There's an Ice Cream Stand in Cambria County, PA called "Krispy Kream". It's been open with the same name since 1961. Recently, the owners, Jack & Christine Hoover received a letter from Krispy Kreme (the doughnut company) that they had to change the name of their business because of copyright infringement.
As Mr. Hoover states "We're well known for our ice cream, and we have a large sign in the front picturing a boy holding an ice cream cone, not a doughnut."
The spokeswoman for Krispy Kreme says "Unfortunately, this business is using a fully protected trademark, and we have to protect it. It can create confusion."
Confusion? They've been using the similar name for 43 years and you're just now finding out about it! Doesn't that kind of ruin the "it can create confusion" argument? I don't really take a stand between big business vs. small business, but for Pete's Sake! Let the people keep their name and back off.
Is it just me or does anyone else see the time of release of the latest Bin Laden tape as more than coincidental? Sure, he said our security doesn't rest in the hands of Bush or Kerry or Al Queda, but we all know that's bullshit. I think it was released to remind the US People that he's still out there (i.e. Bush has failed). Hopefully that won't be what causes people to vote for Kerry. When it comes to the security of our country, I'd rather have a president who makes decisions and sticks by them than a president who wants to put us to a global test before deciding what to do.
75% of the people who visit my page use IE 6.x
11% use IE5.x
2% use Netscape 7.x
5% use Netscape 5.x
1% use Netscape 3.x
1% use Opera 6.x
1% use Opera 0.x
1% use Safari 1.x
3% use Slurp 5.x (never heard of it)
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50% use Windows XP
26% use Windows 2000
9% Unknown
6% Windows 98
5% Windows ME
2% Windows NT
1% Macintosh MacPPC
1% Mac OS X
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Tracking the Organizations that have come through to my site is kind of scary:
46% Commercial (.com)
34% Network (.net)
4% Educational (.edu)
3% Only IP Address
2% Military (.mil)
2% Germany
1% United Kingdom
1% Saudi Arabia
1% Organization (.org)
1% Italy
1% US Government (.gov)
1% France
1% Denmark
1% Belgium
1% Australia (Hi, Neila!)
A few of the odd search phrases people have used in Google & Yahoo that have pointed them to my site:
blockbuster+expire+"gift card"+ renew
"matrix reloaded" "lincoln navigator" (from Google Belgium)
padiddle (from Google Denmark)
dallas richest person
"tired as a whore" - sad :(
ed kowalczyk wedding
padiddle pictures (I guess I used that totally out of context)
can't open a new IE Window
When is Sims2 going to be for sale
first they came after the Jews (it was a poem!)
lighthouse costume
Marlin 70 PSS (from Italy)
molly pitcher pics (who? What?)
varTec horrible (uh - I promise, VT that I never used that entire phrase together)
"will & grace quiz"
life cycle "mexican jumping beans"
"Advanced ACCESS 2000 training"
vartec ranch (twice)
scion xb sucks
humorous thoughts linda birthday
"my female doctor"
tony roma's pics
sylvia browne messageboard
Fuddrucker's Restaurant, Hershey
excelebration 2004 (from England)
webset marriage (from France)
Patricia Vanlester (the lady who tried to scam walmart - frequent faller)
tom o'malley
padiddle nude
chris o'malley
rod roddy pictures
discounted scion xb
sims witch costume skin
wynnewood pa realtime media url
bob barker pics-the price is right
matrix redlights
ruth riley pics
"the price is right" cheat database barker
"+live+" dallas tea room gypsy (from Australia)
synhrgy
"linda clay" mississippi
Just to explain myself, per Pseudodictionary.com, padiddle is a car with only one headlight working. Maybe it means something else somewhere else? :)
There was a heated discussion in the Sims NewsGroup today about the Sims 2 NG and how all of us discussing S2 should move to that new group. Keep in mind, most of us have been in the Sims NG for 4+ years. Anyway, I was trying to keep the peace & someone commented that I was right, then someone else basically took me to task, disputing things I had said.
That pissed me off, so I typed off a reply & was reading it to Hubby when he interrupted me and said "Is it even worth it?" Then he said he didn't mean to interrupt.
