The Lynnster Zone

babbling since february 1997

Archive for the ‘happy birthday’ Category

As My Grandfather Used to Say, It’s Better Than the Alternative

Posted by Lynnster on March 14, 2008

Oops, I forgot to blog this week, huh?  Wow, sorry.  This week has just been crazy busy.

So even though it has not moved from my driveway since Wednesday, sometime within the last 48 hours the windshield of my not-even-a-year-old-yet car developed a crack.  It’s at the bottom of the windshield (well, mostly) and not all THAT bad, I suppose, but come on, this is a practically new car that doesn’t even have 10K miles on it yet – and it hasn’t been out of my driveway since Wednesday!  I know we had a bad storm last night, but I discerned no hail, and I don’t see any evidence around of why this would have happened, so yeah, I’m not happy right now.  Happy Birthday to me.

Yeah, I don’t usually make a fuss about or even remotely announce such things, but since LiveJournal already ratted me out to Smiley and I guess everyone else on my LJ list, I figured I would go ahead and acknowledge it so I could gripe some more.  Right now I’m enjoying my last seven-ish hours of being able to say I’m 41.  Because 42 just sounds… older.

(Apologies to ‘Coma who is a little flipped out about 42 right now… hee.)

(PS When someone posted on Twitter last week about Gilligan’s Island’s Mary Ann, Dawn Wells, getting busted for weed, I really thought it was a joke and didn’t pay any more attention to it.  Well, I’ll be.)

(PPS Technically I won’t be 42 until 2:24 a.m. so really that’s nine-ish hours of being able to say I’m 41.  Hey look, I’ll take what I can get, even if it’s only two more hours of being younger.)

Posted in blah, blogfolks, blogstuff, celebrity fruitcakes, friends are good, getting older sucks, happy birthday | Leave a Comment »

I Love It Loud

Posted by Lynnster on April 18, 2007

Pardon me while I go all Kerry Woo & Smiley on you for a moment, but lookie what arrived this afternoon, and it wasn’t even supposed to have been delivered until Thursday! Yay! (Click the pic to see full size pic and specs.)

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I lost my MP3 player a few weeks ago, which was a cheap Nano knockoff anyway so it was no big loss, and I decided I would use part of my birthday present moola for a new and better one. I pretty much use mine in the car 100% now instead of lugging along CDs – as well as other occasions – so it was getting to be a must.

I am a lifelong Apple hater (though Vista may well send me to a Mac next computer buy) and I loathe iTunes, so an iPod was out of the question. My mom bought one of those teeny 4 giggers from Creative a couple of months ago, but I wanted something bigger. As I usually do, I spent hours the other night researching all the usual tech places and reading expert and user reviews, I decided the TrekStor vibez was the one for me. I was kind of leaning towards the newest Creative 30 or 60 GB ones, or the Toshiba Gigabeat, but I just don’t need all that video stuff and all the other non-audio bells & whistles right now. Sure, it would be nice to be able to carry around 100% of what I own musically, but I just don’t need all that extra crap at present and since I’m going from having a 1 GB to a 12 GB, I think that’ll do me just fine for a while. They have a 15 GB to be released this year, but especially after taking a long drive last weekend without a player, I just didn’t want to wait (plus this one was temporarily marked down, woo).

The big selling point for me, besides the awesome sound it’s supposed to have and the largish storage space, is the removable & rechargeable battery. Even though it’s just a little less than half of the storage space on Creative’s 30 GB M Vision, I’d much rather have something I can swap the battery out of and just buy a spare battery for about 25 bucks than have one with twice the storage space, but in which the battery is not removable and if it just dies completely eventually, your best option is just to buy another one (another player). And video capability is all very well, fine, and good, but I have a laptop as it is and I just wasn’t into having all the video and photo junk on my MP3 player too, I’m really not that interested in what it can do for me other than audio-wise. If Creative and Toshiba and the big guys ever come out with big 30 & 60 GB and higher ones that have the removable battery, now we’re talking.

But for now this will suit me just fine. It’s German and it’s techy (con for some folks but a plus for me) and it’s supposed to have really awesome sound, and for the most part got some really excellent reviews from most of the usual experts as well as users, especially compared to the other top products in the hard drive and microdrive and flash categories. I haven’t loaded all my stuff onto it yet and listened, but I’m about to! I’m so tickled it arrived a day early (and only about a day and half, or less, after I ordered it).

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And here is an insane kitten, who was trying to “help” me open it and open all the stuff that came with it.

Posted in * cat photos, * miscellaneous photos, blogfolks, cats, happy birthday, lynnster's zoo, music, music junkie stuff, techgeekchick stuff | 2 Comments »

Not Unlike When I Wouldn’t Let Her Play With My Barbies

Posted by Lynnster on March 21, 2007

Dear Kid Sister,

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Even though it’s a purse, and it’s black…

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Even though it’s about the same size as all those purses you like so much…

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Even though it has kitties and pawprints on it…

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Even though it’s your birthday today, you can’t have it.

But Happy Birthday anyway!

Love,

Your Favorite Sister

Posted in * miscellaneous photos, a family thing, happy birthday, i am a mean big sister, terminal smartass | 6 Comments »

101 Degrees and Counting

Posted by Lynnster on February 10, 2007

Much to my regret and sorrow, I decided a little while ago that it was probably not a good idea to drive up to Nashville today and spread my germs around. I woke up an hour late as it was since my alarm clock decided not to go off this morning, but also with an extremely sore throat, aching all over (my neck hurts so bad I can only move it so far), and a temp of 101+, which that pretty much sealed the deal figuring I don’t need to drive all the way up there and potentially give everyone my crud. An hour later after the first check, I was still running a temp so I figure I have made the right decision, I guess, since this was just going to be a quick jaunt up and back anyway.

I’m just upset about not being there for Sista’s birthday as well as AGAIN not getting to sample Mothership BBQ and the mac ‘n cheese, but I guess the BBQ & M&C will still be there whatever Saturday afternoon I do get up there for lunch with John. I probably wouldn’t have a very easy time swallowing today anyway and wouldn’t enjoy it as much, everything I’ve had to drink since I got up is completely tasteless. Ugh. I’m about to die for some BBQ but I guess it wouldn’t be too great an experience if I can’t taste it. But for a girl from Memphis to not have sampled the BBQ elsewhere for comparison is a travesty, really, and one I will have to do something about very soon, for sure.

I actually did, sometime in December, buy some Zicam because of the huge recommendations from Ceeelcee and Hutchmo, but my head is fine, no sneezing-drippy-stuffy stuff going on. So the Zicam continues to sit, prepared but unopened, in the medicine cabinet.

Well, anyway, so it’s also, like, FREEZING damn cold so I’m going to go crawl my weak kitten self back in bed and try to recuperate a little. I’ll be missing seeing all you guys today, I wish I felt better, but while I know y’all would love to see me, I don’t think my germs will be so warmly welcomed so I’ll keep ‘em to myself. Happy Birthday to my Sista and dear, dear friend, and all of y’all eats lots of good ‘cue and enjoy each other.

(PS to Kathy - I promise your new blog will be ready later this evening… it has been such a crap week, I’m sorry for the delays!)

Posted in BBQ, blah, blogfolks, friends are good, happy birthday, sick as a dog | 5 Comments »

Happy Birthday, Mr. Westerberg

Posted by Lynnster on January 1, 2007

Because I suck and nodded off last night, I missed my annual activity of Happy Birthday shout-outing in honor of Paul Westerberg’s birthday, which comes around every New Year’s Eve. So, slightly belated birthday honors for my faaavorite singer/songwriter in the world ever.

By the way, I mentioned his birthday the other day and got the age wrong, I think. Mr. Westerberg turned 47 yesterday, not 46. Which makes me old, even though I am younger. Eek.

Posted in happy birthday, music, music junkie stuff, paul westerberg, the replacements | 2 Comments »

Wide Awake in America

Posted by Lynnster on December 13, 2006

I’m awake, been awake. It’s okay.

I never went to bed last night, but I did doze off for four or five hours, so that’s a little better in comparison to most nights and days lately.

And tomorrow’s my day off, so unless something comes up about the car that needs to be taken care of in the morning, I’m determined to sleep in. In bed.

And with any luck, the car’ll be fixed today anyway. I didn’t hear anything yesterday, but keeping fingers crossed.

More later, and Happy Birthday, Jay W. – if you’d drive or fly to Memphis this weekend, I’ll spring for crepes and mimosas on the Square on Sunday afternoon…?

Posted in friends are good, happy birthday, i never sleep, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

It’s a Little Bit Funny

Posted by Lynnster on March 24, 2006

I am just overjoyed. (I know, the way things have been around here lately that’s hard to believe, huh? But it’s true!)

