Suncoast Scribe

I was caught up in laundry and fixing some soup and it gave me a second wind tonight, so I decided to turn on the TV and see what might be on. Apparently, the Travel Channel is doing a 7-hour Most Haunted Live at the Winchester House in San Jose, CA. I thought it might be fun to watch for a bit.

Why in the world is it so flipping compelling to watch a bunch of adult s walking around in the dark with night-vision camera jittering and jumping at every single creak and pop they hear? All houses make little noises. My house is at least 100 years newer than the Winchester and it creaks. Come on, people.

Nonetheless, I watched. In fact, it is still on in the other room. Seven hours of absolutely nothing. What odd TV programming we have these days.

It’s Friday.

To celebrate the end of the work week, I’d like to tell you a little about a fun weekly feature on the Nanashi-Inc blog you can put in your day planner and use to help you get through the week. It’s called FAnime Friday and if you are an anime fan, or even just interested in the phenomenon, you should stroll on over and check it out.

My personal foray into anime started back in my early high school days when Robotec used to be on TV. I also remember being in a comic book store to buy a new issue of The Flaming Carrot, and stumbling on ElfQuest and while that might not be a classic example of anime; it certainly blew the doors wide open for me.

More recently, I have been finally take the time to catch up on series like Fruits Basket and Chobits, which a friend suggested to me and I downloaded years ago. Motherhood interrupted my flow of free time and I am finally in a place where I am getting up to speed and looking for more anime to collect and watch.

In any given week, you can expect to see recaps of older shows, introductions to hot, new anime series, video clips, reviews,

I particularly liked the September 7 issue which was entitled Give it up for the Minor Characters. I’m all about the unsung hero, so to speak. What FAnime Friday is doing for me, though, is helping me to get back on track when it comes to taking the time to follow worthy series. There are just TOO many options out there for my jumbled mind to process and it helps to have someone with tastes similar to my own handing out reviews and suggestions. It is completely because of the cool features on FAnime Friday that I’m picking up Perfect Girl Evolution now.

One of my vehicles is a Dodge Grand Caravan. We bought it the last year that the seats have to actually be removed from the car if you want to use the extra space in the back. We had just been to the Nissan dealer and I had seen their van with the seats that folded down into the floor. We decided we would rather have the Caravan, but would wait if an upcoming model was going to feature the Stow and Go seats like they do indeed have these days.

The dealer – this is the Gainesville, FL Dodge Dealer – lied boldly to our faces, saying that there was no possible way the van would be changing in that respect. So, we bought the current model and off we went. Do you know that within Two months I started to see the TV commercials for Dodge Caravans with seats that folded into the floors?

There is NO POSSIBLE way the dealer was unaware of the new models that were coming out so very soon. The freaks were thinking only of that day’s sales. Greedy, greedy Dodge dealer in Gainesville, FL. Avoid them like the plague, please. (Plus, their service department is slow and inaccurate. Expect to wait approximately 4 hours for an oil change. I kid you not.)

Anyway, for the longest time I just kept the two back seats in the garage. I just used the two middle Captains chairs. I have company coming Monday, though, and we will want to drive over the beach. Plus, I am driving the following week for my daughter’s school fieldtrip. Obviously, it was time to put those seats back inside the van. What a chore! It is close to impossible for a lone female to get the seats in correctly. Today I did somehow manage to get one latched I, but the other is presently careening wilding around in the back. I am hoping my company can help me on Monday.

Freaking Gainesville Dodge. If they had just been honest, we would have SYTIIL bought from them, but just a couple of months later.

I think a person’s bedroom should be their refuge. I like to be able to go into my room and relax. I have my bedroom just the way I like it, with soothing colors, soft fabrics and just about the most amazing mattress you could ever dream of owning. I have an armour and a vanity that I took years finding. My quilt was also the result of years of searching. The art on the walls is by one of my favorite living artists, Susan Loy. My bedroom is where I go for quiet and calm. I don’t keep a television in there, or even a phone — books, yes, but nothing more distracting than that.

One thing I have not found yet is a bed. Yes, I have the mattress, but I haven’t found the perfect headboard and footboard yet. I have a general look and feel in mind and I’ll know it when I see it. I don’t; ha e time to go from furniture store to furniture store in my quest. SO, I depend on online furniture stores to find what I want to complete my bedroom refuge.

Why not? Online shopping means I can look at more styles and models in one fell swoop. There is no driving around town, dealing with salespeople, and hoping I don’t get distracted by something else in the store. Plus, sites like Wholesale Furniture Brokers have more furniture to look at on one site than if I spent the time trekking to ten different local furniture galleries.

A great topping for shrimp, fish or chicken, this simple salsa can be lightly sautéed to bring out the flavors of the fresh fruits.

1 pineapple, skinned, cored, and cut in chunks
2 star fruit, sliced
2 kiwi, skinned and sliced
1 mango, skinned, pitted, and diced
2 papaya, skinned, seeded, and diced
1 red bell pepper, minced
½ jalapeño seeded, deribbed, and minced

Add the fruits and peppers and sauté for 1 to 1 ½ minutes, tossing or stirring gently.

I’m not really a gun kind of person. My ex-husband had guns and they all left the house along with him. I’m not sure how much good one would have done us in an emergency anyway. I remember one night when we heard a sound outside and he got up, stumbling around in his underwear, spilling bullets from the cartridge all over the floor. If someone would have come into the house, he would have been down on the floor picking up the bullets.

I did get a stun gun a week or so back. It’s a full-contact model and legal here in Florida. I know that as a single woman (a single mom, no less) I need to be protected. Even though I am not a gun person, I AM a dog person. My dog Echo passed away in August and I’ve been thinking about getting another dog to bring into the home.

