty - she still wasn't there. I spent about 30 minutes running through the neighbourhood calling her but not even meows. And then I had to go to work. I just had to, I really really need the money very badly. I gave the flat a call and Leisa answered the phone. She said she could hear Marlene under the house. Phew. So I'm just ever so slightly less worried. All in all things are alright, I'm still kind of depressed and can't fucking believe he's found himself another foreign girl for his usual businesses. I wonder if he's got this hot and cold behaviour going that he used to have with me. Oh well, not that it matters, other women are sure smarter than me and don't just think it was just miscommunication. If only I had listened to my inner voice before, would have saved a lot of pain. What else, well, my roomies are really sweet and I feel very much at home already. I really like my room and as we can do pretty much whatever we fancy, I might paint my walls eventually. Leisa and I went out on Saturday to a strange concert. it meant to be a goth concert at the Thirsty Dog but turned out to be rockabilly, which would have been okay, but then it turned atmospherical, psychedelic prog type stuff. I really was too tired for that. Ah the rockabilly reminded me of the good old days in Germany, I loved it. On the way there all of a sudden a total gust hit us and you could have leant against the wind without falling over. Imagine that! I'm ready for visitors, too, so if you feel like hanging out for some DVDs etc, just give us a call :-) Lots more to tell but I've been terribly busy with moving, being depressed etc. Only ever listen to music on the computer. |
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Porn cuts into TV sports programme Sky has apologised for a technical glitch which caused pornography to screen on thousands of televisions yesterday. Toyota Grassroots Rugby was showcasing its usual fare of premier and senior club rugby on Prime TV yesterday when adult channel Spice:xcess interrupted. About four minutes of the hour-long sports show was replaced by Spice at about 3pm for digital subscribers in Auckland and Northland. Spice, one of three Sky adult channels, offers "sexy, exotic women, fetish lifestyle, ethnic and gonzo for those who believe variety is the Spice of life," according to the broadcaster's website. North Shore Sky subscriber Mike Steenson was watching the rugby show with his 3-year-old son when porn rolled across his screen. At first he thought it was a prank. "I'm not sure how many people were watching but it's not something you expect to come on, on a Sunday. You can't make mistakes like that." Sky's director of communications, Tony O'Brien, said a technical fault in the system which manages the distribution of programmes was to blame. "We apologise for any offence which may have been caused," he said. The fact that it happened on a Sunday when kids and parents were likely to be at home was "doubly" embarrassing. Steps had been taken to ensure that it would not happen again, Mr O'Brien said. Coupla news clips from YouTube (contains mild hysteria and over-reaction): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAfjlTqW http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoJffUof |
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Hello! Chow was yummy but not really suited for a casual Tuesday lunch. This week we're trying The Black Harp (on Featherston St) and I hope it's good so that we can stop moving around. I hope to see you there at 12 on Tuesday. |
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I'm on holiday. I have today and tomorrow off work. I decided I needed a couple of days off to catch up with myself. In general I'm starting to feel more balanced, alive and well, like myself again which is wonderful (hey, I like being me). This morning I got up at our normal time (5.50am, insane) and went to the gym. Then I cooked beagl breakfast (scrambled eggs on toast with mushrooms and onions served with a pot of tea). Today will be about
Tomorrow I will be at Tuesday lunch, you should come. We will be lunching at the Black Harp this week (12 O'clock) |
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| Sunday, July 6th, 2008 |
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So, in the last week or so I've taken three cars for a drive: - 1998 Toyota Altezza RS200 sedan (2.0 litre, 6 speed) - 1998 Mazda MX5 RS convertible (1.8 litre, 6 speed) - 1998 Peugeot 306 GTI6 hatchback (2.0 litre, 6 speed) The Altezza was powerful, fast, seemed to handle ok - but it was boring. And $14k seemed a bit excessive for a 10 year old car in ok condition. The MX5 was fun in the standard convertible way (I took my driving gloves especially!) But, two seats, soft-top... not so practical. They wanted $13k and would do a deal, but then I'd have to get a new stereo, alarm, new tyres, and a new cambelt. I also suspect it would need a new clutch. Finally there was the Peugeot which was pretty good. Powerful enough, handled well, had four seats and seemed well looked after. But the clutch either needs adjustment or replacement, and he already had two offers for more than I wanted to pay for it. More importantly, none of them particularly excited me. When I bought my first sports car I was pretty excited about it - "A sports car! Wheee! Zoom!" Maybe I'm over that? And there's no point buying toys if you don't really want them. So, it looks like the decision will be to keep the Transport Unit and save the money. Although I will buy it a new stereo as the current one sucks... |