Not since the days of KC leeching webspace off me, and his followers the Bobbsey Twins (heh), have I really had any really good, close, OLD longtime friends very active online. Well, maybe a couple, and of course there’s the fact that I probably know about 1,000+ people from the various online Replacements and Hoodoo Gurus camps – alt.music.replacements and the Poison Pen and The Skyway and a dozen or so other online-based factions – and a few other spots I used to hang out over the last 10-15 years. And certainly many of them I have gotten to know offline as well and hung out with – or not – and still all count among close pals today, some I’ve lost touch with, some I still hear from pretty regularly.

But among REALLY old good friends – college and high school days – for the most part I’ve always been sort of the odd (wo)man out when it comes to the Internet, mainly because I’ve been online since the beginning of time practically, while many of them have just gotten Internet access and e-mail in the last few years, or at least on any kind of a regular basis. Not all, of course, but yeah, a lot.

So it just does my heart good and makes even an old jaded techgeekchick like me thrilled to see some of those folks I have known, like, FOREVER, coming along and getting bitten by the blogging bug or the Google addict bug or just the online in general bug. Finally the tables are turned and I get to be the audience for a change and I love it.

Last night I went to one site in particular and read the same two lines probably about 60 times and just cackled with glee. ‘Cos it was one of those things where you probably had to be there – and I was – to really find it funny – but I did and do – and it’s just kind of fun to be on the viewing audience end for a change.

Probably doesn’t make much sense here, I guess, but it does to me and a few others. All I know is I haven’t laughed that much in months and I needed that, so thank you – you know who you are.

Ciao ’til later… I gotta go to work!

P.S. Happy Birthday to John Cosper, wherever you are…

Posted in friends are good, happy birthday, the internet is..., west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

Plain to See Again

Posted by Lynnster on March 20, 2006

Sorry. I have really just been in such a mostly foul mood most of this month I’ve been trying to spare you all the angst and bitching and moaning and generally miserable sobbing and lament, while trying to see if I can find my humorous sarcasm hat again somewhere in the midst of all this mess. It’s here somewhere, I know.

And it’s not just because I had THAT birthday last week – you know, the big one. Really that had nothing to do with it. Unfortunately it doesn’t take some big milestone like turning an age at which some of my friends from high school are becoming grandparents (ewww!) to send life reeling into some big stratosphere of horrific blahs and blues. It just goes to show you that when things aren’t so great but you’ve been dealing with them long enough where everything is tolerable and you can even say that things are basically okay – things can turn so difficult and unbearable so immediately it’ll send your head spinning mega bigtime, yessirree. Wouldn’t trade it all for the world, even as tough as it sounds, but there are also certain aspects of the current state of my personal life I wouldn’t really even wish on my worst enemy. But it’s all worth it, believe it or not. Worth it like you wouldn’t believe. Wouldn’t change a thing.

But enough of that, time’s a-wasting with my possibly very temporary motivation to blog so let’s move on…

I actually had a pretty good time the weekend of my birthday, after initially considering not making the 2+ hour out of town trip. Good to be with old friends, some I hadn’t seen in a while, did not get completely wasted at my birthday party for change. Pros and cons there – no hangover the next morning but no blast staying up all night playing guitar with John Robert ’til sunup either, so I kinda missed that part this year. But all in all it was a good time, much beer, much music, much friendship.

The only slightly embarrassing and off kilter part of the evening was when it suddenly dawned on me, after I’d been there close to an hour, that I had walked past an old boyfriend’s baby brother about a half dozen times by then without realizing it nor, of course, having stopped to speak. Of course that probably had something to do with the fact Baby Brother is no longer a towheaded and small 11 year old, but about a 6′ tall and 250 or so pound police officer nowadays. Yeah, THAT’LL make you feel old.

Though not as old as when his also-cop buddy, who was 10 when I used to pick the two of them up in the summers and take them over to my house to swim in our pool and fix them tuna fish sandwiches for lunch, pulled me over for speeding a few years ago. And that’s going backwards timewise, even, but that REALLY made me feel old. (And no, I did NOT get a ticket… are you kidding? I’m an adopted sister in that family, his two older brothers would have had his head!!!)

Seeing as how I have not actually truly lived small town life since my brief banishment from college in 1985, I can’t really say how it works that way in other non-almost-familial settings and situations. And I’d never dare to just go presuming I’d ever get ANY kind of special treatment, no way. But seeing as how there’s one on the police force I practically helped raise a little as well as another… well, maybe I have a little less chance of getting locked up and the key thrown away than some people, there anyway.

Plus the fact that the police chief is an old high school buddy of mine who once committed the most chivalrous act I have ever witnessed of a gentleman. At four in the morning, because my high school sweetheart wimped out and went home on MY graduation night (we of course stayed out ALL night on his the year before) – and my just-graduated self was too wasted to peel myself off of whoever’s folding chair I had melted into out there in the legendary pasture by ye olde long ago bonfire – he drove the ten miles back into town, and the ten miles back out to the pasture, all because I was certain I was going to DIE that night if I didn’t have an ice cold 7-Up or Sprite (I don’t remember which) before I passed out.

That town is in the best of hands there – he who never failed to see to it that I (on more occasions than I should probably admit to) as well as, literally, hundreds of other completely toasted teenagers and college kids were taken care of, for years. As well as probably stopped several dozen hotheaded rednecks from ripping each other to shreds on numerous occasions on the court square, in the pasture, and in gravel pits and beaches all over the county. It’s no wonder he’s been such a fine police chief for years!

So I’m just saying – nah, I wouldn’t expect and certainly would never ever DEMAND special treatment. I’m just saying that it would probably take an AWFUL lot more effort for me to get into trouble there than most places, nowadays. If I ever did anything interesting enough to get in trouble over, that is, but that’s a whole other point -

And somehow I have managed to segue right back into my birthday and being ancient again… huh.

So yeah. Chuckie and Cole and I have now celebrated a quarter century of birthdays almost all together. You could do the math, but I already told you it was “the” big one anyway, so let’s move on again…

Anyway, I’m sort of feeling a little more motivated again and I actually feel a real, live, honest to god, patented rant coming on, so stay tuned, maybe even later this evening. Actually maybe even a rant plus something I (and maybe only I) find terribly amusing, but all things will come in time. In any case, I seem to be getting my groove back, it’s just a little retarded – much like me and everything else in my life. Hang in there…

Posted in ancient history, blah, friends are good, happy birthday, in my head, my so-called life, west tennessee | Leave a Comment »

All Day & All of the Night

Posted by Lynnster on February 1, 2006

Welcome to February! 14 days and counting to that holiday I most love to hate, and 45 days until I turn… gulp… 40. Horrors. You know, I’m not really that bothered about it, tho… yet. 30 didn’t really bother me. 35 didn’t bother me at all. Now, it’s legendary among my former co-workers what a difficult time I had with turning 25… that really, really bothered me for some reason, to an obsessive point. 30 in comparison… piece of cake. 40 – well, I don’t really know yet. Although one thing does bug me, this is one of those times I wish the boyfriend and I were the same age instead of me being two years older.

Just learned some shocking but pleasant indie music news early this morning… for the first time in seven years, Dig is playing a live show! They’ll be at the Viper Room in Hollywood on Thursday, February 16th. I don’t usually have a lot of L.A. envy, and when it comes down to it I prefer Northern to Southern California anyway, but dang, I wish I could go to this. Anyway, yeah, if you’re where you can go, by all means. Tickets are $12 (also available in advance at the Viper Room website) and Dig will go on about 11 p.m.

Wanna see something cool I’m getting? Lynnster was a good girl in 2005 (and 2004 and 2003) – see what you get when you’re good and behave and play nicely with other children? Yeah, I got plans for that spiffy new Dell Inspiron 9300, all right. Couldn’t be coming at a better time either ‘cos the DVD drive in my desktop has decided to cease cooperating.

Today was like the worst dragging day in the world… it’s terrible when you start out at 7 a.m. thinking “just let this day get over with” and spend the next ten and a half hours thinking just about nothing but that. That inadvertent nap last night was a bad mistake – I didn’t get that sleepy again until it was almost too late so, consequently, I only got about an hour and a half of in-bed sleep last night, so I’m sort of still clinging to the sides as far as awakeness and alertness. But tomorrow’s my day off so all is well.

And I have thus far managed to not take on any unabsolutelynecessary work this week. I think I really need to – that is, take the week off side work – this week, don’t you think? As long as I don’t get any calls Thursday or Friday, I’m home free and then I can get back to regularly scheduled snowing myself in come Monday. But even if I do get called for some work, at this point it’ll just be one job, not so much to deal with, so that’ll be okay.

I just know that I’ve spent the last two days spending most of the mornings typing with one eye open and if I closed them both even for a few seconds, I was in danger of slipping into a coma. Gotta get some rest and regroup.

And now for our next topic – coffee. Most people know, and especially those that know me personally, that I drink entirely too much coffee.

