27 year old Pagan female who lives in Florida with her guy and two cats, loves Disney, reads fanatically, tinkers in photography and believes growing up is overrated.


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Reminder...

There are people on the net that have nothing better to do with their time then be nasty to other people online. They post rude comments, spend hours a day talking about sites they hate so much, that they well, spend hours a day talking about them. (lame) They mock the owners and posters for their opinions and their right to free speech. They expect everyone to fit into their narrow-minded little world view or else they throw a temper tantrum.

To these people I say grow up.

Here's a bit of info people...the web is a HUGE place. If you don't like what I say here, or who I am, or what I do, or talk about, or what I look like, or the color of my hair, or whatever asinine thing you dwell on, go somewhere else. It's really, really easy. Honest. You just click the little "x" in the corner of your browser and *poof* the offending, big, mean and nasty site has disappeared.

I pay for this site. It's mine. That means I can use it for whatever the hell I want to. Don't like it if I'm bitching about something in my life? Oh fucking well. Go somewhere else. Think I'm stupid for expressing my thoughts? Too fucking bad, don't read them. Somewhere along the line, someone forgot this simple fact: Live and let live Don't like me, cool, fine, whatever, I don't care. This journal is NOT for you. It's for me. I'm not in it for popularity or fame or anything stupid like that. I write it because I need to write and express myself and get things out of my head sometimes. So read or don't, it doesn't matter, but don't waste my time (or yours) bitching about it.

*gets off soapbox*


Tooth Drive: I need to raise over $850 for critically needed dental work. I'll be listing my hand made jewelry, bracelets, earrings, necklaces and horns for sale to try to raise the desperately needed funds. Every order helps. I can accept paypal payments at webmaster@giveneyestosee.com or check/money orders at: M. Turner PO Box 1484, Elfers, FL 34684 Thank you for your help and support.
 
I've also set up a tooth fund for anyone wanted to donate without purchase.

Need a good webhost?
Try DreamHost. Use my linkI'll get a referal credit which goes straight into the Tooth Fund as well.

Affiliate recommendation: real sterling jewelry and genuine gemstones free.
Just pay flat $5.99 shipping. Seriously not a scam. I get 50 cents if you use my link.

wishlist and mailing address

Friday, May 13, 2005

Morons Online
Some people are, quite frankly, too stupid to breathe. Case in point:
As I said, I for one do not click on the links given as there are many unscrupulous people who use links to attach virus' to. I therefore would have NEVER seen your article had it not come to this list. I am sure I am not the only one who feels this way.

Um..so let me get this straight. You don't click links online, ever? Riiight. So, what exactly do you do then on the internet?

Fucking morons.

(This, by the way, comes from someone who illegally posted one of my articles on their site without my permission. I told them they were welcome to link to it in it's original location, but were not under any circumstances permitted to just steal it for their own site. Because, delude yourself or not, copying the entirety of someone's article and posting on your own site without their permission IS, in fact, stealing. Her reply was exactly as above explaining how she doesn't ever click on links while on the net. )

Slight Update
Just in case you hadn't already taken a look, I made a few updates to the Sarah Concert Photos/Video site. Any song I hadn't taken still shots for, I screen captured a photo from the video. That way, even if you can't watch the videos, you can see a photo from all but the last song. And speaking of the last song, I fixed the typo. The second encore was Dirty Little Secret not Perfect Girl as I originally typed up. (Perfect Girl was #4 on the playlist.)

Anyway, just wanted to give head's up of the changes. Glad you enjoyed. :)

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Sarah Photos/Videos Live!
Ok, it's done. And you can find them all here! Like I said, dial-up beware, it's image intensive - 18 photos and 26 videos!

Enjoy!! :)

Concert Photos and Video - Upload in Progres
Ok, I got a cable - finally - for my camera. Resorted to ebay. A seller out in Orlando priority mailed me one. So, thank goodness, I finally have access to my images again. (Nikon, for the record, is still out of stock on them.) I have a ton of new jewelry to upload and add to PhoenixFire Designs - but that will wait until tomorrow. Today, I worked on my Sarah concert images and video.

