Michael Sat Jan 1 21:44:45 2005
Post-holiday ping
Hi, y'all! Well, the vacation went off well -- we had ourselves a little Caribbean cruise, kind of a little poking around the new neighborhood. It was great. We swam with sea turtles in Barbados, stood on the steps of a three-hundred-year-old church in Antigua, and my wife got to steer one of the tall ships seen in the _Pirates of the Caribbean_ into the harbor at St. Lucia. We met the usual complement of young Hungarian crewmembers on the ship (those Hungarians are everywhere, I kid you not!), one of whom worked in the child activity center, much to the amusement of our kids.
Then came Christmas; after blowing the money on the cruise, we couldn't afford to go to Indiana for Christmas, so instead we just ... did fricking NOTHING except have a feast for some neighbors on Christmas Eve, then sit around the house on Christmas Day, playing with the toys and baking cookies and watching TV. And going up on the roof for a little sun. Did I mention I love it here?
The day after Christmas, we went to the pool at the Hilton with some friends, where I played with my favoritest Christmas present ever, a radio-control submarine.
Then a bunch of people died in Asia. Here in Puerto Rico, people comment on it, but it seems very far away, just like everything further than 10 miles offshore of the island. I'll skip the usual platitude; you've already donated if you're going to, and while it's fun to snipe at the President for handling the matter with all the class we've come to expect from him, it doesn't do any good anyway. Spend time with the people you love, or your cats, or hang out more here on the forum, because we like you a lot. Life is short, and you never know when a 50-foot wall of water is going to obliterate your village. Make it count while you can.
So, in the New Year, what are your resolutions? Mine are pretty trivial:
1. Learn to speak Spanish. The ugly-American routine is getting tiring and nobody here cares if I speak German and Hungarian.
2. Pay off the rest of my debt. Nice to be moving upwards instead of downwards for a change.
3. Build metal-detecting autonomous underwater vehicles with a self-locating network and find those Spanish treasure ships sunk a thousand fathoms deep in the Mona Passage.
Come to think of it, I guess #3 sort of makes #2 superfluous, really.
4. Get SCUMF started.
Trivial all. I should have the whole thing done by April.
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Brother Emsworth Sun Jan 2 17:48:19 2005
Re: Post-holiday ping
You should add #5. Check your e-mail, and let Emsworth know what Wodehouse books you want!
For myself, my chief goals are to finally get that propaganda book proposal together and in to McFarland (and perhaps a couple others to be on the safe side; need to check on the dual submission policy) and keep tabs on the grad school applications.
Check with the local community college, and hopefully find that I have that tutoring position. If not, find some form of employment or income, *anything*. City's been very uncooperative about obtaining a license to sell my balloon animals, trying to claim I'd be limited to flea markets (how come ice cream vendors don't have that problem)> I have been doing articles for Graphc Novel Review, the first one's already up [in a great issue with a nice Will Eisner homage cover]: http://www.graphicnovelreview.com/issue4/wilde.php Pays twenty bucks per, a rarity for an online journal, which at least helps cover the AOL bill.
The revamped Voicechasers.com is open to the public, and we have a lot of data still to enter. Plus trying to get some new and revised entries up on the new Toonjunkies(http://www.toonhub.com/toonjunkies/) We never could get the domain name officially changed, Michael, I'll have to ask Craig again and see what was up with that.
Get my office and room organized. Having reference books and notes and whatnot is dandy only as long as one can *find* what one needs.
Try to keep in better touch with friends and family, on and offline.
Finally get my driver's license; we have a new vehicle for the mater, so I'm not utterly reliant on Dad's schedule. It's been six years now since I failed the driving portion of the test, and dash it, it's about time I retook it. I'm not especially fond of driving, but pedestrian at heart though I am, it's impractical in the long time, and makes one utterly reliant on the weather and personal stamina when going anywhere. And of course, since I hope to finally get into grad school next fall, I'll need to be able to handle myself and not rely entirely on public bus systems and whatnot.
Draw more wolverines. Always an admirable resolution, that one!
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Michael Sun Jan 2 22:01:07 2005
Wodehouse
> You should add #5. Check your e-mail, and let Emsworth know what Wodehouse
> books you want!
If I hadn't already responded twice, I would have done so. Perhaps AOL has decided I'm not trustworthy enough to send you mail. What are the expected taxes in Texas, and do you want me to include the anticipated postage? In which case, I need to know how much they weigh. And I want all of'em.
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Emsworth Sun Jan 2 23:39:49 2005
Re: Wodehouse
> If I hadn't already responded twice, I would have done so.
What address did you send it to, and when? I checked AOL's spam filter, and nothing, and your addy *is* in my address book (the michaael@vivtek.com one, anyway). However, I am using the latest version of AOL, so that could be a factor. Could you send a test message later on this week? I'll fiddle with the settings and see if that helos.
>Perhaps AOL has
> decided I'm not trustworthy enough to send you mail. What are the expected
> taxes in Texas, and do you want me to include the anticipated postage? In
> which case, I need to know how much they weigh. And I want all of'em.
Sales tax won't be a big problem, currently 8 1/4% (I think I still have some credit, or can get some, to help cover that), but weight is a factor. They're all paper backs, so testing with the kitchen scale, I'm figuring on about 4, 5 pounds tops. If you want to be generous, you can send me a check for a flat $40, but if you want an exact price, I can get back to you (I'll probably call the Book Rack and see if they can hold the books for a week or so, just in case; I've been a steady customer for over a decade, so it shouldn't be a problem).
Also, do you still have my address? (I'll need you to send me yours; try sending the next message to hungrywolverines@aol.com, monkeyreporter78@aol.com, the despammed address, *and* aleal@utep.edu; one of them is bound to get through, and this may help sort out whether the problem is AOL or despammed or what).
Of course, as always with such transactions, accompanying wolverine renderings are free of charge.
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Michael Tue Jan 4 22:43:56 2005
Re: Wodehouse
Is PayPal OK?
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Emsworth Wed Jan 5 00:53:03 2005
Re: Wodehouse
> Is PayPal OK?
Umm, I don't have PayPal... If they'll let me sign up for it without needing to show a credit card, maybe. Have to get back to you on that. In all honesty, a check would be easier for me, but if you prefer Paypal (I don't know how things are in Puerto Riuco), I'll see what I can do.
Oh, and please continue to send mail to both the despammed and the aleal@utep.edu address, until I figure out what's going on (just in case you responded to my last missive and it never got through).
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Emsworth Thu Jan 20 23:43:07 2005
Re: Wodehouse
> Is PayPal OK?
Okay, finally signed up for PayPal, but having trouble figuring out how to have you send me the money through it. Help? (Sent an e-mail on the same thing, but just switched to a gmail account, hooray, so respond there, please).
Oh, and next week, I shall be attending the Annie Awards in LA. Hooray again. I'll try to make sure the wolverines don't maul the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, though.
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mouse Fri Jan 7 20:09:20 2005
Re: Post-holiday ping
well, that settles it. i had some silly resolutions about losing weight and getting more exercise, but now i resolve to move in with you.
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