Once upon a time, this wasn’t always so. My coffee habit actually started in church when I was a kid – around nine or ten or so – I started having a cup of coffee after church with everyone else, which soon after led to coffee at home on Sundays with Dad and the Sunday Commercial Appeal and Tennesseean. Which eventually led to other days off/days home from school, which eventually led to pretty much every day in college and when working. I guess the reason I also put entirely too much creamer and sugar or Sweet ‘n Low in it is ‘cos I started drinking coffee at such a young age.

But for years and years and years, save for the occasional after-dinner coffee when out to eat, I was strictly a morning coffee drinker (morning being a relative term of course – since I frequently don’t get up until noon or later unless I have to, just consider those mornings “extended”). Anyway, on a normal day, regular work day, what have you – by noonish I would switch to Coke and that would be that, until morning came again.

My later round-the-clock coffee habit, I totally blame on (1) my dad and stepmother and (2) Millstone coffee. It only took one visit to my dad’s for that “hmm, coffee in the evenings…” thing to take root – they were, naturally, round-the-clock coffee drinkers. And at the same time Millstone had just come out with all these awesome flavored coffees. So it would be, like, regular coffee in the mornings or at least the first pot, and then flavored coffee the rest of the day. I have flirted back and forth with the flavors – especially all the divine stuff at Coffeeam.com, oh god – in recent years it’s been mainly regular coffee with the occasional flavored pot once in a while.

Which brings me to my next topic – coffee makers. My parents bought what was a really high-tech for the time and nice Mr. Coffee coffee maker around 1976 or 1977 or thereabouts. That was the coffee maker I ended up taking with me to college in 1984 and they probably wouldn’t have even gotten rid of it except Black & Decker had just come out with the Spacemaker line and they wanted to get one of those, so I took the old one. And continued to use it until somewhere around, I think, 1990 or 1991, when it finally bit the dust. That was OK tho – that was a good 14-15 years of use out of a coffee maker, I’m not gonna complain about that (especially now).

Well, you’ve heard the phrase about how “they” don’t make things like “they” used to? There’s nothing more true when it comes to coffee makers. I am going to throw out a ballpark figure here and my guess will probably still be too low, but I would estimate I have been through no less than THIRTY coffee makers since 1991. Maybe even forty. And remember, for a significant period of that time I was NOT drinking coffee day and night – but still, I was killing coffee makers left and right. This has, of course, been exacerbated tremendously since I did start drinking coffee night as well as day.

But yeah. Oh, listen, it doesn’t matter what it is. Every brand imaginable, every price range imaginable from dirt cheap to rather pricey – I’ve killed it. This was especially painful with the Go Vols orange Salton I got for Christmas one year – I HATED throwing that one away – but yeah, just like the rest, it died. There have been occasions when the whole thing just appeared to have given up the ghost, but especially in the advent of my all day and all of the night coffee imbibing, naturally what happens most of the time is I wear out the heating element.

So last year after having killed two more in record time (two in less than two months, they were cheapies tho), my mother and I started trying to figure out ways to solve this ongoing dilemma or at least make it better. Besides me stopping drinking coffee, that is, which ain’t gonna happen anyway.

For a little bit I was considering maybe investing in an institutional one, like some of the various heavy duty Bunns there have been at various places I’ve worked over the years. On a trip up home, shortly after I’d killed another one, Mom and I are walking around the Paris Wal-Mart trying to decide what to do – at that point I had just killed another Black & Decker and had an emergency 4-cup coffee maker run out and grabbed at Walgreen’s in the middle of the night on that occasion stashed at home – I ended up coming back with another Black & Decker that time, and that one, granted, lasted me ’til about the six-month mark, it just died a couple of weeks ago and I now have replaced it with another full size off-the-shelf bought at Walgreen’s. Hey, in the middle of the night and when you don’t live anywhere near a Wal-Mart or Target or K-Mart, you gotta do what you gotta do when you know that, while you might could do without the rest of the evening, you can’t possibly function in the coming morning without coffee.

Of course, that’s funny in itself – I am of the opinion that after all these years of coffee, and drinking cokes since I was very very young, caffeine really has no effect on me. It certainly never keeps me awake, seeing as how I’m about half narcoleptic anyway. But I really don’t care to chance finding out what happens when you take the caffeine totally AWAY, and don’t think you want to witness that either.

So anyway, at the time we were shopping and trying to decide what to do last year, we looked at the Home Cafe – the superfast one-cup coffee maker – thinking, well, since I burn out the heating elements on a regular basis, maybe that’s a solution to the problem. Then we walked a few aisles over and looked at the price of the coffee pods for the Home Cafe. And we discussed at the time how someone should come out with a pod thing of some sort that you can, like, fill up with your own coffee (in my case that would be the Kroger in the dark blue although I have recently switched to the red). In any case we decided at the time that, financially speaking, that wasn’t really a great solution either.

Fast forward to me being home for my grandmother’s funeral and hey, my mom had bought herself a Home Cafe, though I didn’t really pay attention to it at the time other than to notice it was there and I guess commented on it.

Fast forward again to Christmas Day when I open, first, a Home Cafe of my own – and then, the Presto MyPod… which you can fill up with your own coffee. So, cool.

Now, another thing I should add about the Home Cafe is that I thought those were a really dumb idea when they came out. I first saw it when, shortly after its release on the market, it was featured as part of a reward challenge on Survivor. I mean, I thought, yeah, nice idea for those who like really fresh coffee (I could generally care less, I’ll stick day old coffee in the microwave, no problem) or don’t drink that much coffee, but for me? No.

Well, since getting the Home Cafe for Christmas, I have had sort of a love-hate relationship with it. I tried to use it exclusively for a week or so until finally deciding it was just too much trouble and going back to using the regular coffee maker generally and the Home Cafe on occasion.

Plus there was something about the cups made with the Home Cafe. They just weren’t tasting quite exactly right. It was kind of like when you’re outside and drink water straight out of the garden hose, or something? Yeah.

So fast forward again, this time to last week. Now, admittedly, I drink so much coffee I just don’t really have much of a discernable palate at all for it other than I can tell the difference between a really bad cup of coffee (like the stuff you get out of vending machines) or one that’s satisfactory, and that’s generally about it, really.

Anyway, for whatever reason I made a cup with the Home Cafe last week and… it tasted like the best cup of coffee I ever had ever in the world. And then, having duly noted I’d made that with the Kroger Red, I shortly thereafter made another with the Kroger Blue just to see. And it was yummy too.

So now I’m sold on the Home Cafe, totally. I guess maybe it just needed to get used and “seasoned” or something, sorta like one does with cast iron skillets. Still using the regular coffee maker too, of course, but using the Home Cafe more often than I was. Now let’s see if I can get thru 2006 without having to buy yet another one, of either.

I racked up on other coffee at Christmas too, got a bag of Starbuck’s beans as well as some yummy stuff from the beloved Coffeeam.com, including Banana Hazelnut – definitely a dessert coffee, it’s almost too sweet and coming from me who dumps tons of sweetener in my coffee, that’s saying something – and the rather amusing 5 lb. bag of Rainforest Crunch. Do you know how BIG a 5 lb. bag of coffee is? Yeah, my mother didn’t really realize it either until they (she ordered herself one too) arrived.

In other coffee news, Daisy has become such the coffee creamer addict, stalking me whenever I’m doctoring up a new cup to see if I’ll spill any. The other puppies will too but it’s mostly her, she’s the one with a bad jones for coffee creamer.

Hey, I mentioned Survivor up there and, what do you know – the new season premieres tomorrow night, yay. Although I guess I still have a rep as a reality TV junkie and trash TV-aholic (long live Melrose Place!), my interest in both has kind of waned, plus I just don’t watch that much TV period anymore. But I still get excited about the Big Three – Survivor, Amazing Race, Big Brother. Yeah, reality TV addict always… just on a bit smaller scale these days.

Posted in blah, dig, happy birthday, holidays, i never sleep, i sleep too much, music, music junkie stuff | Leave a Comment »

Always Something There

Posted by Lynnster on January 16, 2006

Have just gotten back in a while ago from a trip up home, mainly for celebrating my Mom’s birthday which was actually about a week ago. We had a pretty fab dinner at The Olive Pit except I was really disappointed that they no longer have the scrumptious pork chops they had on the menu previously, which was the main reason we went there instead of somewhere else. After that disappointment and taking forever to make up my mind on a replacement, I opted for the Prima Vera Fettucine which turned out to be an excellent choice. Very very good. So it wasn’t a total loss tho it almost was, I was pretty annoyed about the pork chops. You wouldn’t believe how good those were.

