December 12, 2006

Something really cool happened last weekend and I keep forgetting to write about it. First, a bit of back story.

I've written about Sarah Sharp before. I first heard her music about two years ago. She was giving an in-studio interview on a local radio station. I liked her music so I ordered her CD. And, then...in July of 2005...Diane and I saw her perform a few songs at the Cactus Cafe. Then, we saw her again just over a year ago. Again, at the Cactus. It was a fun show. She was recording a live CD. I checked her web site out every 3 or 4 months...looking for the CD. And, no show. I hadn't checked it out since August or September.

So, that's the back story.

I stopped by the post office over the weekend to check my box and...lo...a package from Sarah Sharp. Huh? I didn't know the Live CD was out but there it was. Who sent it? Did she just send it to people who'd bought her first CD? Is there some elf out there who'd been watching for it on my behalf and had it sent to me? Color me very thankful. And, curious. And, happy when I listen to the CD. Heh heh.

December 7, 2006

A few random notes...

• Welcome to December. As usual, I forgot Lolly's "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!" thing until about 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the 1st. I'd even discussed it with Katie the night before. Ah well.

• When I got to my office door this morning, I had my car keys out and ready. Ready for what? Ready to hit the un-lock button on the remote so I could get in. Amazingly, that button does not work on the door to my office. Sigh... I do that 3 or 4 times a year. Scary, eh?

• I got a piece of "link exchange" spam this morning. I usually just delete those things without bothering to read them. For some reason, today was different. I opened the message. Some fella said he'd recently found my site and that he's "very interested" in exchanging links. All this in the hopes of raising our search rankings and generating more traffic to both of us! Oh my! What a swell idea. And (!), he's already linked to my site! Wow. And, he sent the link so I could see that he had done so. Why would I not reciprocate?

  Needless to say, I did not open the link to his page. But, I did look at the URL. And, very entertainingly, he's chosen to link to joanna.org via a page that contains the string "health_conditions_and_diseases" as part of it's path. Yep, health conditions and diseases are discussed frequently and at length here, eh? Gosh, 'guess I won't be linking back. The URL did make me laugh, though. I guess it's good to open those spam messages every once in a blue moon.

  By the by, I had 17 pieces of email in my "In" box this morning here at joanna.org headquarters. 16 of them were spam. There were an additional 29 pieces of email that my server had marked as spam and moved to the trash all on its own. At work, 6 messages...no spam. UT is doing a splendid job of weeding that stuff out.

• And, finally. Lixen, I do hope your mom has a very speedy recovery. I'll be thinking of the both of you. Hugs.

November 29, 2006

How can it be that I completely missed the news that the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (initially called the National Wildflower Research Center) had become a component of UT? Here's the press release from last June. Last June. I had noticed a few entries here and there in the Campus Watch reports with references to the Wildflower Center and wondered why campus police were patroling down there. Obviously, I did not bother to wonder hard enough...or I would've noticed earlier. What prompted me to notice today? We got an informational email letting us know about a special sale. The first sentence of that message:

We're celebrating becoming part of The University of Texas at Austin by offering a special 20 percent discount for university faculty and staff at our 16th Annual Holiday Shopping Event.

Huh? So, I went in search of info and found the press release linked above. Curiously, other than that press release, there's pretty much no mention of the university on the web page. Ah well...

November 16, 2006

I was driving north on Mo-Pac (Mopac?...MoPac?...MOPAC?) last night and noticed a little yellow and black Mini Cooper. It looked kinda like this:

Cute, eh? Then, I spotted the personalized plate. Here's my rendering of the plate:

Now, that...that is too cute.

By the way, I went to the Mini Cooper web site to "build my own" black-over-yellow version to illustrate my story and they don't seem to be offering the Mini in yellow these days. So, I built a pepper-white one and used the ever-useful Photoshop to make it the proper color.

October 27, 2006

Wow. It's been a month since I updated. Whew. My how time flies, eh? Anyway...

From yesterday's Campus Watch crime report:

Assault (Gregory Gym, 2101 Speedway)
Two UT students got into an argument about how hard the UT football team works out. One subject told the other that she needed to keep her comments to herself. Both UT students began shoving each other back and forth. Occurred on: 10-25-06, 2:20 PM.

Heh heh. A "discussion" about football practice elevates to the point that the police are called to the scene? Heh heh heh. I love it.

