I’ve had a lot of fun on Vox in recent months, because it’s a very user-friendly system with a lot of convenient features. I especially liked being able to tag my posts with various words, and the convenience of being able to add in my favorite books (audio & video also, although I don’t use those features). However, yesterday it started giving me problems.

I don’t know what kind of “upgrades” they’re doing on their system, but it has suddenly become entirely user-unfriendly, if you use Mozilla Firefox as a browser (like I do). At first, I couldn’t leave comments anywhere in the Vox system with Firefox. That was bad enough, since I hate Internet Exploder with a passion, but I figured that if I absolutely had to, I’d just suck it up and use IE for leaving comments (which would also give me a minute or six, while the clunky & nasty IE was chugging through its opening, to think about how important it was for me to leave that particular comment).

Oh yeah, I tried upgrading to the newest Firefox, hoping that would fix the problem. It didn’t. Neither did signing out & back into the site. I tried everything I could possibly think of, and nothing helped.

Today I discovered that I cannot post new Vox entries, or edit existing ones, in Firefox. This has now gotten me super pissed-off. IE has horrid security! IE lets in tons of ads that Firefox blocks! IE is clunky & anti-user-friendly! (It took me a ridiculous amount of time — well over 10 minutes! — to figure out how to shut off the damned clicky noises in IE that happened every time I went to a new webpage or clicked on a link! In Firefox, you can find that & shut it off in about 5 seconds, which is what I did when I first installed it.)

You bet I left feedback at Vox. Not that I think it’ll help, since apparently most people use IE (or — *gag* — AOL’s browser!). I started a Vox blog because it was a much nicer (and more user-friendly!) interface than LJ or any of the other blogging sites I’ve looked at. It was a really convenient place to blog about the spiritual/Wiccan stuff that I’ve been focusing on more, recently. Now it looks like it’s quite possibly frakked up beyond all reason for my purposes. I’m seriously pissed.

After hearing the local weather reports threaten us with possible snow in Portland at elevations around 200 feet later today, I wanted to find out what the elevation of my address was, exactly. It takes a bit of effort to figure out topographical maps if you’ve never seen them, but I did manage to pin down the elevation at my address! Want to find out yours?

Go to TerraServer USA. Enter your address in the search function. If it comes up with a topographical map, click on that link. When you get to the map, zoom in to the second-to-nearest map available (the second bar above “in” at the side of the map). The wiggly brown lines on the map have numbers on some of them (usually at increments of 50 feet), with the rest of the lines unlabeled. Ignore the red numbers; you’re only looking for brown numbers! When you find the brown line closest to your physical location, it will either have a number somewhere along that line, or you will have to look for one of the next lines over that does have a number along it and count up or down (probably increments of 10 feet), to get your approximate elevation.

My house sits at approximately 190 feet above sea level. As far as the forecast for snow? The air outside doesn’t smell like it’s going to snow. (With all that technology available, I’d still rather rely on my senses for an accurate prediction!)

Our computer keyboard died unexpectedly. When the 14-year-old announced its demise, I promptly went to fix the problem by rebooting (which worked the last time the keyboard started getting temperamental). So when the little box for the password popped up, I typed the password, and the little stars representing the letters of the password popped up just fine too — but the “Enter” key would not work. Either of them. (The “Backspace” key was also dead, as were the “Caps Lock” and “Num Lock.” Strangely, all the actual letter keys seemed to be working, though.)

For a few seconds, I contemplated the misery of being without computer access until at least Friday…when I can afford to replace a keyboard. After shoving that horrible vision aside to make way for the possibility of solutions, I hit upon a brilliant scheme! I asked my offspring to run up to her room and retrieve the keyboard from her computer (which is currently non-functioning, anyway).

A few minutes later, everything was up and running smoothly. Except for the part where I’m used to an ergonomic keyboard, and therefore feel like my fingers are constantly bumping into one another and typing makes my shoulders feel hunched even when I’m deliberately sitting up straight. I’d forgotten how uncomfortable and awkward typing on a standard keyboard is…

Apparently some people in the state of Maryland are so uptight, they want to ban any kind of anatomical adornments on vehicles. One LJ-er quoted Deputy Sheriff Matthew Brugnier as saying, in regards to truck testicle decorations, “My daughter’s going to see this. She’s going to ask what this is. I don’t want to be put in that spot.

Deputy Sheriff, I’m appalled that you’re a parent, if you cannot handle a child asking a question that makes you uncomfortable! And a cop, to boot?! WTF?! Clearly you need some advice, so here it is:

How To Cope With Children’s Questions That Make You Uncomfortable

1) Suck it up, be a grown-up, and answer the question to the best of your ability. If, however, this is simply outside of the realm of possibilities for your cowardly ass, here are a few other options:
2) Tell her she’ll find out when she’s older.
3) Tell her to ask her mother.
4) Tell her it’s none of her business.
5) Tell her it’s something that’s very rude & crude, and you don’t want to discuss it.
6) For extra sexist, misogynistic bonus points, tell her not to worry her pretty little head about it.