We also made a quick trip out to Wal-Mart where I ran into someone I graduated with, which would probably happen all the time if I was ever in Camden but never the Paris Wal-Mart. Then we went and did some belated Christmasing with some of the family I didn’t get to see at Christmas because I was in Chattanooga, then we went home and watch a million movies (well, five). One of the things I had rather sneakily planned for one of my mother’s birthday presents was an old reel-to-reel player/recorder I snapped up off eBay which is not exactly but almost like the one that was in the house I grew up in. My dad sold that one years ago for some unknown reason and I was rather surprised to find, upon opening some boxes of Dad’s stuff that I’d brought to Mom’s house to store, after my stepmother had sold the house and I went up there to get whatever stuff I was supposed to get… that there was the box of tons of reel-to-reel tapes my parents had made over the years. This was back in the summer that I took that up there, and we made the comment at the time that it was too bad we didn’t have the reel-to-reel player anymore. So thankfully that occurred to me when I was desperately trying to figure out what else I could get her for her birthday besides an Amazon.com gift certificate (which is all she ever wants but, you know, I try to do something different once in a while). And this was a great surprise because she wasn’t expecting it, and more importantly – she WILL use it. Growing up, if we weren’t watching TV, the music was going on the reel-to-reel in the house all the time and all that stuff is probably nearly directly responsible for my music junkie habit. I just hope this one works since the guy I bought it from on eBay turned out to be foreign, I think, and had mentioned “need adjutment” (sic) in the auction and when I asked uh exactly what kind of adjustments I really didn’t get an answer… but we know someone who can probably get it working if it’s not exactly running right. So it will be cool. At first we were talking about her just using it as, you know, a player, but (of course) next thing you know she’s talking about getting some cables to hook it up to her stereo and recording all her Buffett stuff on a reel or two… yeah, it’s that Parrothead thing, you know. Shudder.

Anyhow, well, speaking of music that segues nicely into my next point of contention which was my choice of music for the road trip, which wasn’t all that different from my choices the last few times I’ve been anywhere, but anyway… see, it has occurred to me that I kind of inadvertantly created a problem for myself musically, sort of my own little personal hell musically which kinda sucks for someone who is into music as much as I am. I’ve found lately when I grab CDs for a road trip – well, just for example, this trip consisted of all three major releases by The Hives, the two by The Vines, The White Stripes’ Elephant (which I can’t get enough of and am on my third copy of it, having literally worn the first two out), Paul Westerberg’s Folker (which I’m ashamed to admit, yes, I JUST now got around to buying), Black Flag Damaged and an old Aerosmith compilation (ever notice much like the Stones, the really old Aerosmith doesn’t much sound dated at all while the ’90s “Amazing” era is horribly so?).

So what’s wrong with this? Well, the thing is a few years ago I made this awesome batch of ’80s and ’90s/early ‘00 CDs specifically for road trip purposes. I mean, they are awesome, they are the coolest. But here’s where the problem lies therein… there’s also not a thing on any of them, hardly anyway, that doesn’t have some tie to Greg/KC/Joey et al, whether it’s something Greg performed (usually with me or at least I witnessed it), or just something that holds some other memory. Those of you who know me and know the stories will probably think I’m crazy but, for instance, take the Rolling Stones… do I hear Mick Jagger/etc.? No, I hear Greg. It’s just – uh. It’s really kind of a bit of a nightmare… all my favorite music now haunts me with (at least some of) my dead friends. And that awesome set of CDs that I created and thus inadvertantly created the problem for myself… I spent about two years listening to them constantly on road trips here and there and wherever until it just suddenly hit me what I’d done. So – for right now anyway – the awesome road trip CDs have been retired, I just can’t. Although I do pull out #9 of the ’90s set sometimes ‘cos it’s the super awesomest coolest of them all (Sponge, latter half ’90s Offspring, Social Distortion and much other fab stuff).

Anyway, it struck me a few months ago that, when preparing for road trips, I was now subconsciously reaching for stuff I now own that DOESN’T have any such aural memories tied to them – because they either came out much later or after the boys had already relocated to the U.K. and I didn’t have as much contact with them. So, yeah, like The Hives and The Vines and The White Stripes. Between that and kind of getting back into my punk rock roots lately (heh) I’ve just kind of worked myself into a rut here ‘cos right now there’s no choices beyond the three and I’m finally starting to get a little tired of them. I dunno. Maybe I’ll hit Pavement next, that’s something else that has no aural ties to the past and that more than a few people have suggested I should check out and would like. I guess it’s pretty obvious, too, I am hopelessly behind these days musically, and what very little I hear on the radio (which is less and less since my car antenna got clipped in Nashville last year) I don’t much like generally. And to add insult to injury Paul W. has outgrown me, it would appear. I’m trying to like the recent years’ solo stuff – and I do like the Mono CD of the Stereo/Mono set – but I’m just failing at the rest. However, I didn’t know until recently there had been another actual Grandpaboy release and knowing how I loved the first one, this one should be a keeper too.

Anyway, I’m just disturbed and aggravated and musically frustrated right now. Not that I’m not that way about everything else lately too, but still.

Ahhh…. OK enough of my music neuroses for now. And, there’s still general catching up on life from the past year or so too be done, but it’ll just have to be next time maybe. Or the next. Who knows, I’m just trying to kind of get back into updating mode slowly but surely here…

Posted in aussie music, happy birthday, holidays, music, music junkie stuff, the replacements, travelin', west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

What Goes Around Comes Around

Posted by Lynnster on May 6, 2002

It’s been a long time since I pulled an all-nighter doing website stuff (I know, stating the obvious), whew. Had big plans to “redecorate” the entire site and I pretty much did, tho now I still have the Bands and the Links sections yet to do, but I got a whole lot done in a relatively short amount of time this weekend, stuff that before would have taken me many more hours to do. Almost every page of the site still available has been either totally updated or just remodeled a little. What has been most helpful was finally changing to a different page-building program, after having hung on to the same (and very very obsolete in terms of today’s Internet) one for the last 5+ years. The newer one makes tons of stuff OH so much easier and quicker. Still there’s probably some stuff I’ve really screwed up so please let me know if something looks messed up, or if you can’t read something, or whatever looks unusually out of whack.

So maybe this new and MUCH MUCH easier workspace will be an incentive to keep things updated around here for a change. I know it’s been like a desert around here the last couple of years with only a few fits & starts, so if you’re still around after all that, thanks for bearing with me. The last couple of years or so have been, at best, utter and multiple chaos offline, thus all things online had to be a fairly low priority. Things are better, so with any luck I am maybe actually back to “normal” (whatever THAT is) here for a change. I thought there were probably few “regulars” still coming by, though I knew there were still many happening upon various sections of the site by accident or with other purpose, and I had about decided no one was still here except for my college pals, like KC and Duncan and Greg, who I hear from otherwise anyway, and maybe Stef and a few others. But in the last month or so I’ve heard from old friends who are still dropping by, so that was kinda like, whoa, I really need to do something soon. Plus a good friend of mine currently only has Web access and no e-mail or phone access, so maybe that will be even more incentive (at least for this page). So here I am, for better or worse.

I reckon the biggest news I have of all to relate at this moment (other than The Monarchs ceasing to exist, sigh, but I’ll save that for that section of the site), is that about three weeks ago I was in my very first, EVER (with me driving anyway) car wreck. Nobody was hurt and you bet I was p.o.’d, since it wasn’t my fault… I got sideswiped by a big SUV that decided to move into my lane in the middle of evening rush hour traffic, and those of you who know what a little bitty car I drive know that could have well turned out a whole lot worse than it did. Luckily I was far enough past the SUV at the time that it just did some nice damage to the back driver’s side, and destroyed my tire (which I was probably more annoyed about than anything else, otherwise I could have driven home immediately). Fortunately the other driver’s insurance company has been very good as well as very fast in processing everything (I guess so I won’t sue them). Things have also turned out kinda nicely as I just happen to be getting a new (old, but new to me and newer than the one I’ve had) car next weekend, thanks to some fortunate and timely circumstances. AND it has (thank God) air conditioning (finally, and just in time!). So things are OK there, other than the no doubt hassle of getting rid of my old one. The rather strange thing about this whole incident is that the collision occurred just about exactly where Stevie Kane and I came within mere inches of hitting a concrete wall, in his car, a few years ago. Needless to say probably, even though that interchange is a shortcut to somewhere I’m headed often, I’m kind of avoiding it these days.

