strange times indeed

It's Mercury Retrograde time again, kiddies!

At 07:18 UT (Universal Time), on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, Mercury the cosmic trickster turns retrograde in Libra, the sign of the Scales, sending communications, travel, appointments, mail and the www into a general snarlup! This awkward period begins a few days before the actual turning point (as Mercury slows) and lasts for three weeks or so, until October 15, just after the Full Moon in Aries, when the Winged Messenger reaches his direct station. At this time he halts and begins his return to direct motion through the zodiac.

Everything finally straightens out on October 31, as he passes the point where he first turned retrograde. Mercury turns retrograde three times a year, as a rule, but the effects of each period differ, according to the sign in which it happens ….

(Does anyone know what they mean by "Universal Time"?)

Was just sucking tracks into iTunes from BNL's yellow tape and Moxy Früvous' indie tape again (because I discovered I hadn't before) when I realized: these songs are at least 15 years old. I remember going into House of Records in Buffalo while in college and seeing stacks upon stacks of the yellow tapes for sale.

Wow.

ETA: Fair warning: Mercury Retrograde coming up on the 14th. Whee.

Saturday was a very long day, but not necessarily in a bad way. Worked for 5 hours, had dinner at M's house, then we decided to go to the movies to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Sadly, the show we wanted to go to was sold out by the time we got there, so we bought tickets for 10pm. Which meant we got out of the theater at 12:46am. But, I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the third part.

(If you had a post about the movie that was spoiler-laden, let me know so I can go read it now. :) )

Today we were supposed to go help M, K and E put up a shed at noon, which meant getting up earlier than usual on a day off (okay, I know 9:30 is not early, but when you go to bed at after 2...). But it got called off at the last minute, so we went out for omelets instead, got some shopping done. And I found my friend Jen from college's phone number -- at least, I hoped it was her number -- and I called it. Thankfully, it was her, and we had a nice 45 minute chat. Strangely enough, just today she ran across an old Christmas card I had given her. Nice thing about Mercury retrograde is that it's a good time to reconnect with old friends. She had only last week seen three of our old gang when she went back to Buffalo, and I got updated contact info from her.

Remember recently when I was talking about a friend I couldn't seem to get in touch with? He's one of those three. If I hadn't been all talked out (and battery-drained) after chatting with Jen, I would have called him straightaway.

(Side note: We're upgrading from Windows 2000 to Windows XP. I sure as shit hope we're not doing that before MR is over on 28 July.)

So now I am waiting for dinner, it is hot, I am tired, but it's all good.

Both slightly related to Mercury retrograde:

1. Found a listing on craigslist for a house for rent that sounded promising, but upon looking at the actual house, it was a craphole. Shouldn't surprise me. I shouldn't even look until after 3/25, when MR ends.
   
   
2. We've decided that we each need a cel phone because there are just too many circumstances that have occurred where it would have been useful for us to each have one. There was also a discount on Sprint services through work, but it expired on 1/31. Well, the Sprint store guy is not only willing to honor the discount/special offers, he's willing to waive all kinds of activation fees, termination fees (for the current plan), etc. Now to convince him to wait until 3/26: "don't buy expensive Mercurian items (books, cars, mobile phones etc.)" until after MR is over. (I'm not taking any chances.)

On a completely different note: a friend of An's made a pretty damn hilarious Voyager fanvid to "The Internet is for Porn". Check it.

They say Mercury Retrograde* churns up contacts from people you haven't heard from in a while. I got two emails tonight from people I haven't heard from in some time -- one, encroaching on a decade since we last spoke (or emailed, as the case may be). The other, well, I kind of helped in that, as I emailed her to wish her now-four-year-old a happy birthday. ::Waves to R if she's now reading :) ::

Wild :)

* Current Retrograde period began November 13th and will go direct again on December 3rd.

Now, TIME FOR LOST!

First of all, to borrow a phrase from Virgin Mobile USA, Merry (or was it Happy?) Chrismahanukwanzakah to you! ;)

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To wrap up the saga of the laptop: I never thought I'd be so happy to see my purple-sky background again. I was able to restore the backup from about a month ago (off of the iBook), and then data from a week previous from an incomplete backup (my entire user directory, which I dropped into place). So, I didn't lose anything important (that I have discovered yet), only lost about a week's worth of email. I've noticed that surfing and checking mail seems to be slower, but I can't tell if that's due to this recovery situation or due to the 10.3.7 system update. I did manage to get it to keep a stable connection by tossing the old preferences, thank goodness.

However, my Superdrive (burns CDs and DVDs, for those non-Mac folks among us) will no longer accept discs. Put 'em in, pause, it spits 'em back out again. I am unhappy about this, especially since I found a whole thread of similar issues on an Apple.com user forum. The fix seems to be the replacement of the drive. Grump. Thank goodness for the external CD/DVD writer we have.

I am not making any further decisions about tweaking my computer until after MR is over.

ETA: Mercury went direct "10:29 PM 12/19/04". Looks like I should have waited a couple of days to start the process.

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At work, we get a sticker affixed to our badges which serves as a bus pass for the whole year. For 2004, it was an orange circle. For 2005, it's… a pink triangle. Now, the point is facing upwards, but I really have to wonder if the public transit service was just totally without a clue, or if some sly monkey with the design team slid it under the radar. I have a gay bus pass.

___

I had more to say, had a post all laid out in my head, but it's all gone bye bye now. Oh well.

This just arrived from a friend: ( MR Schedule thru Feb 2006. )

Also, watch out for miscommunications, crossed wires, transposed numbers, clumsiness, and general malfunctions. [oh yes, lots, thank you very much.]

Cheers! [very funny.]

So busy busy busy! Getting ready for Egil's, dealing with Symantec outsourcing their customer support division (better known as, firing everyone but recommending that they work for the outsourcing company -- a lot of people plan on finding new work), becoming a sponsor to a 10 month old Mongolian girl named Uchral (which means "fate" (roughly) in Mongolian).

I have been working on my new Mongolian headdress. I based it on a pattern from my Mongol Jewelry book by Martha Boyer. I'm using the truckload of seed beads that appear to actually be coral, along with a present I got last year for Solstice -- a beaded band decorated with coral (real or not, I don't know, but it sure looks real), turquoise and cowrie shells. So far I'm pleased at the integration between the pre-decorated and what I'm decorating. Looks good!

Mercury is retrograde. Whee. :P