I do think I should give a shout out to the Campus Watch folks. Clearly, if it weren't for them, I'd rarely have the proper impetus to update this page. Sad, but true.

September 26, 2006

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Suspicious Activity (Frank Denius Practice Field, 2400 Red River)
Two non-UT subjects were discovered attempting to climb on top of the inflatable dome. When stopped, both subjects stated they had climbed the brick wall hoping the dome was "squishy", and were disappointed when they found out it was not "squishy." Both subjects were issued a criminal trespass warning and escorted from the area. Occurred on: 9-22-06, at 8:56 PM.

They were disappointed to discover that it was not "squishy." Heh. I guess I always sort of wondered about that. But, not enough to actually try and climb on top of the thing. For those of you unfamiliar with the facility, a photo (taken from the Texas Football Facilities page):

September 22, 2006

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Criminal Mischief (Jester West Dormitory, 201 East 21st Street)
A UT student discovered three cracks in a "William Banks" violin after she had left the instrument inside a secured 9th floor dormitory room. Estimated damage: $20,000.00. Occurred 0n: 9-21-06, between 6:00 PM and 10:15 PM.

Oh. My. Goodness. A $20,000 violin hanging out in someone's dorm room? Wow. I don't know where else (but their dorm room) a music student who lives on campus is supposed to store such a valuable instrument. But, still. Wow. You gotta feel for the girl. I'm sure she's devastated. I keep coming back to: wow.

September 1, 2006

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Leaving the Scene Collision (Brazos Parking Garage, 200 Block East Martin Luther King Blvd.)
A UT staff member entered into the parking garage and stopped behind a silver color truck. The truck was waiting for another vehicle to vacate a parking slot; however, the driver of the truck did not allow enough room for the third vehicle to back out safely. The driver of the truck realized the mistake and began backing up. The staff member observed the truck backing up and she honked her horn several times to announce her presence. The rear bumper of the truck struck the front end of her vehicle. The driver of the truck drove away and parked several floors up. The staff member located the striking vehicle, and contacted the police. Loss value: $1,000.00. Occurred on: 8-31-06, at 11:57 AM.

Amazing. The driver had the gall to drive away after hitting someone else's car (and causing $1,000 worth of damage to that car), casually park a few floors away from the scene, and thought nothing would come of it...even though the driver of the other car was there at the time of the accident? Wow.

August 21, 2006

Happy birthday, MissyJane!

So, here's how my iPod decided to start my day today: "Long Black Veil" by Don Williams followed by Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67 (1st Movement). I'm telling you there's no radio station on the planet that can beat my iPod!

Entertainingly, Jack Williams' version of "Long Black Veil" played about seven hours later. Both versions are very good.

August 16, 2006

Sorry for not updating lately. I've generally just been busy. I've been posting a lot of photos from my vacation to my Photobox page. And, that's been taking up most of my "free" computer time. But, I couldn't resist an entry in today's Campus Watch...

From today's Campus Watch crime report:

Driving While License Invalid and Counterfeit Insurance Document (2300 San Jacinto)
An officer observed a blue Ford Explorer disregard a stop sign. The driver presented a valid Texas ID card to the officer. She stated her driver's license was suspended due to no insurance, but she paid the reinstatement fee and just didn't have it with her. The officer ran a warrant and driver's license check on the non UT subject. The subject's driver's license was revoked. The peeling registration sticker on the front windshield came back to a different vehicle. The subject also gave the officer an altered insurance card. The subject was taken into custody and transported to Central Booking. Occurred on 08-16-2006, at 2:39 AM.

Wow. That sounds like a lot of stuff gone wrong all at once, eh?

By the way, I haven't been posting entries from the Campus Watch reports much lately because the officer who always used that special turn of phrase when he posted the reports moved on to a new job a few months ago. And, sadly, the reporting has gone rather dry. It's just not the same when you read one of these reports and it doesn't have that sly little dig in it. Ah well...

. . . .

By the way #2, I posted a new comic to my favorite comics page a few days ago. I think it had been nearly 6 months since the last update to that page. Check it out as I'm gonna post another one by Friday or so.

---

joanna@joanna.org
URL: http://www.joanna.org/archive/Aug2006-Dec2006.html
Last updated: December 12, 2006

Back to the archive of
joanna.org ramblings