Other than that, things have now returned to quiet and calm, as they’ve needed to be for some time now. Since my eBay business kind of hit the skids after September 11th (I guess folks were too edgy to spend anything on collectibles, don’t know if the Barbie biz has picked up in more recent months or not) things have been kind of tough, but I’m hanging in there. If my ex-boyfriends would quit figuratively rearing their despicable heads (and believe me I WISH this were only in dreams) I would be a little happier, but at least it would appear that I am finally free of one particular decade-and-a-half long nightmare for once and for all… I never thought I’d see the day, but it FINALLY arrived, the absolutely unforgivable FINALLY occurred, and once I get past being homicidally pissed off, which I will, I will be able to enjoy the first REAL peace I’ve had since, oh, 1986 maybe. You know, once upon a time (not all that long ago in fact!) I used to almost always stay friends with and still like most of my exes (the ones who were still alive anyway), but I believe those days are no more. I like Scotty, who hasn’t been a boyfriend since 1986 but has been my best friend since the early ’90s, and I like Drew I reckon even though I never see him, I suppose we’d still be friends if I did, and the rest can pretty much go f… well, I’m still on AOL for the website, I can’t say that here or it’d be a TOS violation. Speaking of which, I received some awfully interesting responses to the posted ex-boyfriend dreams of a couple months back, including from some former psych major/minor friends… but I already knew what they all meant anyway, heh heh. That’s OK, I have learned there really ARE those who have NO voluntary speech impediments… how refreshing… A word or two of wisdom in my continually-approaching old age … careful & best watch how you treat your friends and your beloveds… if you’re not careful, she/he just might end up marrying your (former) best friend…

Enough wisdom (and, yeah, spite)… time for some happier things, like Happy Birthday this week to Jules and next week we’ll be wishing one for Brian… Happy Belated April Birthdays to KC, Troy, and Donna… and Happy Belated March Birthdays to Andra, Captain Andy, Cole (week before mine), Chuckie (day before mine) and Duncan (St. Patty’s Day). Happy Mother’s Day to both my Moms. And last but not least, a big welcome to the world for little Miss Penelope Shepherd, born 18th February to proud parents Brad & Sahara.

Gotta go for now, but will be back soon, I think, so check back again soon. Gonna try and catch up on some e-mail this week too (yo Stef). Hope everyone is doing well, ciao for now…

Posted in aussie music, blah, friends are good, happy birthday, i never sleep, my luck sucks, my so-called life, techgeekchick stuff, the edge (not of U2), the ex files, the freeloader ex files, the monarchs, updates to the zone, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

So Busy Out There

Posted by Lynnster on January 10, 2001

First things first – if you sent me e-mail in the last, oh, 6 to 12 months or so and were expecting a reply at some point (and especially if you’re a Replacements or Hoodoo Gurus fan, and especially if you’re a very nice Replacements fan from Italy who writes excellent e-mail), I managed to crash my e-mail box accidentally right before Christmas and lost virtually all of my waiting mail, so please write back! Surprised that hasn’t happened before but it hadn’t and I was really devastated, there was a ton of mail sitting there but once the program got corrupted there was nothing I could do but watch it all get deleted in one fell swoop. Next… yeah, I know, slack, slack, slack. It’s just been a crazy year and there hasn’t been much time to spare for the website, there are so many things I want to do and change and hopefully in the next couple of months I will. Many new band links to add (and delete), a total remodeling of some sections of the site, photos for The Monarchs Reign! and other pages, weekly or so updates of what my way-cool bunch of Mod-era Barbies are wearing right now (heck, they’ve already been thru two clothes changes since I first mentioned that), and a ton of other stuff… time’s just at a humongous premium at the moment.

Anyway, I am back in Memphis after a lovely snow- and ice-free Christmas in Chattanooga, as well as being a million other places and a million others yet to be, and don’t really have much news. This must have been the Christmas of Telephones as I got a new spiffy one (with a new answering machine and all kinds of cool bells and whistles) for home, and I also took some of my Xmas bonus and went and got me a new digital phone (finally!) so I’ve been playing with those…. nice to have a new phone that I can actually leave on all the time (the only disadvantage being now KC can find me anywhere, gack) and doesn’t weigh a thousand lbs. and I can actually use, finally (PS the number remains the same). And other than that I’m just trying to get unpacked, still, and things put away, preparing for what is starting to seem like an endless stream of company (and, therefore, more yucky housework, blah) and all that jazz, got a musical event coming up and just lots and lots of stuff coming up and little spare time for anything else. So for now I must bid you adieu, but be back soon and more regularly soon hopefully once February arrives and things settle down a bit… Happy Birthday yesterday to my Mom… hope everyone had a Merry Merry and will have a Happy Happy, and ’til later…

Posted in a family thing, aussie music, happy birthday, holidays, hoodoo gurus, the internet is..., the monarchs, the replacements, updates to the zone, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

You’re Wrong, You’re Wrong

Posted by Lynnster on June 10, 2000

Yeah, I KNOW… I really suck at this lately, and I apologize. I sort of accidentally created what’s become nearly another full-time job for myself, and I’ve either been so overrun with stuff to do that by the time I could really take a breather and do other stuff, it’d be 3 a.m. or something, or else times when I didn’t have work of some sort to do, the only thing I felt like doing was like a mindless game of Mah Jongg or something, or goofing off reading, or whatever wasn’t going to take up a whole lot of energy and brainpower, and the thought of Graffiti and other webwork and such has just been plain evil.

Really to tell the truth you really haven’t wanted to be in my head much lately anyway, it’s an awfully strange place to live at the moment.

My e-mail box, which I’ve been griping about being behind for at least two years now I suppose, has truly reached a totally unmanageable level and I’m at this point now, kinda like I get when the house has reached the point where I just can’t stand it anymore and I have to clean and do housework, where if I don’t do something about all that e-mail soon it’s just gonna keep bugging me, so maybe some weekend soon I’ll just get motivated and crack down and knock it all out in one fell swoop… the pitiable thing is how much junk mail or near-junk mail is in there that I just never got rid of. My eBay mailbox is so nice and organized in comparison and I just want my personal mailbox to be like that, everything I need to take care of right there in small doses and none of this getting so far behind I can’t tell what’s what anymore.

Speaking of eBay, I am now approaching the 600-mark on my feedback rating, that’s cool… who woulda ever thought one could make a living off old Barbie stuff? My god, I’m just so darn happy not to have to be out nights pouring coffee at Starbuck’s or something…

Anyway, yes, I know I have been sucking mega regarding the site lately and I know I’m pretty much incredibly behind in everything, there are so many of you I need to write back, especially folks who just recently moved to St. Louis and other cool stuff I keep hearing bits & pieces about… I’m so sorry I’ve had to so prioritize lately. Actually it’s probably a good thing I’ve been, for the most part, not really online lately (or not online as I know it, rather), ‘cos I think I sort of needed a real break from a lot of things… when online time & things like that that must be done become a chore, you need to just take a break.

I wish there was really some halfway decent news to report, there’s not… I go to work, I come home and work some more or else I go comatose within an hour of getting home and don’t wake up again until dawn, but it’s mostly just been work, work, work. Thank god there hasn’t really been any real Monarchs news lately or the boys would probably be really upset with me… I just haven’t had even a smidgen of time for either website, or what I might have, I don’t like to do important work when I’m half brain-dead, tho I did just update some news on there. And then there’s the editing of the daily China Beach episodes, which is about to come to an end as it’s about to come to almost the end of the show… but don’t even get me started on the fact that TVLand apparently did not secure the rights to the last several episodes and, therefore, unless something’s changed recently it isn’t going to be shown totally in full… there are a number of things I could compare that to, but for the sake of being polite I shan’t. In any case I have gone from being ecstatic that I was going to finally be able to get one of my fave shows of all time on tape in its entirety, only to find the last season will be missing. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there, really.

The inimitable Mr. Greg Breit and I have decided amongst ourselves there are most definite advantages to not dating anyone, tho the advantageousness for females far outweighs the same for males, in my biased opinion anyway… there are many specifics, yes, but I’m not going to spell them out as I’ll never hear the end of it if I do (and don’t even think it, yes I shower regularly and yes I shave my legs regularly, heh… and let’s face it, you guys have it sooooo easy and I really have no sympathy for you whiny things that whine about having to shave your face every day, gimme a break.) Maybe I’m just getting old & awfully set in my ways (probably) but you know, having to deal with the whole dating deal this-and-that stupidness just really makes me dang tired. I think I may just make it a rule that I won’t go out with anyone that I haven’t already dated once before, for some reason that just seems so much easier and less tiresome, of course given certain past & current circumstances (like numerous deceased boyfriends, for one) that kinda narrows the field down to, oh, I don’t know, two? Maybe three.

Anyhow, the recently de-married Greg & I actually did discuss, oh what the heck, dating each other – after all we’ve been swapping spit on microphones and stuff for nearly fifteen years, right – but that was just too gross to even really consider (and naturally KC, aka Conscience Central, was thoroughly disgusted & grossed out by the whole idea – snicker). I’ve been down that “yuck, it’s like kissing your brother” road before and it didn’t work once, I’m not about to go down that misguided road again. Shudder. (giggle)

Anyway, back to business… The Wall itself is still a quandary of sorts to me, in any case… to tell you the truth, I haven’t been much wanting to be here, seeing as how some Wall matters fairly recently sprung forth an argument, which I suppose is the second or third time that’s happened in the years the Wall’s been up, and I’ve really kind of just had it with that. At least one of the other times there was good reason for argument – admittedly I was picking a fight at the time, tho not exactly overtly, no. The Wall is really mainly newsy bits & fluff & nothing particularly important, tho I have been known over the years to drop an occasional hint or throw an occasional slam in the mix, and intentionally so. Successfully, obviously, since a few of those in the now-quite-distant past resulted in one heck of a row. And likely you, the average Wall reader, never noticed because you weren’t the target(s), whom I suspect anyway have gone on their merry little ways ‘cos I can’t imagine why on earth they’d still be hanging around here.

