Friday!

[shadesong]

Administration
Happy birthday to gows!

Medical
Ow, ow, frickin' ow. I'm taking Tramadol instead of Flexeril, because I need to function today. Laundry. Baking. Writing. Organization.

Not-Date
I need to just write down all of the compliments mgrasso gives me and put them in a beautifully-bound little book, and carry the book with me to peek at whenever I'm feeling down. He is one of my favorite people to spend time with. And not just because of the compliments and the pinot noir. *laugh* I love Boston!

Kingdom of Loathing
It's CrimboWeen! All you KoLers, make sure to log in every day this month and check your Spooky Advent Calendar. And - eat the chocolate lump. Trust me.

Dada
People blogging on Dada - have you received an e-mail telling you what amount you're going to get? Does it seem low? Yeah, me and wakingdreaming, too. Demand an accounting. CC it to Antonella, and to me if I'm the person who invited you.

Daily Science
Life on Earth may have started with the help of tiny hollow spheres that formed in the cold depths of space, a new study suggests. The analysis of carbon bubbles found in a meteorite shows they are not Earth contaminants and must have formed in temperatures near absolute zero.

Daily BPAL

Belladonna: The devil's herb, which he cultivates with skill and pleasure. According to lore, the spirit of this plant may take the form of a breathtaking, achingly beautiful woman, deadly to behold. This scent is a tribute to such a dark and magnificent plant: a rich green and floral blend, earthy and haunting.

In bottle: Wow, that's green.

On me: So, so, green. Rubbing a stem apart in your hands to expose wet sharply green sticky pulp. That.

Blood Lotus: Lush, velvet-red blooms born from the blood shed in the eternal battle between Set and Horus the Avenger.

In bottle: I can't help it - lotus just brings this pleased grin to my face. :)

On me: Sweet lotus anchored by a lingering spatter of dragon's blood.

Queen of Sheba: Her scent is a bounty of golden honeyed almonds and a whisper of African and Middle Eastern spices.

In bottle: Honey sweetness, but the almonds don't overwhelm.

On me: The almonds show up more on me than they did in the bottle, but it's slivered almonds drizzled in honey, not the whoa-nelly feet-and-almonds of Baron Samedi. The spices are subtle.

Wanda: Her scent is a deep red merlot with a faint hint of leather, sexual musk and body heat over crushed roses, violets and myrtle.

In bottle: A dryer red wine than Montresor.

On me: Light musky wine. The leather will likely peep out sooner or later. I get touches of violet and myrtle, but as yet none of the rose, for which I am thankful. :)

Friday memeage!
Wearing
T-shirt from an academic conference, size XL. "413 Requested Entity Too Large" panties.

Reading
The Orphan's Tales: In The Night Garden by yuki_onna. Once Upon a Time (she said), by Jane Yolen.

Planning
I need to get stuff to First Church for a bake sale tonight. I have no idea where that is. So um yeah.
Saturday, I get to hang out with yuki_onna! And Saturday night, we're going to her reading at Pandemonium Books. All locals should attend. She's a fantastic writer. :)
Sunday? Resting!

You?

Comments

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

Not-Date

He is one of my favorite people to spend time with.

Heh, change the "he" to "she" and yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about you too.

Thanks for hanging out last night. My brain needed the break from the spine-rocking anxiety of the last three weeks. Also, I had a lot of fun. :)

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Glad to. Anytime. :) And I'm good for distraction. I get zany. :)

[mgrasso.livejournal.com]

You are a very silly girl. It is your wonderful secret identity. :)

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

How can a seekrit identity be, um... not seekrit?

[brujah.livejournal.com]

Stumbled onto this while doing some research this morning and thought you might be interested.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Hm! Thanks! :)

(And how are *you* doing?)

[brujah.livejournal.com]

Full flare, but improving I think. *snuggles you*

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

I gave up on Dada a couple of months ago. It was too slow, too buggy, too ugly. I blogged, uploaded stuff, and stressed myself out over it a lot more than I should have, thinking I'd get something in return. In the end, it just wasn't worth my time.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I've been slogging through in hopes that they'll actually come through. The e-mail I got says they're cutting me a check for $588, but I'm pretty sure I've earned more than that...

(Unrelated: Call me when you get a chance! :P I called you last night, but it went straight to voicemail.)

[zarhooie.livejournal.com]

I went with it for about two weeks, but after that.... Ugh. It took FOREVER to just *get* to the place to write my post, and then half of the bloody site was in italian... yuck.

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

The Orphan's Tales: In The Night Garden

Is this the fairy tale-ish one?

When is her reading. I think I'd love to attend. Have to check with J to find out if we don't already have something planned, though.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

'Tis!