I really do love my husband, but, dang it, I just wanted to read my witty reply. I know it's a bad habit of mine to make him listen to drivel he could care less about, but that's just who I am. :(
I found the *BEST* thing for my irritation with poor spellers. Since none of the major news wires have taken me up on my free offer to proofread their copy before posting, I have discovered
Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders. (It was a USA Today hot site).
Basically what they do is web-based proofreading of the works associated with the digitization of the Public Domain into Project Gutenberg e-books. They break the work into individual pages so many proofreaders work on the same book at the same time.
I'm sure most of the books won't be to my liking, but I finally get to flex my proofreading skills. AND you can proofread as often or seldom as you like.
It feels good that I'll be contributing to the proper spelling of books that will go down in history. :)
I'm not a big Ben Affleck fan. Actually, I'm not a fan at all. I could take him or leave him. BUT, I think he's getting too much flack for
Surviving Christmas flopping at the Box Office this weekend. I mean, shouldn't some of the onus be directed to the fact that a Christmas movie was released before Halloween? That's not really prime time Christmas movie watching time. It's bad enough that stores have Christmas stuff out already, but I don't want to watch a movie about the holiday before I'm in the spirit.
The more I watch
Dead Like Me, the more I'm into Callum Blue. I turn to mush from his accent and dang it, he's cute:
I must say that I'm so frustrated I could scream. I've spent since about Midnight last night trying to come up with a new template. I finally had a semi-decent one, but the more I look at it, the more boring & hated it becomes. *sigh*. Anyway, that's why the doodleboard colors have changed. I just don't feel like changing them back at present.
Take a look at the
boring re-design. (The nav bar at the top wouldn't be there on this site - it's only cuz it's a blogspot hosted blog.)
As you can see, I've changed the title of the page - after almost 2 years you guys know that everything that comes out of my head is non-sensical. :) I'm also thinking of a redesign. I am really into old-school Hollywood right now & would love to do something along those lines. The problem? I suck at making blogger templates. So until I find something fitting, it will stay as-is with just a title change. Neila's explanation of Chrissy O. made perfect sense, although I am the antithesis of Jackie O.'s grace & elegance. Hence the tongue-in-cheek Queen of the Universe reference. :)
Forgive my rambling more than usual, I'm tired, but wanted to empty my head of a few thoughts before I went to bed:
* The 4400 will be back on USA in June for 13 episodes. I never did like how the series/miniseries ended so I'm glad to see it's coming back & I believe that's double the number of episodes the first time around.
* I'm disappointed to see that since LAX has moved to Wednesday nights it will be on directly opposite of LOST. I watch both shows, but am at work when they come on, and unfortunately the DVR can only record one at a time, so it looks like I'll have to say goodbye to LAX. :(
* If I were Gwen Stefani I'd kick Gavin Rossdale's ass. He has confirmed that he is the father of a 15 year old model named Daisy Lowe. Apparently he diddled with her mom when they were both young (he's 36 now, I believe). What's worse is that Gwen supposedly confronted him about the possibility he was the father & he denied even having a relationship with the woman. After being with a man 8 years you think he'd tell you the truth. Poor girl.
*Movies I can't wait to see this fall/winter:
~
Ocean's Twelve (Watch the newly released trailer
here)
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The Aviator
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Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
~
SpongeBob Squarepants: The Movie (Yes, I said it. I love Patrick!)
~
The Incredibles
~
Meet the Fockers
And what looks like the best holiday movie in a long time (well, except for Elf last year, lol):
~
Christmas with the Kranks
OMG! I have the best news in the universe!!! I am the new assistant webmaster of edkowalczyk.com! Neila contacted me a few months ago to see if she could use the pics I took of Ed on April 14th on the site. Of course, I agreed. Well, I never saw them used, so I just figured she changed her mind. She doodled today and explained and asked if she could still use them. Well, I emailed her too because I wasn't sure if she would check the page again. We emailed back and forth and she asked if I was interested in helping out with the site. HELL YEAH! :) So, my first task was to update the tour dates. Piece of cake, even with my limited HTML knowledge. Now I'm off to scour the web for pics, etc. (Well, tomorrow I am since it's 1:19am here).