I am rather slain, tho, by recent problems stemming from Wall stuff because it’s stuff that came totally out of left field out of just what 99.99% of Wall stuff is made of, newsy bits & fluff & basic BS that should mean nothing to anybody, basically the stuff that Daytimers are made of… you know, I went there, I did this, I saw that. I often prattle on about what I’ve been doing since I last made a Wall entry, sometimes detailed but more often than not, pretty doggone vague for no other reason other than it’s often pointless (and would be boring) to go into great detail about some things. I mean, really.

Basically what I’m saying, I guess, if you’re here because you know me or sorta know me, or you don’t know me and for whatever reason my general babble piques your interest, fine, dandy, great. But if you’re here and think you’re picking up clues and information and whatever else you think you’re looking for, no matter what you may think you may know, you should be sadly disappointed, because there’s nothing here and, if that kinda thing is what you’re doing, you don’t need to be here. Don’t go looking for things that aren’t there, and don’t go assuming things because, frankly, unless you ask me directly yourself, you simply do not know anything for certain.

Why all this? Well, I recently got hit with a supposed version of My Life According to The Wall, when little could have been further off the mark or further from the truth… not that the Wall entries are untruthful, no, but things that were assumed were completely off the wall and basically quite wrongly used against me in an argument. I simply won’t have it. If I say “I went (here)” or “I saw (so-and-so)”, don’t just assume you know the rest of the story because you know what, you’re probably wrong, and it’d probably be a good idea to ask me first before accusing me of some misdeed or whatever. Just because you see some information here, don’t presume to think you know everything that’s behind it and about it, because it’s now been a proven fact – there’s a darn good possibility you’re likely, again, wrong. It’s not that I am untruthful here, not at all… the point is, rather, that for every tidbit that’s ever written here, there’s probably bunches more info behind & regarding such tidbits that aren’t scribbled here along with them.

In other words, be careful rushing to judgment unless you know for a fact that you are 100% correct. Walk in my shoes for a while, trade places with me, or at the very least, maybe you should just ask before you go just assuming anything.

I don’t know, it just had to be said. If you’re rushing to some concrete judgment on me, what I do, where I go, who I see, whatever else, and it’s solely based on what you read here, then you need to not be here, and that’s my final answer on that. Bye bye, so long, sayonara…

Anyway (oh, you thought I was finished? snicker)… I just think it sucks that it’s come to this with this page, because it’s really never been a chore and has always been something I kinda dig doing. Now, even tho the particular matters at hand are a dead issue, I am (A) not really wanting to be here right now and (B) feeling completely self-censored, whereas before I dug it and self-censorship was voluntary, so the way things are at the moment could make for an incredibly boring and rarely-updated page. Maybe I’ll get over it, maybe I won’t. It’s kind of a shame, because I have recently been extraordinarily inspired by some online writings I’ve been reading of some folks I find much like myself – both names that would be quite recognizable among a few, one probably many – and this recent crap has pretty much destroyed any possibilities for now of my taking that inspiration to be creative myself here. So that really sucks.

Actually I’ve had a thought of having a passworded, alternate Wall of sorts – I certainly have non-AOL webspace to spare and god knows sometimes you just feel like naming names, getting it all out there, and swearing like a sailor (shh, don’t tell my grandmother and my mom, you know I’m supposed to be a proper Southern LADY)… but that kinda would just suck too, although on the other hand it would be fun and quite freeing to be so uncensored… so I dunno.

Anyway… until I figure it all out, don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Biting my tongue or not, I’ll be back…. tomorrow is my Dad’s birthday, so I’m off to make a trip up there. (Another good reason to be crucified I’m sure… you know, I think most everyone here knows my father has a terminal illness, so really anyone that would use my making a trip up there against me has bigger problems than I or anyone short of a psychiatrist could ever help them with.)

That said, hope all is well with most everyone, have a good weekend, and ciao for now…

Posted in a family thing, aussie music, blah, friends are good, game theory, happy birthday, in my head, my so-called life, pissed off, television, the monarchs, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

You Say It’s Your Birthday

Posted by Lynnster on April 1, 2000

Well, the March 31st entry of the Wall was up for about six hours before getting relegated to the back editions, so if you were behind on your Wall perusing you might wanna go to the Archives, as if your life depended on it, and catch back up.

Anyway… not much news, I’ve been doing so much webwork lately my eyes are about crossed, and shoo, I’m just plain tired. I remain fascinated with my Glade Plug-Ins nightlight, which I bought in November 1996 and plugged in and just cannot believe that thing is still working (the nightlight, that is). I’m digging spring, which is the best time to be in Memphis, everything’s green and pink and white and purple and just gorgeous, when you can step out the door and smell magnolia and honeysuckle all the way up and down the street… mmm.

Weather’s been mostly great but so weird I’ve been having Stevie Nicks Hair days just about every day lately… could be time for a haircut… nah.

Really don’t have much else to say right now, except I’ve added all kinds of new thingys around the site this week and, finally, the long-awaited, and somewhat test-marketed even, spinoff of the Wall, Lynnster’s Conversations With God (Not Really), is now online, so, in lieu of a much newsy Wall item for today, you can satisfy all your voyeuristic desires and check that out below, and then check out the What’s New section of the site and see what all else I have added lately to help satisfy your surfing urge, not the least of which is some Little & Semi-Known Facts about yours truly… and of course the new Monarchs site, which is a whole site within the site, I’m especially excited about (naturally).

Anyway, mainly just wanted to do a quick Wall entry to wish a very happy birthday to the world’s biggest April Fool, my pal, archenemy, and sometime-Zone partner, KC, who will always, always, always be older than me, as well as having the most relevant birthday of anyone I know. Ciao ’til later, y’all!

Posted in about the weather, aussie music, friends are good, happy birthday, memphis, my so-called life, quirky or abnormal?, techgeekchick stuff, the monarchs, updates to the zone, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

Strange Days Have Tracked Us Down

Posted by Lynnster on March 18, 2000

Hmm. I almost just erased, or heavily edited, the 03/16/00 entry (and may yet still) – tho it certainly is really all that unusual for Wall fodder, really, and I’m highly against ever editing myself except in superextreme cases because I just think that kinda messes up the whole point of this here Wall… but then again, I don’t really much care to keep evidence of the occasional meltdown around, even if they’re sort of minor.

But, on the other hand, it was all certainly what I meant and felt at the time (and mostly still do, tho I’m quite a bit more calm at this point), so I guess it doesn’t really matter. In a way it was just so cool and exhilirating to finally reach some success at something that had been so far out of my grasp for so long; in another way, tho I guess it really couldn’t be helped, it was unnerving to be so completely freaked out by it all. Again, I don’t reckon it really matters that much whether I leave it or not, March will be over soon anyway.

KC, who is smart sometimes tho I disdain admitting it, tells me I’m being way overcautious about the specifics of this situation, as well as reminding me that probably the overwhelming majority of the contingent that regularly visits the Wall already knew at least some of the circumstances to begin with, and thus I am possibly disturbing some folks without cause and freaking some out even more than I’m freaked out myself (or something like that, as a rule I only half-listen to the neverending lectures anyway – snicker). And really he’s right, tho I always disdain admitting that, but anyway – there’s certainly a good many Wall visitors that are likely totally and completely bewildered at this point, a lot of facts were known by many to begin with, so it’s really pointless for me to be quite so overcautious, but still, for the time being anyway, I am going to choose to remain somewhat reserved about this situation until I have a little better lock on what’s truly going on right now. I have, in any case, calmed down somewhat on many levels, so, you know, that’s a good thing I guess.

But, because it’s early on Saturday morning and I accidentally didn’t get any sleep last night, save for an accidental and very short nap early in the evening, I am going to pass on much in detail for now, except for the very brief version. It would seem there is now a work of fiction out there in literary-land that is, very loosely, based around parts of the life of a person who is a convicted murderer, and, in fact, still serving sentence for it. It would also happen that this same person is, or was I guess is more the case, a once very close and very dear friend of mine – which some knew already, a lot don’t I suppose. I mean, it’s not something I just go around telling everyone – “hey, someone who used to be like family to me is in prison on a murder rap!” – yeah, right – and not something I’m terribly proud to say, by any means. But then again any time I’ve had cause to speak those words, I have to remind myself that I had nothing to do with it and remind myself that I, personally, have no reason to feel ashamed if and when I say such words. I didn’t do it, certainly; my friend made a very, very bad mistake; but sometimes it has seemed that I, as well as some others, have been simply guilty by association all this time. Sometimes it’s seemed that, while only one person had anything to do with it and did it and certainly has paid and is paying a price for it, I and some others have had to pay a price for it too, albeit in a wholly different way… it’s somewhat taken a toll on many other lives besides the people for whom it would be obvious.