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Well, to be honest, staying in Raumati was pretty similar to how it would have been if I'd stayed at home. We huddled inside next to the heaters and read and ate and ... so on. That said, it was still nice to be somewhere else just for a change. There was snow on the hills above Raumati on the way home. I'm off to see a couple of cars today and then tonight it's vegetable pasta bake. Nom! |
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| Saturday, July 5th, 2008 |
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Late last thursday morning, my home DSL connection failed. When I got home, I logged into the router and saw no login, no line protocol, and no carrier signal. But we still had a dial tone. So as a final test, I unplugged our filter and plugged the phone directly into the unfiltered wall socket, then listened for the static-y crap that is a DSL signal bleeding into unfiltered PSTN audio. Nothing. Clear as a bell. So, either the DSLAM port was busted, or more likely a tech misread a work order or a label and has disconnected us from DSL. Anyway, ICONZ tells Annette that they will "send out a telecom tech". Telecom cannot, of course, give us any kind of time, they just say that the tech will call first. In the meantime, I connect through my cellphone, and NAT that onto the LAN so Annette can has some Internets. But that is not the Fail Train to which I refer. This is: I keep a Woosh modem and account kicking around for _just_ this set of circumstances, in case my real internet connection is down, I can use it as a temporary link. So I pull the modem off the shelf, plug it in to a spare windows box (because I can't find the ethernet cable to do PPPoE, so it has to be a USB modem and I only have drivers for XP), set it up, install their software, and log in .. or not, because my carefully recorded username and password are declined. It's logging in fine with Woosh's "new user" account, but my userid and password aren't being accepted by the web page this brings up (which also then sets the userid and password on the dialup connection). The web page says "If you are having any problems, please call the woosh helpdesk 24/7" so I call it. A recorded voice says "You have called our support line outside normal hours. Please call back." Oh, yeah, because no-one uses the internet outside office hours. That's fucking awesome. Also, your web page lies. Double-awesome. This morning, I call Woosh support. They reset my password. I try to log in. It doesn't work. They reset it again. I try again. They tell me to not use their software and instead to set up a new connection, which I do. Doesn't work. Then they tell me that I have an "old modem" and that .. get this .. I have to -bring into woosh- to be flashed, since I also have an old CD without "flasher software" on it. Further, I can only do this during business hours. Which is not useful to me on a friday night, or in general because during business hours I am at work, doing business. I point out that the modem is connecting to them with the default new user account, so it's working fine. I can get to their new user walled garden web page, no problem. I suggest that the problem pretty much has to be their authentication system. He insists that the modem firmware needs flashing. I ask if the flasher can be downloaded from the new user area, which I can get to. He says no. I tell him that's retarded. He is silent. I ask him if he doesn't think that's retarded? He is silent. I cancel my Woosh account. I should point out that Woosh just managed to lose the very best possible customer they could ask for - the guy that routinely pays his monthly account, and _doesn't use the service_, thus taking up no resources. Now, that has ended, and I shall be telling this story of epically shitty service and support to anyone who even mentions Woosh to me in the future. The Fail train. Catch it today! |
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| Hello everyone, guess who's online again. Not for long though because I got so much work and I am so tired, I didn't exactly sleep a whole lot. Just checking in, really. And off I am again, bye! | ||||||||
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| Friday, July 4th, 2008 |
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Yay, off to Raumati for the weekend. We've packed both a heater and a hot water blanket. |
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While cruising around on a friend of a friends page, I came across this AMAZING tv show, and low and behold, my favourite band is on it! The show is called "Noisescape, and I think this is episode 2 ... it features my lovely friend in Seattle, sxs6sxs and her band, Cylab, along with Ayria, Inertia and others .... |