WOO HOO! I even got a mention in the news section, so
check me out!
*sigh* The poor spelling bandit has struck again:
Castro
Brakes Knee, Hurts Arm in Fall
October 21, 2004 — A medical examination confirms Fidel Castro suffered a broken left knee....
In other stupidity..A woman in Rome was fined 172 Euros ($216.50) for pointing out the historic and artistic beauty of the Trevi Fountain (made famous by Anita Ekberg in 1960's "La Dolce Vita") to a group of Italian tourists without authorization.
She broke a 1985 law that bans unauthorized guides in a bid to uphold the quality and livelihoods of professionals who have to sit exams to get a license. A special undercover police unit regularly patrol Rome's top tourist sites, including the Colosseum and the Forum, to trap unlicensed tour guides. Police issue around 1000 fines a year to those breaking the law.
While it's good that unknowing tourists are protected from sightseeing scams, this lady accepted no money for pointing out the fountain, so it's ridiculous that she was fined anything at all. If they aren't taking money, where's the scam?
Anyway - I am getting completely old. I totally *hate* when people include numbers in their words, trying to talk hacker language. Like "k1dn3y" instead of kidney (although I must admit that one was easy to figure out) and "r0xorz" - what the hell is that? Honestly, it all seems so stupid to me. Is there a secret decoder ring somewhere that I'm supposed to have to understand what the HELL people are talking about?
I saw a picture of the Empire State Building from the 30s the other day and I was just shocked at how much it towered over other buildings around it. Seeing it in modern day NYC you don't think much of it since the other buildings are almost as tall, but seeing it in it's prime you realize why it was truly a marvel:
I figured while I'm sitting here waiting for the tow truck (battery died) I'd update you on a dream I had last night since Tony was in it. It was strange like they always are :)
I was in like a basement, but the ground was dirt rather than concrete. There were a bunch of us in there, all nervous and scared and huddled together (by bunch of us I mean 100+ people). I noticed in the back of the basement there was an opening into what others told me was a tunnel dug by a girl. I snuck back to have a look at it & it was more than a tunnel! It was a fully-formed corridor that you could walk into and everything. I went in, all the while afraid that I would be caught & put back where I was.
I made it outside and walked at a very fast pace trying to get to Tony's house. On the way I saw a cat and noticed it was Tony's cat (not that he actually has one). For some reason I wouldn't pick it up, but I had to keep stopping to "psst, psst" at the cat to keep it's attention and keep it following me.
I made it to Tony's house. I walked up 2 steps onto a stone veranda with patio furniture. There were french doors that were open to the veranda and there was a TV hanging from the ceiling in there - like at a bar. I recall being sad that neither Clay nor Tony was there. I left the cat and started running back in the direction I had come from.
A lady stopped me and said "You can't go back there - there was an explosion." I kept trying to go & she grabbed me by the arm, repeating what she had said until it had sunk in. I turned and ran another way, saying to myself "I'm sure Tony is ok...I know he got out." then I woke up.
Make of it what you will, I sure don't know what it means, other than that I miss my bubby!
VP Cheney called himself "a pretty angry father" today after John Kerry mentioned his gay daughter during the final presidential debate - comments Kerry said were meant to be positive about families with gay children.
The Veep's wife called Kerry "not a good man" and his remarks about daughter Mary Cheney "a cheap and tawdry political trick".
Asked Wednesday night by debate moderator Bob Schieffer whether homosexuality was a choice, Kerry said: "We're all God's children, Bob, and I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she's being who she was. She's being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it's not a choice."
Now, I agree it's not a choice. However, he didn't have to call out Mary Cheney like that. Seems more politically motivated than anything when you consider that John Edwards wife suggested in a radio interview that Mrs. Cheney might feel "a certain degree of shame" because her daughter is a lesbian."
Kerry issued a statement today after the Cheneys expressed anger over his remarks: "I love my daughters. They love their daughter. I was trying to say something positive about the way strong families deal with this issue."
Uh - what did you say about dealing with the issue? Nothing. In addition, Cheney has two daughters, so why in that statement didn't he say "They love their daughter
s"?