So, well, I found out this literary work was out there, which was a shock, and found out some more things I didn’t know too, like the fact that the person in question is still serving sentence. I didn’t know any of these things, or anything else, mainly because I had turned my back on it all from Day One and, frankly, for years was too angry to even begin to think about dealing with any of it, even remotely. All this new stuff, however, brings up a lot of, well, just stuff, you know. I’m just gonna take it day by day but, of course, first things first is to read what I’m about half-afraid to read, but certainly interested in. I’ve even already had some communication with the publisher, who basically told me that it is definitely highly fictionalized and not to expect an absolute or even near-absolute true story (of course I who am sort of wary of publishing anything of my own anyway for slight fear of being tarred and feathered by various and sundry different factions from the past can certainly understand the necessity of taking license with fiction!) – anyway, I’m prepared for all that and for things not being the way they really were. I just don’t know what it’s all about right now, to tell you the truth – this is a really weird situation, and right now I’m just kinda thrown for a loop that something like that is even out there, period. But, in any case, first I have to see for myself, and – by all means – if I think it’s worthwhile I’ll be outlining it here, and if I think it’s horsehockey, probably will do the same. We’ll just see, how’s that.

In any case I have a feeling there may be more soon to come, so see ya later – Happy Birthday Josh – and I’ve gotta sleep. ‘night/morning/whatever…

Posted in ancient history, friends are good, happy birthday, in my head, my so-called life, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

It’s Such a Strange Strain on Ya

Posted by Lynnster on January 29, 2000

You would not believe how many times in the last two weeks I have attempted to get a Wall update up and just haven’t followed thru with it, for one reason or another. Much of what follows has been written for some time, yet has just stewed here languishing on my hard drive, and for that I apologize to those who wait. Be it narcolepsy, severe addiction to Mah Jongg, or just being darn sick and tired of most everything, in any case I’ve been too mentally pooped to lift much of a finger and, as recently pronounced by the all-knowing KC, unfit to speak to anyone in any form or fashion including HTML code. Heh.

Right at the moment a number of adjectives to describe yours truly come to mind, which would include: resentful, hateful, spiteful, moody, ill-tempered, make that very ill-tempered, annoyed, aggravated, frustrated, irritated, and once again and most important of all, resentful… so basically I’ve been saving you all a whole lot of grief by keeping my mouth shut, that’s the silver lining to that cloud I reckon.

In any case, if I can find the energy to put on the happy hat for a few minutes, maybe we’ll have a Wall entry here. Wow.

So… I was freezing to death once again all last week, tho I suppose my relatives in Rhode Island would laugh at that seeing as how they’re having daily lows of, like, 3 degrees right now. It’s awfully cold for the Mid-South right now, tho. I don’t really have much “news”, so to speak, except that I was super pleased to read this week that there are plans to build – I won’t get this right, and forgot to keep that section of the paper, but it’s something like – The Stax Museum of R&B or something like that on the old Stax studio site on McLemore (which has been a vacant lot since 1989). I wish I could remember what all the article said about it, but it sounded like it is going to be really, really neat. And it will be so good for that neighborhood, hopefully this is the first of many good things for that section of town. Very historical musically for sure and especially I’m psyched since everyone knows I dig all things Stax.

Speaking of music, I’m sure there will be a host of whiners who will be completely overjoyed to learn that Greg, JJ & I absolutely hate the new Bush CD. Hate it. I know, I know, it’s a tremendous surprise, but all three of us tried to give it a chance and all came to the conclusion that it sucks. So, all can rest easy that there will be no further added to future appearances, there will be no “The Chemicals Between Us” or any other of that tired proto-electronica sh… I mean, stuff.

New possibly-regular or at least maybe-occasional feature to be added to the Wall soon, or should I say Off the Wall (in more ways than one)… had intended to get it up the other night but unfortunately taking more editing than I’d planned, and I’ve been more interested in napping this week than doing anything that could be mistaken for chores.

We got snowed on mega-bigtime this week, wasn’t as much as had been predicted, but still, it was kinda nice and got me a day off work Friday. About three inches – that’s a big deal for Memphis – shoot, I haven’t seen this much snow since the first year I was here, 1988. About two in the morning on Friday it was just gorgeous, the sky all lit up from the reflection of the snow in the clouds, snow just falling and falling, everything silent, the whole ground and all the trees white. It was neat, for about five minutes I felt like I did when I was a kid and we used to have snow all the time in the winter, fascinated. Now it’s mostly melted, but Friday was a good day, and Dare and I shared a bowl of snow cream for breakfast… that’s milk, vanilla, sugar and snow, for those of you who dunno.

I saw Girl, Interrupted last week and it was okay but I was mostly unimpressed, thought it should have been better, tho Angelina Jolie is fabulous in it… even better tho, one day last weekend I flipped on the TV to find a Kids In The Hall marathon on Comedy Central, there is a god. I only caught the tail end of it, I could have watched for days. And honestly, I hope all of you have been watching – and those that haven’t yet – will watch Freaks and Geeks now that they’ve moved it to Monday nights from that Saturday night TV deathtrap… what an absolutely great show, it’s sooooo funny.

Anyway… I’m not in much of a mood for chatter so I’ll go for now, maybe more shortly, still working on some stuff, tho it looks like I will be AWOL from the Wall (pun intended) for most of February, not by choice. So, for now, Happy 34th Birthday to a friend I haven’t spoken to in about fifteen years, and later ’til whenever…

Posted in about the weather, blah, cats, film fiend stuff, friends are evil, game theory, happy birthday, i sleep too much, lynnster's zoo, memphis, music, television, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »

Wipe Out

Posted by Lynnster on January 14, 2000

Well, I had good intentions anyway… I was going to update a whole bunch of pages on the site Wednesday night, mainly in the Bands and related sections, and actually did start doing some, but had to stop because I had the biggest most painful blister on one finger I’ve ever seen and typing was making it hurt much, much worse, that sucker was huge. You wouldn’t think one single solitary blister would make one feel all over that bad and you wouldn’t think just tapping on the keys of a computer keyboard occasionally would be so tremendously painful but my god, it was, I just had to stop what I was doing and go to bed.

This will hopefully teach me a bit of a lesson as what happened was that I played guitar Tuesday night for the first time in, I dunno, a couple of months or so anyhow ‘cos I’ve been so busy otherwise, so not only does practice make perfect but practice keeps blisters the size of the state of New Hampshire off one’s fingers I suppose.

At the point where I stopped what I’d been doing with web pages, I would have just about as soon amputated the hand (luckily the left… but read on for news about the right hand). And, anyone who’s ever seen me type knows how fast I type, do you have any idea how hard it is to try to avoid not typing with one of your fingers? Eventually I just gave up and went to bed in agony.

So, lucky me I work for a surgeon, and spent part of yesterday morning spraying my fingertip with Cetacaine and poking holes in the blister with a needle, which probably wasn’t good for it but certainly better than me popping the thing wide open and actually maybe it was good for it since it’s almost healed up now, not even 24 hours later yet. I really do have to stop being lazy playing and get back to normal as not only do the guys and I have an acoustic gig coming up pretty soon but the annual birthday party for all the coolest people, who are, of course, the cool people born in March, is coming up fast on the horizon as well and I am currently in no condition to be able to play for eight or nine hours until sunup as is always required. (giggle) Seeing as how lately my hands are falling asleep all the time I may be useless anyhow but hey, you know, anything for the sake of music right? (snicker) Since the boys will let me play in public now I’m not about to let any silly carpal tunnel BS ruin my fun.

To top all of this off, last weekend I accidentally slammed my right hand in a (very heavy) door and got yet another finger – wouldn’t you know it’d be the index finger of my right hand and I’m right-handed – really good. It finally is no longer purple and as big as my thumb.

Then we have the weird recently-acquired ailment in my right arm – which began after carrying all that luggage thru the airport at Christmas – which I have just had to learn to live with, but at its peak of agony I tried to squeeze the trigger on a spray bottle of household cleaner and couldn’t. Better now, but with all that plus the recent sprained ankle (which I still don’t know how, where or when I did that) and some other really odd aches and pains lately, I’m just like, what’s next??? I’m telling you younger folks, you hit 30 and it all falls apart, it really does!! Something to look forward to.