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| To all my wonderful friends in America (and 'you there' living in England!), have a fantastic holiday weekend! :) | ||||||||||
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We're back on the no-Internet train, until Telecom deigns to investigate our sudden lack of connectivity. I've just picked up my email/orders using JSR's cellphone connection, so everything will be shipped as normal today, but I'm otherwise off the grid until further notice. >:( |
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| Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 |
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 ETA: ( AHAHAHAHA ) |
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| Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 |
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| Seen at the supermarket: someone driving away with half a bag of chips sticking out of the boot. | ||||||
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Tinker by Wen Spencer is set in a modern kind of post-apocalyptic + magic world and has lots of wit, action and human-elf sex. Apparently the pointy ears are erogenous zones. I enjoyed reading it and I'm pleased to note that the author has written quite a few more books. Then there's the Indiana Jones movie. It has lots of action. It had a few laughs. It had aliens. And it was all ... quite enjoyable in a low-key kind of a way. It's probably better viewed when drunk so as to disengage the critical faculties somewhat. |
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| Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 |
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 #266 Monkeyrocket Would you like to see a version of this drawing on some Nut and Bee goods? Let us know by submitting the form here! Thank you! |
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I had my *ahem procedure yesterday, and I'm extremely glad that it's over ... the 'actual' colonoscopy itself wasn't too bad, (although I don't wish to EVER do another one), but the preparation for it is what really bites ... from Friday, I was only allowed to eat a very few things (there wasn't actually anything on the list I would eat!), so I totally cheated and had some hot Nandos chips on Saturday afternoon, my only meal over the weekend ... come 2.pm Sunday I was supposed to drink THREE litres of the most disgusting stuff I have ever tasted, over the course of three hours ... it's lemony and sweet, so your first thoughts are "this isn't too bad" ... however, after my second cupful, I was dry-retching at the thought of having to drink more ... :( It has a certain 'viscous' quality, that is just yuck, so I really struggled to get it down ... however, I obviously drank enough of it, as it did the job it was supposed to do ..... (ewww!) ... So anyway, apart from what they knew they'd find (to do with my diverticulitis), everything else is working and running perfectly, so no surgery for me, just yet!! |
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 New collage featuring the divine honeymodel. The copyright for the photograph is retained by Honey and may not not be used without permission. Kind of a continuation of my "Hollywood Goddesses" series: Summer On Veronica Lake Saint Betty Planet Janet Collage on canvas, 30x40cm, coated with Mod Podge for protection, and ready to hang. This piece is for sale - NZ$350 (US$267) plus shipping. |
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| Monday, June 30th, 2008 |
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I found a flat in a nice place in Ponsonby. It's an old house but the room is a decent size, I could bring Marlene and most of all, the people I met today were so nice that I spent pretty much the whole evening. Now I just need to find out about uni, if they want me or not, and then I'm out. I'm pretty emotionally stressed out. If you want to hear some happy radio, on Tuesday morning 3-6am I'll be on at www.95bfm.com That's Monday night European times. Thanks so much for all your emails and messages, I'll try to reply tomorrow! It means a big deal to me! x |
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I finally got to drive a Toyota Altezza RS200 today. It was in ok condition (but not as good as the owner thought) and seemed to work well... but it was boring. A light-weight car with good handling and 150kw of power shouldn't feel so pedestrian. It was actually fairly quick, but it was the sort of quickness where you lose your license for driving 30kmh over the limit, not the sort that makes you go "Wheee!" I can feel the MX5s calling me... (At which point Kim chatted online: "Ok, go buy one now and pick me up in it tonight"). |
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Tuesday lunch will be at Chow on Woodward St at noon. The food should be better than the Occidental and I believe they have $12 plates at lunch so it'll be cheaper as well! I've booked for 8, I hope that works out ok. :-) |
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Friends LiveJournal for Crafty Retardo.
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happy.
depressed.
optimistic.
exhausted.
dorky.
stressed.