So, give me about *checks upload progress* one hour for it to all finish uploading (I did mention I used up every drop of my 256 meg card right? *laughs*) and you'll be able to see photos and clips from the entire show. Yippie! Needless to say, it's going to be download intensive, but each of the videos will open in a new window so you can pick-and-chose which you want to see if you're on a slower connection. There's images from almost every song in the set too, so if you can't do video (they're all .MOV/quicktime format since that's what my camera records them in), you can at least see still shots.

It's not professional quality at all - I only have a 3x zoom and it's a dig cam not a camcorder afterall - but it's certainly good enough for peeks into the show. The images had to be photoshop lightened because I was too far back for the flash to work, so I had to take them all without. But still, they're not bad.

Anyway, weeeeeeeeee! working with the files makes me all giddy again just remembering it. (And of course, as I'm working on it all, I'm listening to Sarah's music in iTunes. *grins*) Watch here for the link - SOON! As quickly as it's done, I'll let you know. I'm just psyched since it was a lot of work getting everything formatted and organized but it'll be great when it's done.

Check back soon. 57 minutes to go!

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Cake or Death?
Just a quick post to give mad thanks to Luka for her totally unexpected delight of a birthday present. A small amazon box was in my mailbox yesterday and inside was the oh-so-hysterical Dress to Kill dvd by Eddie Izzard. I've seen the HBO special countless times but I know the dvd has more on it and, despite looking for it in local stores for months and months now, I've never found it. But here it is. In my grubby little hands. I love it!

Also, a thanks to Belinda for the nice assorted pack of incense she sent (I thanked her in email, but thought in case she saw the post, she deserved a shout-out too) and to Dawna for the hysterical card.

I love me some birthday pressies! (And I love my friends who send them! )

Just Wow
So I got home from the Sarah concert a few hours ago. And I can sum it up in just a few words: (1) Wow and (2) I need a larger (or second) memory card. *laughs* I filled it to the brim with small video clips of each but the last song (ran out of room) and a few photos. It was great though. Just amazing.

A band from Sweden, The Perishers opened up for her. They were quite good and I picked up their cd. Sarah came out and did a duet with them on one of their songs. Very cool!

Then there was an intermission. I got the aforementioned cd ($10) and a cool Sarah tank ($25). Got back to our seats and the show started a few minutes later.

Sarah came out to huge crowd cheer. Of course. And she rocked the place. I took small snippets of video from each song so I wrote it down and here's the order. (Song name/album) Sarah explained the she's been on tour for pretty much the last two years now straight. And that this is her last North American tour for awhile. She also explains it's a little bit of her favorites of everything. (At which point the audience cheers more.) She wasn't kidding; it was a great mix of songs. By the way, the stage was beautiful and dynamic and they had it all like a huge tree with panes on either side of the trunk that they projected things on. You'll see when I upload the videos and pictures. (Delayed because my camera usb cable is still on backorder and right now I have no way to get them off the card and onto the pc! Grrr!) Anyway...playlist for the Monday, May 9th, 2005 Sarah McLachlan concert in Tampa, Florida:

First up: World on Fire (Afterglow)

2nd: Building a Mystery (Surfacing)

- (clip) she mentions the tour and how Florida has such great weather and it's been too long since she's been here. She also mentions what great fans we are here -

3rd: Adia (Surfacing)

4th: Perfect Girl (Afterglow)

5th: Drifting (Afterglow)

- (clip) she mentions how she has an almost three year old daughter and how her daughter has traveled almost two of those three years with her on tour. but she says her daughter loves it and has already been around the world. the problem though is that she was collicy for her first six months and that was a lot of hard work. she talks about her husband and how she needed to write something special for him because of how much he endures for her and how much she loves him because of it. she said she wrote a love song (a common bit of humor through the show is that she mentions how it's "another love song" and what type it is in a really funny, don't-take-yourself-seriously way. like she's amused; of course it's another love song kind thing.) but that she didn't want it to turn out badly like hers always do. she said it's a little self-depricating but true. and it's for him. Which leads us into...