Mrs. Edwards said today (about Mrs. Cheney): "She's overreacted to this & treated it as if it's shameful to have this discussion. I think that's a very sad state of affairs...I think it indicates a certain degree of shame with respect to her daughter's sexual preferences...It makes me really sad that that's Lynne's response."
Now - I've known the Cheney's have had a lesbian daughter for a long time. They've never tried to deny it or say anything that leads me to believe they don't accept it. And you know what? It *is* shameful to have this discussion because the SOLE reason it was brought up was to let redneck America know that the Cheney's have a lesbian daughter. Notice also that Mrs. Edwards said "with respect to her daughter's sexual
preference an indication that she thinks it's a choice rather than the way someone's born, which is what Kerry tried to say.
Cheney had no objection when Edwards brought up Mary Cheney during their debate. Edwards stated "respect for the fact that they're willing to talk about the fact that they have a gay daughter, the fact that they embrace her. It's a wonderful thing." That's because that statement fit in with what they were talking about...it didn't seem as calculated and political as what Kerry said.
While the democratic party is generally friendlier towards Gays and Lesbians, I still think it was wrong to pretty much exploit Mary Cheney like they did.
Update, shmupdate. :)
I had off Friday and Monday - decided to take some vacation. I had grand plans, I'll tell ya! Yardwork, housecleaning, laundry....I intended to be the queen housewife this weekend. Of course, in actuality what I got accomplished was - laundry. I spent all day Friday playing Sims 2. Saturday the game started locking up & I spent all day pissed off. I uninstalled & reinstalled 3 times - losing the familes I'd spent 3 weeks on. It was definitely a sad day. That didn't fix the problem either. I was trying to build a house and never did make it through that - kept freezing. So today I called Electronic Arts Tech Support. First call got my game running for 45 minutes. 2nd call got it running for 4 1/2 hours. Then I tried to build again & froze. I figured out that saving as I went seemed to stop the freezing and after 5 restarts I finally had my house built. *sigh* isn't this supposed to be fun?
It's so sad that Christopher Reeve died. I guess it's sad because it was unexpected (at least for those not in his family) and because he was fighting so hard to walk again. At least he's walking in Heaven now.
Next weekend Tom & I are going to the State Fair. I got 2 free tickets from work. Don't expect many updates during this week. With 2 vacation days I'm sure I'll have *a lot* to catch up on.
Bunny, I hope you're ok. And I hope you're still not smoking. :)
LIVERMORE, Calif. -- You wouldn't expect to see a lot of misspelled words when you enter a public library.
That's why a California city is paying thousands of dollars to an artist so she'll correct the words she misspelled on a giant mural in the entryway of the new main library.
Eleven of the 175 words and names are misspelled, including Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and Einstein.
Artist Maria Alquilar was initially paid $40,000 for the mosaic. Now, the city will pay another $6,000 plus her travel expenses from Miami for her to correct the work.
Alquilar blames city leaders for not catching what she calls "oversights."
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So first they pay this lady $40k to paint a mosaic, then she misspells words & now she gets another free trip to California *and* an additional $6k? Sounds like a good racket if you're intentionally misspelling words (not saying she was...). There's no way she should be paid to fix her mistakes! She blames city leaders for not catching it? How about blaming yourself for sucking at SPELLING!
I watched this super-cool show on the Discovery Channel last night called
We Built This City. It was about the history of Manhattan. I found out lots of interesting things, well, I thought they were interesting since I love NYC:
* The original Settlement of New Amsterdam had a wall built around it to protect the inhabitants from invaders from England. When the English won, they took down the wall on what is now modern-day Wall St.
* The Lower East Side didn't exist in 1790. It was actually the East River. The settlers used wooden logs to create a wall. Then behind the wall they filled it in with dirt and garbage, thus creating the Lower East Side as we know it. Sometimes they even used sunken ships - there's one under the South Street Seaport Museum!
* In the 1800s, 80 thousand people lived in Manhattan (which was only Lower Manhattan, actually)
* They wanted to expand the city, so they placed an imaginary grid over the rest of the island and used that to create the rest of NYC. Pre-grid there were wetlands, inlets, etc. The Harlem River flowed straight into what is now 10th Ave!