I never had any problems like that before I turned 30, save for chronic sore throats and whacking out my tonsils 10 years ago took care of that. My mother thinks I’m too old to have kids, my grandmother cracks jokes about my age, and I’m falling apart, I give up.

So anyway…. well, I had a bunch of other stuff but spent too much time this evening doing some major updating overhaul of many pages, none of which are up yet because it’s too late for me to deal with uploading them, so this weekend sometime, I’m sure, along with more graffiti and no musculoskeletal system issues hopefully (I shouldn’t have said that, now I’ll probably slam the car door on my foot in the morning or something worse…). I have a three-day weekend and god knows I need it.

So ’til later, I am your tired, crabby, broken, yet still happily skipping along the garden path of life and snickering sarcastically all the while – and much in need of just one decent night’s sleep!

Posted in a bit accident prone, a family thing, happy birthday, i never sleep, music, updates to the zone | Leave a Comment »

Think I’m Just Happy

Posted by Lynnster on November 19, 1999

So I have been desperately doing some Christmas shopping, which means it may be a while before I have time to breathe again because doing that has gotten me pretty behind on other things, but that’s OK … I just refuse to get stuck like I did last year with everything I ordered being out of stock, and having to run around like a blonde chicken w/ my head cut off at the last minute again, so I did it, every last bit of it in two days!!! (With the exception of a few things I’d already picked up along the way this year, anyway.) Actually that isn’t quite true, I do still have my two young cousins left, and it’s beyond me what would be an awesome Xmas gift this year for a fifteen year old boy and a preteen boy… was much easier when they were little kids and the rest of the young’ns I had to buy for were girls!!!

But, other than that little speed bump in my Xmas shopping, I am through, fini, done! And darn happy about it. Of course I’m also gonna be broke – I hate most holidays but have a buzz on for Christmas every year a few miles wide, and have a tendency to be way over-generous (come to think of it I guess that’s not just a Christmas-related handicap…) – but that’s OK. I like to give presents I know people will like rather than just grabbing something out of the air and that’s much more important to me than $$, and besides, it’s the opportune time of year for me with annual longevity pay as well as other stuff looming on the horizon anyway. But Xmas is done, I’m happy, and have not had to set foot in one single store, except for one I have to hit this weekend. Yay.

Anyway, as if I weren’t already pretty impossible, now I’m going to be even more impossible and pretty much skipping around in the clouds for a while ‘cos you know what? My very favorite guitarist and musician in the whole wide world saw my page and thinks it’s cool. Isn’t that awesome? I thought so. Hopefully this blessed event will kick my sorry butt into gear regarding updating the band pages soon…

So much bad news in the last several days across the country, as well as right here in the city and the state too, I’ll just keep this light for now, especially as I’m tired, it’s late, and I have to get up early for my final torture for a while at the dentist’s, but hopefully I will have some downtime between the upcoming holiday and the next to putter around here a little more often and a little more regularly… as it is this is slumber party weekend and next week I’ve got all kindsa stuff going on with Thanksgiving.

No real news except my dearly beloved “nephew” John Stephen, who would have been named after yours truly had he been a girl instead, turned one year old yesterday so that’s a kick… probably needless to say I am well on my way to spoiling that child rotten and will continue to do so.

Anyway, for now I must go. Talk again soon…

Posted in a family thing, aussie music, happy birthday, holidays, hoodoo gurus, updates to the zone | Leave a Comment »

Hello Goodbye

Posted by Lynnster on November 2, 1999

Hiya. I don’t really have anything major or terribly interesting to report nor do I have much time, I’ve just got this thing about not letting the Wall sit here unchanged very long when a new month’s come around. I am, however, glad always-awful October is finally over.

Well, we have this huge cold front coming into the Mid-South right now with so much wind I think my house is about to blow away, I’m kinda glad to see it get cold again because we’ve been seesawing between chilly, warm, darn near hot this past weekend, and here and there and back for weeks now and I’d just as soon it get cold and stay that way or just at least stay one way.

I am sort of running on lack of sleep again (which is why I can’t stay here long right now) due to another storm front that came in Sunday night – a very minor one, but enough to turn my neurotic dogs paralyzed yet once again – and wound up having to attempt to sleep on a Dobie pillow that night since he refused to move, so I didn’t get much sleep needless to say.

Catch it while you can on Showtime – what has got to be the worst movie of all time is currently running, called Cellblock Sisters 2: Banished Behind Bars. Actually it’s quite entertaining because the acting is sooo bad you’ll be rolling on the floor, crying tears of laughter. I was flipping channels after watching something else one night last week and was just glued to it, couldn’t stop watching it, it was like a car wreck, it’s just so bad you can’t take your eyes off it.

Anyhow… things are looking up at least a little here in the neighborhood, more on that some other time… the annual girls’ slumber party is set for November 20th and I’m psyched about that, unbelievably enough we have been doing this every year for nearly a decade now…

All I’ve got to say about the current state of the ‘Net in general is it’s incredibly boring, I don’t quite understand what has happened to sites I’ve previously worshiped and am finding nothing much new to take their place, except here’s a kind of cool one, click here (link removed) to go to The Hunger Site, where you can click once daily and your click will provide somewhere around 1-2 cups of food among the needy on the planet or something like that, details are there on the site… and I dunno, that’s pretty much it for now I guess.

Happiest Birthday to my good buddy Jimm way down in the mecca city of Sydney, Australia, and to everyone else, ciao for now…

Posted in about the weather, dobie is a dog, dogs, film fiend stuff, friends are good, happy birthday, i never sleep, lynnster's zoo | Leave a Comment »

I Had a Toothache, But That’s Okay

Posted by Lynnster on October 27, 1999

Just a very short update as it is very late, I am very tired, very crabby, and my jaw aches very much. Unfortunately I am so swamped at work right now it looks like I am going to have to cancel this week’s scheduled dental torture – which certainly has its good points – but that of course means I am going to have to remain in pain and agony for two more weeks or more probably. I wonder if I’m so crabby today (and rather have been) because I just recently realized I have pretty much been overdosing on Aleve for weeks now… hey, I’ve been employed in the medical field since I was sixteen years old, why should I read directions?!! (And quit hyperventilating – no, I don’t dispense medicine to anyone but me. Sheesh.) Anyhow, the thing is, I recently switched wonder drugs to Aleve, after years and years of swearing by Advil. And you can take Advil and other ibuprofen drugs all day long and in bucketloads without much concern, so I’m used to that. So, I just happened to glance at the back of the label on the Aleve yesterday and noticed where it says, in big capital letters, something like – DO NOT TAKE MORE THAN THREE TABLETS IN A 24 HOUR PERIOD. Oops. Oh well, if I ever have time to sit down for ten seconds at work again I guess I’ll pull out the PDR or the Merck Manual and see what the side effects of naproxen overdosage are, if any. If nothing else might explain a few things… in any case this #$@&! toothache has kept me offline, comparatively anyway, a lot so I just haven’t been around really and remain way behind in most everything, so. I think maybe it wouldn’t hurt so much if the #@#! tooth would stop squeaking because then maybe I’d leave it alone, ‘cept I know it’s not all my doing because I can’t eat at all without wanting to rip my jaw off an hour later.

Anyhow… I found out yesterday that for the first time ever I actually won something from one of the occasional contests that are run on the Hoodoo Gurus’ Poison Pen mailing list, which I’ve been a member of for about a billion years now – back when there were still less than 50 members on the list, even! – so that made me happy since every time there’s a contest or drawing I never win and figured I was cursed or something. I don’t know what I won yet but knowing Michael it’ll be something supercool and will be waiting ecstatically for my prize from Down Under.

And I’ll have you all know by this time tomorrow I should have my US Postal Service postage license, which is really cool except I really needed it more about a month ago, but cool all the same as I will practically never have to go stand in line at the Crosstown post office again, yaaaay! Which kinda sucks because there’s a cute guy working down there now, but oh well. I am quite tired of having to lug boxes down there all the time so I’m really thrilled about this, although the folks down there – who all know me on sight by now – are quite nice, I’m much happier about being able to run postage at two in the morning while sitting here in my bathrobe with my hair wet, and no longer having to worry whether I can either (A) torturously force myself out of bed early enough to drag my lazy butt to the post office before work or (B) make it there before 5:15 and pray there’s not a huge line. Now I can just hand all the boxes off to our office building’s regular postman every day, which is probably destined to make him hate me even more than he already does, but ah well, I can deal with that tradeoff.

Anyhow, I really must hit the hay, as I should have hours ago, so ciao for now, Happy Exceedingly Late Birthday to my dear pal Stef, Happy 54th Birthday to Phil Volk two days ago, and no, KC, I don’t think Aleve overdosage makes one retarded, thanks.

Posted in aussie music, blah, friends are evil, friends are good, happy birthday, hoodoo gurus, music, music junkie stuff, west end boys & girls | Leave a Comment »