6th: Push (Afterglow)


7th: I Will Remember You (Mirrorball)

8th: Time (Afterglow)

- (clip) She says as a Canadian, she's aware that this was the last place the last NHL game was played. and she makes a joke that, hey, didn't we win that one? (meaning Tampa, which of course, we did) and is the Cup still here then? She's chuckling throughout. Then she says that Lord Stanley wanted it to go to the best team - not just the best NHL team - and if the NHL wasn't playing, someone else should get it. And she mentions how there's a lot of great womens teams. (At which point, the 50% of the audience that's lesbian cheers like mad.) She chuckles some more and says she's going to stop now before people start throwing things at her -

9th: Beatles cover - "Blackbird"

10th: Fallen (Afterglow)

11th: Witness (Surfacing)

12th: Answer (Afterglow)

13th: Angel (Surfacing)

14th: Train Wreck (Afterglow)

15th: Stupid (Afterglow)

16th: Sweet Surrender (Surfacing)

17th: Posession (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)

- end -

Encore #1:

1. Ice Cream (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy) *this was so cute. she had everyone sing along and had the lyrics up on the screens behind her

2. Peter Gabriel cover "Solsbury Hill"

3. Hold On (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)

4. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)

- end -

Encore #2:

1. Dirty Little Secret (Afterglow) *performed just her a piano; no other band

That's 22 songs total. It spanned from about 8:30pm through about 10:20pm. She was absolutely wonderful. Just amazing. I got clips of all but Perfect Girl because at that point, I was woefully and completely out of space on my memory card. I had been sitting there, frantically trying to delete stuff that I could re-shoot - like some jewelry pieces that I have't been able to upload to the pc - to free up space. Did that like five or six times but, I reached a point where I just couldn't delete anything else. So it's the only song I didn't at least get a small clip of.

As soon as I can either beg, borrow or steal a card reader or something, I'll be posting the video and photos. To say I can't wait to show it off is like saying a little kid can't wait for Santa to come on xmas eve. *laughs* The show was just fantastic. I had such a great time. She's such a treat to see live and she really gets into the music and it all and you can just tell how much she enjoys it.

I'm beat though. But I wanted to at least get this typed up before it got too late (ok, you know what I mean. I realize that it's 2am at this point and that's pretty late, but I mean like fresh in my mind and stuff.) I was too excited not to write the entry up.

Thank you Sarah for a wonderful night. And thanks again to Cy for making it possible. Night to all.
*edit: note to self. next time, don't type this up at 2am. You make errors! *chuckles*

Monday, May 09, 2005

Point And Shoot
Or, the values of calling and asking. *grins* So, I assumed, but didn't know for sure about the photography policy for tonight's show. I figured it was no cameras at all. But when I went to the venue's site, it said to call for specifics to each show. So I did. And turns out, you CAN have "point and shoot" (i.e. no professional ones with telephoto lenses and such) cameras at the event. Rock! I can take my digital camera with me! So I can get some photos. And while there's no video cameras allowed, my digital camera can actually take video. *sneaky*

But how cool is that? Yeah for calling and asking!

Edit Oh yeah and ONE WEEK LEFT UNTIL MY BIRTHDAY! Weeeee!

M. Turner
PO Box 1484
Elfers, FL 34680

Plenty of time left to spoil me if you had you know, really wanted to.

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Afterglow
*snickers like a little kid at the title*

Erhrm...no, really, it's not what you think. Let me catch you up to speed... My all-time favorite singer - Sarah McLachlan - is coming to town tomorrow. I saw her once, about seven or so years ago in Orlando when her Surfacing album was released. Took years for her to release another album. This one is called Afterglow. And she started touring last year. Initially, there weren't any dates in Florida. None. Nada. Zip. Which made M a very unhappy girl.