This time, though, I would consider a larger dog, perhaps one who knows how to guard. Echo was a great alert dog, but she would have been hopeless in a physical situation.

There are businesses like Command Control K-9 that specialize in obtaining and training protection dogs. This particular company sells breeds like German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, and Belgian Malinois that have been specifically trained to both protect your family and act as a companion dog at the same time. While I will probably never personally need one of their very top level dogs, the idea of having a pet that knows how to protect my home is appealing. I think good, well-trained protection dogs could be the absolute best deterrent to someone who would have otherwise picked your house for a home invasion. Home invasions are becoming more and more common in my area, so this kind of thing crosses my mind often.

On September 27, I wrote about how I feel a 16-year-old may be too young to receive a driver’s license. My article was triggered by an incident the day before where 16-year-old John Holland, Jr. killed a 49-year-old motorbike rider in Tampa. That came of the tail of various other fatal car accidents in the area involving either young licensed drivers or under aged, unlicensed drivers.

All actions have consequences and this week Holland was charge with vehicular homicide. He turned himself in at the Juvenile Assessment Center Wednesday, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Speeding was apparently a huge issue in this case. Add that to the fact that his parents were allowing him to drive a 2005 Nissan 350 Z sports car. He is 16. Children that young do not have the self control to not get into a car like that and enjoy the thrill of going fast. Period.

Parents have the responsibility to determine if their child should be licensed as soon as they turn 16, when they can drive, what they can drive and so on. Children need to see the huge responsibility driving a car in public has and make a decision to act more like adults. My opinion is still that the minimum driving age should be raised to 18 or 21.

He’s a lesson on why all bloggers need to have their own hosting accounts if they are serious about blogging.

Many of my readers will remember that in September I left for my grandmother’s funeral. When I returned home, I found my two oldest blogs non-operational. I had been given “free” hosting on the domain Rainbowofwords.com and apparently while I was out of town dealing with a very emotional issue that kept me offline, the owner of that site made the decision to pull access to my blogs based on the fact that her mother (yes, her mother!) had disagreed with a post I made that said I considered Benadryl an option to my daughter’s allergy meds during our travel. Its common knowledge that Benadryl not only helps with motion sickness, it also helps with anxiety. All in all, it would be serving three purposes if I gave it to my daughter. In the end, I never did need to. Her allergies were fine, as was everything else.

Anne’s removal of my blogs was supposed to be for two weeks, according to the one e-mail she ever bothered to send me about the issue. She refused to reply to the e-mails I sent to her; including those at the two-week mark asking if she would reopen access to my blogs. I have yet to regain access to my blogs and it has now been over 6 weeks. I do not expect Anne at Rainbowofwords to live up her word.

As someone who makes a living off of my freelance writing, the loss of my original blogs cost me right around $1000 in unpaid work. Anne is quite aware of what taking my blogs off line did to my income, as she is also a freelance writer.

Anyway, this all serves to say that blog hosting is something you need to have 100% control over. Get your own hosting account. Do not use the free services or accept free space from another individual. You need to have unfettered access to your files and know that as long as you are adhering to the Terms of Service of your professional hosting company, all will be well.

I personally recommend Wordpress hosting, as Wordpress is the most common blogging platform (along with platforms like Moveable Type), simple to navigate, and easy to customize. If you are just now starting a blog, do it the right way and pay to have your own account. There are various hosting packages out there for very reasonable prices. In fact, in most cases your monthly cost will be about the price of a cup of coffee from Starbucks.

Star Trek is a classic. It’s been a part of our culture since the 1960s and been spun off into countless television series and movie franchises. New generations of fans have come and gone and the one thing they all have in common is a reverence for the original cast.

I’m a purist. I prefer the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy original crew. That’s why I feel just a little bit sick to hear the announcement that Hollywood and J.J. Abrams have finally become so desperate that they would consider desecrating cultural icons by re-making and re-casting the original Star Trek.

An unaccomplished Chris Pine will portray Capt. James Kirk, while Karl Urban (another relative unknown who has had very small roles in a lot of films) has been cast Dr. McCoy.

Most disturbing is that Zachary Quinto will play Spock. If you do not recognize his name, you might know him as Sylar on Heroes. I’ve mentioned in the fact that I find his massive, unruly eyebrows so unpleasant and distracting that I can barely stand to even watch him try to balance his giant bobble-head in scenes from the show. Yes, I find him that repulsive. His acting is so very mediocre that it doesn’t even come close to making up for his horrific physical appearance. Plus, he was said to have dated Rumer Willis and that’s enough to give anyone a bad case of the skeevies.

The rest of the cast is rounded out by yet more complete unknowns. I suppose Abrams is banking of selling tickets on the Star Trek name alone.

It’s a sad day.

Back when I was working as the director of the art department for a small manufacturer, I often got dragged into other tasks like managing our internal network and tape backup system. I didn’t mind and I learned a lot. One thing I figured out quite quickly was that our system was a too expensive for as small a business as we were. There were definitely a handful of less expensive options to explore, but the owners of the company were the types who got comfortable once things were running smoothly and it was hard to convince them to try something new, even if it might save money.

One solution that businesses are using more and more often is external backup and file sharing, through Online Storage services like IBackup. When a business uses online backup and storage, users can access the system simply by clicking on a folder or mapped drive on their computer. That way you can treat the backup system like a shared company drive. You drag and drop files, just like the interface most people are used to using anyway.

I like remotely hosted backup systems, because it allows you an extra level of security that is not 100% dependant upon your in-house capabilities. Plus, systems like IBackup allow the user access to backup files up to 30 versions back! That can be a lifesaver.