Lately, if you’ve attempted to comment on my blog [if so thank you, by the way] you may have received an error that contained text similar to this:

Build error in template ‘booklist’: Error in tag: Error reading XML content: syntax error at line 1, column 49, byte 49 at /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.1/i386-linux/XML/Parser.pm line 185 .
Do not worry, it does not mean your post did not work. It is, in fact, there. It’s just that when you submit a comment, it tries to rebuild all the index templates, whether they have comments or not. And I have two that rebuild, the one you are on right now of course, and the books page. It’s the 2nd one that errors out. Your comment is there, it just won’t show an accurate comment count until the main index page can be rebuilt without ending in error. ie: without the damn book page.
Now, why the book page is returning that error, I do not know. It does not happen all of the time. It happens periodically when I attempt to rebuild a page. Usually, I just keep trying. Eventually, it will rebuild successfully. No one can explain to me why this is happening. Logically, it makes no sense to me. Why the periodic parser.pm error? Huh? I asked my web hosting people and they have no idea. If it were something wrong with my template, wouldn’t you think it would happen consistently? Maybe it’s a problem with amazon.com’s site. i don’t know. But it’s making me absolutely crazy.
My friend Anastasia and I are going to take Spanish 101 at the Seattle Language Academy next quarter. We will be reimbursed by our employer, if we pass, as it’s an accredited school. I’ve been wanting to take a language for a long time, I’ve been waiting to find someone who would a: take it with me and b: be fun to practice with. And Anastasia is it! ¿Dónde está el gatito? ¡El gatito está en la cama!! ¡Yay!

Did you guys know that they are opening a Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame here in Seattle? Why would you, you don’t live here. Well, I do, and I was completely clueless. It’s Paul Allen… he’s adding it on to the EMP. Louise and I discovered this yesterday, and we were totally surprised to find it’s opening in about two months. We are considering “joining” the museum. Means you get to enter through the Members Express door. And you get a Membership card and discounts and advance notice. But… act now and you’ll get an SFM t-shirt AND a lapel pin. That’s right, because you’ll be Charter Members. People will ask me, “Jodi… how come you are a member of a Science Fiction Museum? You’ve never seen a single episode of Babylon 5…” and I’ll say, “yes, but i got a t-shirt AND a lapel pin” as I sail past them in the Members Express line. I’m not sure I deserve it, tho… I’m not very far down on the Geek Hierarchy chart. First tier, really… comic book fan.
Speaking of furries, Louise and I also discovered that there is a furry convention coming up in September. This all came about because Louise pointed out we missed norwescon. Not having a clue what that was, I could hardly mind, but I wanted to know just what i missed out on… so we started searching. We came to this list of sci fi things coming to Seattle/Tacoma area. And, in September, it’s the Conifur Northwest. It’s downright irresistible, I’m telling you. We are waiting, with bated breath, for the prices to be announced, to see if we will be able to afford such a unique experience.
yes… we’d be doing it for fodder. But we’d be totally polite and groovy about it. [as long as my personal boundaries are respected] come on… we don’t want to get beat up by giant stuffed animals.

I suppose I should explain that I do know where the snakes came from. In my dream. They came from here:

That’s right. From the Sims. I played for the first time in a couple of weeks, over the weekend. At one point, my main Sim, Buttonwillow, thought she’d use the “Beauty and the Beast” charm to turn herself into a a little fairy type creature. She does that from time to time, being magical and all. But I had forgotten the name of the charm to use, and instead used the “Shed Your Skin” charm. Which, I thought, was supposed to turn you into a ghost. But instead, unleashed a Plauge of Snakes unlike Buttonwillow had ever seen. [in fact, she’d never seen a Plauge of Snakes.] They were everywhere. Dozens and dozens. And all the sims did was run from snake to snake, in a panic, waving their arms and yelling “Snake! Snake!” They never did completely go away. Occasionally, one of the sims will start running in a panic, over to a dead pile of snake, yelling “Snake! Snake!”
So I guess it’s not all that surprising that I should have a dream of snakes. But I’m wondering where the enchanted, but drunken, garden gnomes were.