Then comes January. And I get an email saying new 2005 dates have been added to the Afterglow Live Tour. And sure enough, May 9th, she's in Tampa. Holy crap I think. Sarah is coming back! And right before my birthday too! Which was almost immediately followed up with aw shit... because the tickets were going on sale in January. Which, as we all know is generally Mac n' Cheese month because you had to spend all kinds of money you didn't have and were supposed to spend on bills and food to buy xmas presents for your family. January is Cash? are you kidding me?! month. The last time I saw her, she sold out. Quickly. At which point I just about cried.

I've seen exactly two - count 'em two - concerts in my life. One of them was her. And it was fantastic. So missing out on seeing her again, for the first time she's on tour in like seven years would utterly, royally and officially Suck Ass.

Ah but enter my friends. Specifically, Cy. Long-time readers may remember Cy as the super amazing totally cool friend who last year got me tix to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at WDW as an xmas gift. Well, Cy has Connections. No, not those type of connections...er, well, he might I suppose, but let's not delve into that, mkay? *chuckles* The long and short of it is that his dad's company works with events both in Detroit AND Tampa. (Luckily enough for me.) So he tells me - months ago - not to worry, he'll hook me up.

Ok, so a few months go by. I don't buy tickets because I trust he'll keep his word. (Ok, because I both trust he'll keep his word and I haven't had the extra $150 to buy them. There was a bit of that in there too. ) And a couple weeks ago, I msg him on Y! and say, uh, hey...were you still serious about the Sarah show? 'Cause I'm seeing commercials for it now and I really am going to cry if I end up missing it. And he's all, "I tolds ya I'd get 'em, so's I'll gets 'em!" (Only without the hick slang that just sounded funny to type out.)

Sure enough, last week, FedEx leaves an envelope on my door. (Don't get me started on the fact they just clipped it to my door, without bothering to knock or get anyone to sign it, right out there in the open where anyone could have just snagged it and I'd never had known!) And inside are two, bright, shiny tickets. Instant happy M.

So, tomorrow night, I get to go see the Sarah concert for my birthday. Weeeeeeeee! I'm so excited and I can't wait. And I wanted to mention it a couple days ago, but my head was all hurting and I didn't feel like tacking a "oh yeah and I got tix" bit to my grumpy, ranty post. It deserved a post all it's own.

HUGE thanks to Cy once again. Post recap will probably come Tuesday since I'll most likely be too jonesed after to write it up. So, one more time for good measure: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Mocking Bird Woes
For the last eight or nine days, every single night, from about midnight/1am on through 4am this...bird...chirps. Non-stop. For hours. And hours. Incessantly. Did I mention without stop? Right in the parking lot somewhere, right where it echoes across the complex and has a physical presence in your apartment, despite your tv and a/c noise. It just goes and goes and goes and goes.

I haven't seen it yet, but based on some out-of-desperation searching, it seems that it's a mocking bird. The males apparently will sing for hours on end without pause to woo a mate. Clearly, this is one bachelor who's not having a lot of luck in the romance department. And his lack of luck is keeping me from getting any damned sleep at all.

Hour upon hour it sounds like someone's blaring one of those "sounds of the rainforest" bird chirp cd's you get at Target or whatever. Only it's significantly more annoying and there's no off button.

Mine is apparently not an isolated problem either. This site sums it up the best:
Q: What ways are available to stop annoying northern mockingbirds from singing all night and keeping me awake?

A:This is certainly my most popular question, and it makes up anywhere from twenty-five to fifty percent of all e-mail queries I receive. The simple answer is essentially nothing. Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) are protected by federal law under the Migratory Bird Act, prohibiting homeowners, no matter how frustrated and sleep-deprived, from harming them in any way. As a result, the possibilities for control become drastically reduced, as do the available options for neighborhoods inhabited by this persistently problematic bird.