* When the expansion plan went into effect, 40% of the buildings in the "wilderness" were in the middle of what were planned to be streets, so the property owners had to move.
* There were no natural green areas and after the Erie Canal was built (the show explained this too & it truly was miraculous how it was built) trade and growth exploded, so leaders created Central Park, the biggest Fake in America.
* Central Park is 843 acres. It was created to promote civic health and to rival the great parks of Europe. It was created in the nastier part of Manhattan, full of marshes & squatters. They held a contest for it's design & the winning design wanted to mimic great landscape art of the time. The show compared paintings of the time to certain sections of the park and they are almost identical.
* There are no straight pathways in Central Park, they all meander.
* It took 3000 men over 10 years to create Central Park. They created hills, meadows, streams, waterfalls.
* They wanted to connect the East and West Sides without disturbing the beauty of the Park, so they built a road below park level to connect the two sides. To this day, you can rarely hear this traffic driving through the park.
* All lakes, ponds & streams in Central Park are man-made.
* All water bodies in Central Park are fed by the City Water Systems and thus can be drained or "turned off" (in the case of waterfalls) whenever necessary.
* In 1870, 50,000 people were commuting to Manhattan from Brooklyn. In 1883 the Brooklyn Bridge was built, the longest suspension bridge of it's day.
* 144,000 vehicles now cross the Brooklyn Bridge daily.
* The new city wanted Electricity. In the 1870s they already had Arc Lights on some streets, like Broadway, but they were too powerful for homes & businesses, so Thomas Edison marked a small district to be wired for electricity. He hadn't invented the light bulb yet. 18 months later, the 1st powerplant and underground cables were laid. 18 months after that, they tested this invention & it worked! Electricity was brought to the city.
* Some non-skyscraper buildings seem to be made of stone, but are actually cast iron facades over brick. You can put a magnet to them & it will stick!
The Fish stick dream....for Tony :)
When I worked at EDS I read a book on how to discover your past lives. There was some little mantra you were supposed to say before bed to help you remember one of your past lives.
So I did it, of course, and that night the dream I had took place in a huge dining hall in a beautiful castle. Stained glass windows, huge dining table, etc. There was a king at the table, eating alone. He was eating fish sticks. (I know, I know - they weren't even invented yet). The next morning I woke up sad and went whining to Tom about my dream. He said "Maybe you were a king in your past life." I started tearing up and said "No, I got the distinct impression that I was that fish stick."
So that's it - I was a non-existant in the 14th century fish stick!
Something very interesting has surfaced on the
Drudge report:
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN OCT 03, 2004 14:05:38 ET XXXXX
DEBATE MYSTERY: DID KERRY HAVE CHEAT SHEET?
Section 5, pages 4-5 of the binding "Memorandum of Understanding" that was negotiated and agreed upon by both political campaigns states:
"No props, notes, charts, diagrams, or other writings or other tangible things may be brought into the debate by either candidate.... Each candidate must submit to the staff of the Commission prior to the debate all such paper and any pens or pencils with which a candidate may wish to take notes during the debate, and the staff or commission will place such paper, pens and pencils on the podium..."
So what did Dem presidential contender John Kerry take out of his jacket as he approached the stage [with his back to the auditorium's audience]?
What did Kerry place on the podium?
Video replays of the Kerry maneuver played all weekend long on the internet.
[A tight zoom analysis of the Boston.Com feed shows Kerry pulling a mysterious item his jacket [14 seconds into video, after commerical]. Kerry appears to unfold some sort of paper seconds later, at his podium.]
A top Kerry campaign source explained to the DRUDGE REPORT late Sunday how Bush supporters were once again trying to distract.
"Kerry did not cheat," said the Kerry insider. "This is more lies from Republicans, who are hoping for a quick change of subject away from the president's performance, and the new polls."
When pressed on the fact that even brandishing a pen from his jacket would have violated debate rules, the Kerry staffer laughed, adding, "See you at the inauguration, Drudge".
Developing...
Ya'll will have to bear with me because I'm reading the transcripts from the debate and some of the comments are so perplexing to me that I just have to work out it somewhere, so where better than here?