That’s the wine press they are playing in, guess that’s how they got drunk. Before they start drinking, they make excellent little gardeners. Buttonwillow had to solidify them again.

I’ve been quiet on the posting side this week, and that is because I’ve been busy behind the scenes. I’m working on my “Books I’ve Read” Page. I’ve been wrinkling my little brain trying to figure out how to do things I have no idea how to do. But we all know that’s my favorite.
I entered, by hand, all the books I had listed on my all consuming page, since I signed up on November 24, 2003. Turns out, that’s about seventy books. It’s it’s fairly easy to determine the authors I “discovered” during this time.
Anyway, it’s coming along nicely, and really, the only reason I am posting this, is because I need a blog entry ID for sorting purposes. 🙂 So, no it’s not ready yet, but sooooon.

Last night, my mom Pattie and I went shopping. We needed to get something for me to wear to her wedding. All we needed was some kind of blouse or top to go with the satin skirt I already have. With the exception of shoes, I’m not a fan of shopping for clothing. I buy what I need and get on with my life. If I like the way something fits, I get more of the same, in a different color. I buy the same levi’s every time I need jeans. I have a couple of the same cargo capris, just in different colors. Stuff like that. Which is way I probably have drawers full of t-shirts, jeans, khakis, cardigans and little else. There is some variety, but for the most part, I have a limited fashion sense. I’m all about comfort. Which is why trying on several fancy, expensive tops or blouses in a row makes me hot and cranky. What kind of lighting to they use in dressing rooms? Does it have to be so hot in there?
The shopping went a lot like this:
Scenario A:
Pattie heads over to a particular rack.
Jodi, emphatically: no!
Pattie doesn’t bother picking anything off and heads in new direction.
Scenario B:
Jodi heads over to a particular rack or display.
Pattie, firmly: Not dressy enough.
Jodi doesn’t bother picking anything off the rack, but takes time out to make face at Pattie.
Finally we found something we could both deal with it. It was half the price of the blouse that my mom had purchased for me, that I had vetoed. [we returned that one.] And my mom also got some capri pants with a crazy pineapple thing going on on them, for her honeymoon. We we were making the purchase, she was discussing shopping with the clerk, and I was making whiny noises. They kept talking about cute this, and darling that. And sales, and did I check out the jewelry over in the back of the store?
Jodi: I don’t need any jewelry, I’m wearing Moür Moür’s pearls to the wedding.
Pattie: no, I know, this isn’t for the wedding, they just have some cute stuff.
Jodi: Why do I need cute stuff?
Pattie and Clerk have discussion about the jewelry that I cannot begin to recall.
Jodi [with no small amount of horror]: You really ARE a shopper, aren’t you? You ENJOY this!
Pattie: yup.
Jodi: So does Vickie [her sister]. Further proof I am adopted.
Clerk: Oh that’s nice! That’s good, hon, because that means they picked you out special! They must really love you!
Pattie and Jodi exchange a look, recognizing they’ve hooked a live one. Pattie starts to pet Jodi’s hair.
Pattie: We sure do!
Jodi: We’ll … they gave birth to the first one, and look at how THAT turned out.
Clerk [slightly confused at last statement]: I have friends who just adopted a 4 year old from Russian. Such a darling boy. It must feel so good to help kids in needs.
Pattie [still petting Jodi’s hair]: Yes, it does. She’s from Bosnia. [said in a whisper, as if not to remind me of my tragic past]
And with that, Pattie and Jodi left to go on their wicked, lying ways.

An evil stomach flu held me in it’s clutches the last few days. I didn’t even get any Easter Brunch, because it was all too icky. Which is a real shame… that’s what Easter is all about. Brunch. Food and bunnies. Which is why it always makes me think of Fee. That, and her active celebration of the resurrection of Christ… being Muslim and all.
I think the people who help fight evil spammers should be nominated for Nobel Peace Prizes. I think they should be considered for sainthood. And that is why I am currently in love with mt-blacklist and it’s wonderful Creator. In mere seconds I destroy all spam comments from my blog, dating back to it’s birth in Aug. 2002. It’s like you are the hunter, and the spam comments are your prey, and by pulling the trigger just once, you blow their little brains out, all over the forrest. And then you drink the blood out of their tiny skulls and say “I get my antidepressants from Walgreen’s, thank you very much!”