Mockingbirds are quite common, and are about the size of a blue jay, with white patches in the wings and tail and a mostly grayish body. They have been known to mimic jackhammers, car horns, and even the rings of some cell phones! These birds are not only known for their unusual repertoire but for the time it takes them to sing it. There are thousands of people who suffer many sleepless nights because of a mockingbird singing relentlessly outside their windows all through the night.

As far as stopping the bird itself from singing, there's little hope. Some people will literally throw shoes at "mockers" to get them to shut up, but it rarely works. Some people might be inclined to turn on a light to scare off the noisy vocalists, but reports from others who have tried this indicate that mockingbirds might actually be attracted to such excess illumination! If you put out foods for birds, you may want to stop feeding certain items, like grape jelly, mealworms, or raisins (their favorite feeder food). Also, if you have any fruit-bearing bushes or trees in the yard (mockingbirds have a thing for berries, particularly cherries), you could consider harvesting the fruit, covering the shrubs up with bird netting, or simply getting rid of them. Beyond that, your only hope may be to don some earplugs, close the windows, and try to tolerate the Mimidae symphony.

Here's a quick list of suggestions for steps you can take to quiet down your backyard at night:

* Turn off the lights and close the windows. As aforementioned, some people say that mockingbirds may actually be attracted to porchlights or other sources of nighttime illumination; as a result, it may be wise to shut off outdoor lamps for a few evenings. As far as closing windows goes, I suspect most people have already considered this alternative, but for those who haven't it's by far the easiest one. You may very well have to sacrifice the comfort of a gentle evening breeze on a stifling summer evening to muffle the sound of the mockingbirds. While closing your windows won't chase off the birds, it should at least dampen their songs' piercing effects. And besides, you can always invest in a fan if closing your windows makes your room uncomfortable.

* Chase the bird away physically. This one isn't a permanent solution, but if you really need sleep it should suffice for a few nights. You can go out yourself, or you could use a dog or cat to scare off the mockingbird. Just be sure any dogs or cats kept outside are restrained or contained, and have adequate food, water, and shelter; also, make sure you follow all local ordinances regarding pets and their care.

* Contact a local nature center or wild bird supply store. Often, local specialists will have the most useful ideas about discouraging the presence of certain birds in the area. Topography, geography, and climate specific to your county, city, or even backyard may be important factors in determining the best courses of action to take, and people around you who are familiar with such features are the best ones to ask.

* Wait. Mockingbirds sing to establish and defend territories, so the strength and duration of their vocalizations will vary with the seasons. In all likelihood, the bird will stop singing or move on before long. Just remember that you can't prematurely end the breeding season of a particular bird by destroying or relocating its nest or eggs; this is illegal.

* Try to tolerate the songs. Some will say the song of the mockingbird is beautiful, and indeed, the bird's varied and expansive repertoire offers as many soothing and intriguing melodies as harsh and annoying ones. Learning to pick out the more desirable subtleties of a mockingbird's song is probably a skill that requires a great deal of experience and patience, but the reward for tuning one's ears to the brighter sounds is a relaxing, good night's sleep.

Ok, ya know...if I see one more site that tells me to just "learn to love" this damned bird, I think I'm going to scream. Are these people absolutely fucking nuts? It's like someone's car alarm going off - shrill and constant - without pause for hours. How the hell are you supposed to enjoy what amounts to the bird equivalent of nails on a chalkboard? Grr.

I think I need to figure out how to get Gracie to go eat the bird. That way it's not murder, it's just the circle of life. Heh. Damned bird. Last night, we hooked up the iPod to the speakers and blared a "thunder and lightning" sound thingy to try to dim out the bird - and you could STILL hear it. ARG. I mean, when you can hear it in a totally closed building with the air conditioning running and the tv going, clearly, the damned bird is too freakin loud.

So, yeah. That's my story. Anyone with spare, unused earplugs they'd like to donate, by all means, send them my way. Otherwise, one of these mornings I'm going to suffocate myself hiding under my pillow trying to escape some bird's annoying, desperate plea for a chick.