KERRY: And smart means not diverting your attention from the real war on terror in Afghanistan against Osama bin Laden and taking it off to Iraq where the 9/11 Commission confirms there was no connection to 9/11 itself and Saddam Hussein, and where the reason for going to war was weapons of mass destruction, not the removal of Saddam Hussein.......they know I would not take my eye off of the goal: Osama bin Laden.
So there are no terrorists in Iraq? None? We are *stupid* if we think that Al-Queda is only in Afghanistan. That's what I'm taking him to say. It would absolutely be a coup if we got Osama. But that won't be the end of Al Queda. They can operate without him. Yes, we were sold the war in Iraq based on WMD's, but isn't it good to know that a ferocious dictator who tortures his own people is out of power? That he isn't there to make a deal with Al Queda?
BUSH: My opponent says help is on the way, but what kind of message does it say to our troops in harm's way, wrong war, wrong place, wrong time ? Not a message a commander in chief gives, or this is a great diversion.
Touche.
As well, help is on the way, but it's certainly hard to tell it when he voted against the $87-billion supplemental to provide equipment for our troops, and then said he actually did vote for it before he voted against it.
Not what a commander in chief does when you're trying to lead troops.
LEHRER: Senator Kerry, 30 seconds.
KERRY: Well, you know, when I talked about the $87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse?
Let me point the finger to get everyone off topic that I flip-flopped. *sigh*.....To save for Halliburton the spoils of the war, they actually issued a memorandum from the Defense Department saying, If you weren't with us in the war, don't bother applying for any construction. That's not a way to invite people.
Why should those who weren't willing to fight for freedom in Iraq benefit by new construction? I'm *glad* they weren't able to come in and make money re-constructing when they didn't want to help with the hard part!
Oh lord, this is all just too much for my little brain to digest. I've listened to liberal talk radio & conservative talk radio & I still fail to see how Kerry "won" this debate. My vote is still with Bush.
Holy Schmoley! Demands from bubby & Bunny to update!
Let me re-cap my September for ya'll:
1st week - My car in and out of the shop for repairs. $570
2nd week - Tom's truck in and out of the shop for repairs. $400-$500. My bday - had a party & got drunk.
3rd week - Sims 2 came out. Car *and* trunk in and out of the shop for repairs. $560.
4th week - Car in the shop for more repairs. $0 and scored a free oil change for being there so much. Had to take Molly to the emergency vet on a Sunday night because she was crying in pain when we touched her right side. $76 - the little hooch was pain-free as soon as we hit the exam room. *sigh - freaking drama queen*
Still alive after a month like that? Priceless.
So as you can guess, between car issues & Sims 2 I haven't been doing much else. Here's hoping October turns out to be a better month for vehicles, because I don't think I can take much more.
My mom had to put her dog, Flash, to sleep on Thursday. I don't know exactly how old he was, but she'd had him around 7-11 years. He was a spunky 'ol dalmation who could carry 2 tennis balls in his mouth at the same time. RIP Flash.
Tom's already made some sales at WF and he's still in training. So that seems to be going well (better than I expected anyway). There's a help desk position open at Vartec that he's applied for. It would be fun working with him again.
I sent a scathing email to AT&T Wireless today after a stressful ordeal with a ramashamakingkong (my new name for offshore labor - it's so much more fun than anything else). Tom's phone is broken. The b**** won't even turn on. This is the 2nd phone he's had since he started with them in May 2003. Well Ramashamakingkong kept telling me the phone we have is from May and that I'd have to send it to Nokia so they can fix it & send it back. Oh *HELL* no. So we went to the AT&T store & bought one. I wrote a nasty, nasty email to the CEO and demanded a refund of what I had to pay for this new phone all because this ramashamakingkong didn't get what I was saying. I'll let you know how that turns out.
Art is up for The Best of +LiVE+ due out 11/2. You can find it
here (please click it - it's pretty). 19 songs & 22 videos. (Audio Only CD due out 11/16 if you don't give a hoot about the videos.) First single,
We Deal in Dreams (previously unreleased track) gets released to radio 10/18.