7 PM.

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

Mike carries a brimful bucket of compliments, and ladles them liberally over one's head at intervals.

And a PS

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

I have what I call a "Happiness Notebook." I keep it with me, and when something happens, or somebody says something, or I see something that just gives me a boost or makes me smile, I write it down in the notebook. Perhaps that would work for you as well.

[sarapada.livejournal.com]

Wearing work clothes :P
Reading not enough! I'm sort of piecemealing my way through Heat of Fusion by John M. Ford, and Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link (I think that's her name!).
Planning tonight = Portland Trailblazers game with my little brother; tomorrow = life insurance exam and driving Bro back to Corvallis before Nintendo Wii tournament with boyfriend, boyfriend's boss, and boyfriend's boss's wife; Sunday = hanging out with friends.

Thanks for asking! :-)

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Wearing: turquoise long sleeved shirt, jeans, bare feet
Reading: 'The Grim Grotto' (Lemony Snicket)
Planning: Not much today or tomorrow except groceries; Sunday we're meeting with an accountant and going to tallin's holiday party at his new company. :-)

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

First Church is in the heart of Harvard Square - when you leave the main T stop (where the pit is, by Cambridge Savings Bank), make a hard right and follow Mass Ave on down. It's about 3-4 blocks - not far at all. :)

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Gave up on Dada... ugly, buggy code and lousy design with low usability and after a bit I couldn't even frellin log in! It's one destined for the great archive in the sky. Hope they cut you a good check, but cash it fast because I'm pretty sure their dot.com bubble is about to go pop.

[wakingdreaming.livejournal.com]

Regarding dada.net, you saw all my correspondence with them on my own journal. I received no more mail from them today so I bet they're hoping I'm just going to accept the low amount and go away.

Should I forward my entire correspondence, between me and Jane, to Antonella? Is she our ally in some way? Honestly, she's the reason I wasn't blogging consistently at dada.net from the day I got the invitation. If she had responded to my initial request for verification of the program, I'd have been with it the whole time. But maybe you've had some good luck with her? Please let me know.

My girlfriend has not received ANY e-mail from the site saying she'll be receiving any money. She signed up right after I did (within a day or two) and didn't stick with it for the same reason I didn't. She also came back to it for the same reason I did. She's only made four posts or so in her entire blog and I don't think she posted any pictures or invited any other people, but it seems like she should at least get credit for signing up, making her profile, and all of that initial stuff.

I'm going to be really interested to see how many other people HAVE stuck with this and are still getting shafted.

[wakingdreaming.livejournal.com]

Here's another thing... I think we should suggest to anyone who feels they're being shorted by dada.net that they promptly go and back up their entire blog to their own computer. This provides us a backup safety net in case the site starts pulling down content and saying we're claiming credit for content that was never there. I don't know if we can or even should think about litigation over this issue but in case it becomes a big enough problem to be plausible, we need to be armed with evidence.

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

A FOAF pointed me here. I did DADA blogging religiously about 6-8 hrs a night between photo editing and posting. They disqualified me for the time period 11/16-11/30 for posting too many similar photos, but did not inform me of that til 12/1. I offered to go edit my posts during that time period so they would qualify for some payment, but they said I had abused the system and wasn't going to get any more. They didn't have any parameters about that and all my pix are originals. Some are similar, but nothing is a duplicate! I lost over 80 hrs worth of work time.. and over $6100 of what they should have paid per agreement. They supposed sent me the first check, though, and I'm hoping that's true. I'll be depositing it IMMEDIATELY if I do. I still feel screwed by them, though.

[wakingdreaming.livejournal.com]

I totally agree that you should be getting paid for every bit of work you put in. This business of setting out new rules after the program has already begun, in order to not have to pay people as much, as complete bullshit, if you'll excuse my language. If you're interested in pursuing this more, I'd strongly suggest backing up your entire journal to your computer as evidence in case they begin removing contact from the site to try to stop disagreements in their tracks.

Also, if we really do receive our checks, I'm not sure if we should actually cash or deposit them immediately or not. I'm wondering if the act of accepting the check for a lower amount than we expect could make an implicit legal statement that we are giving up on getting the larger amount we are owed. I wish someone was around who is a lawyer who could advice us on all this.

[angelovernh.livejournal.com]

And I hope you get paid what you should have earned from them, too!

[wakingdreaming.livejournal.com]

I got another message from Jane at Dada.net tonight telling me they feel I'm being adequately compensated for my blogging and that they consider the matter closed. I asked yesterday for a list of the activities on the site for which I'm receiving credit and she didn't respond to that. So I asked again and this time CC'ed it to Antonella. Do you want me to forward you any of the correspondence?