I’m messing with my blog, trying to use a different method of listing the books I am reading. Allconsuming was always busy, would never let me update, and, frankly, the UI is clumsy. And slow. So I am working on setting up mt-bookqueue with mt-amazon.
So anyway, messing with blog and BAMF!! I lost my utf-8 characters! All my lovely umlauts and o’s with slashes through them. [unicod id= C3 98, C3 B8. I don’t know what the slashed O is called specifically. But I do know it’s unicode ID, which is scary.] Which, to be honest, I am using inappropriately. Based on my somewhat limited knowledge of Norwegian. Anyone notice how casually I mix norwegian and german letters? I just like special characters. 🙂
Jeg snakke ikke Norsk, tosk!

I was trying to remain inconspicuous, but the other Jodie saw me peeping at her! Again, it’s a Jodiey thing, we are pretty astute. Perspicacious, one might say if they were fond of that word, which we know I am. Jodie has started a blogroll of jodieys, and has graciously shared her javascript with me. Which is why you see me linking myself under the “jodiblogs” section. So now, we can build upon our list together, uniting Jodieys everywhere.
There is another Jodi at my place of employment. But he’s a Jody, as naturally he would be. What’s even more interesting is he’s a Mac IT specialist. Occasionally i would get phone messages or emails meant for him. But, if I knew the answer I went ahead and told them. It’s a mac, after all. Even tho the Hey Jodi game is evergreen in enjoyment:
“Hi Jody!”
“Hi to YOU, Jodi!”
“How are you, Jody?”
“I’m great, Jodi, how are YOU, Jodi?”
we moved on to a different game. He calls me Awesome Jodi when he sees me in the halls, and I call him Rockin’ Jody when I see him. We think this is great fun. Other people probably think it’s stupid. But what do they know, they neither Rock nor do they Awe.
So everyone say hi to Jodie, and go visit her blog.

Today is a happy day for me, bookwise. There is a new Tanya Huff book out, called Smoke and Shadows. It’s a bit of a spin-off from her Blood series. And Henry, who was only supposed to make a cameo, ended up with a bigger role. Not that that would have mattered to me. It could be about anything, if Tanya Huff wrote it, I’d read it. I wonder why there are not tons of websites out there, in her honor. How can you not love someone who, when asked in interview her thoughts on this year’s Stanley Cup replied that, as non-Canadian as it sounds, she didn’t watch much hockey because “I’m afraid it would cut into the time I spend memorizing my Firefly DVDs and sending mental messages to Joss Whedon: “You want me on your writing staff…” ”
I hope Joss is listening. Personally, I am sending Tanya Huff mental messages that read “you really do have more Keeper stories to tell. many many more… quit fighting it! Let them out!”

My manager is in Portland for the next two days. Wheeeee! I think I will run amuck!! fun! Ok, I run amuck every day, so that’s nothing new. Truth is, amuck is pretty much my Default State. The other is probably Lighthearted Sloth with Slight Ennui.
Next Monday is my five year anniversary at this job. And I am eligible for my sabbatical, which is an additional 3 weeks off that must be taken in one lump. It’s kind of sad, that I am too broke to really travel well on my sabbatical. My dream, when I first started here, was to go to Europe on my sabbatical. But that was back in the day. The good old days, when tech stocks were gold. But no matter what I do with my sabbatical, it’s still 3 weeks of not coming to work, right? Sure it is!! The only thing is, 10 people in my dept are all coming into eligibility this year. Over the next few months. 8 of those are on my team. EvilDeb and Lloyd have already scheduled their sabbatical. I think Dr. Stevil may have, as well. Emroo just got back from hers – Australia. So I may not be taking my sabbatical for a while. I already have 2.4 weeks of PTO saved up, maybe if I keep saving, I can just take 2005 off!