What an idiot. If there’s any justice in the world, about the time that this child is 12 or 13, she’ll ask Daddy what a “glory hole” is. And he’ll drop dead in apoplexy.

P.S. And apparently he’s not the only idiot who’s up in arms over children being exposed to the word “scrotum.” I’m completely astonished by the absolute inanity. It’s every bit as stupid as the Victorians insisting that the word “legs” was obscene, and always substituted the word “limbs” instead.

There’s a really quite decent article on polyamory at NewScientist.com — probably the most balanced and positive article I’ve seen outside of a polyamorous publication or website.

There’s a Stanford University biologist quoted as saying, “Polyamory won’t last. The likelihood of being able to successfully raise children in that context is very limited.” That just made me laugh, because almost half the poly people I know have kids, and their children are at least as healthy and well-adjusted as the children of monogamous parents I know! Not to mention the fact that a great many people these days (including a high percentage of poly people) are childless by choice. When are people going to wise up and realize that “family” doesn’t necessarily include popping out babies anymore?!

I really, really want one of these…I wonder if I could attach it to my head instead of a car, without hurting myself? That would be so damned cool. (Oooh, apparently I could! Wow. Just wow.)

Geoffrey and I were chatting on instant messenger last night, and I pointed him at the profile of one of my demonspawn on a particular website. He read it, and then this conversation ensued:

Geoffrey: Just read her profile.
Geoffrey: Mouthy little thing.
Lil: well, she IS my daughter
Geoffrey: Shit, honey, even the cats are mouthy.
Lil: I should so blog that…

Later in the evening, as we were settling into bed, we had another conversation, this time about the previous evening, when I’d fallen asleep before he came to bed:

Geoffrey: When I came to bed last night, you refused to move over. You were sleeping diagonally, and you wouldn’t move your legs or hips from my side so I could get into bed. Your usual graciousness is just gone when you’re asleep.
Lil: Did you say ‘graciousness’?
Geoffrey: Yeah, when you’re awake you’re very diplomatic & gracious, but when you’re asleep, you’re like a Viking bitch: ‘Move over, Lil.’ ‘No, the church is still on fire. Grr.’
Lil: *laughing* You know, all the very best lovers I’ve had made me laugh whole-heartedly and frequently. You spring to mind as the most obvious example, and Karel. And, now that I think about it, I laughed a lot with Robert too. I doubt I appreciated it enough at the time, though.

Then we talked about how wonderful it is to see Robert and Claire doing all the mushy newlywed happy stuff — like referring to one another constantly as “husband” and “wife,” and smiling all the time, and just being blatantly happily-in-love. And it’s wonderful to see how they are each so good for the other…marriage is clearly a glorious state for the two of them, and sometimes their joy rubs off on others around them — like me & Geoffrey! Anytime we see Robert & Claire, or talk about them, we get a little extra lovey-dovey with one another. Unless, of course, I’m being a Viking.

It’s been a busier weekend than I’d expected…here’s a bunch of things I learned.

And now for something completely TMI…

I was prepared to be quite disappointed in the new release, Bridge to Terabithia. After all, this was a story that I first read when I was about 12, the same age as the two main characters Jess & Leslie — and it thoroughly enchanted me, heart & mind. It was also the first book I’d read (that wasn’t science fiction) where something genuinely tragic happened; by then, I’d become so emotionally attached to Jess & Leslie that I literally sobbed. The story was powerful enough that I remembered it for 2 decades, and bought a copy several years ago to share with my girls. (Sharing the stories you loved as a child with your own children is one of the most precious and joyous experiences of being a parent, in my opinion.) I read a chapter or two at bedtime each night to my girls, and we all cried through the last few chapters. Seeing the previews made me nervous that there would be too much in the way of special effects, focusing too much on the fantastical elements of the kids’ imaginary world — but luckily, the special effects were used with restraint and good taste.

The movie was simply sublime, about as close to perfection as it ever gets when a movie is made from a book. For one thing, the film was extremely faithful to the book — not just regarding the characters and the actual story, but in the way it captured the magic created by, and between, the characters. The young actors who played the main characters were really good, especially AnnaSophia Robb; she played Violet Beauregarde in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but her character in Bridge to Terabithia was so different, and she’s talented enough, that I didn’t realize it was the same actor until my eldest pointed it out! The adults in the story had much less screen time, yet Robert Patrick did an amazing job in capturing the essence of a hard-working family man trying to understand his sensitive only son.

What little criticism I have for the movie is pretty minor, just two points. First, the relationship between Leslie and her parents in the book is funny & clearly very affectionate, and the only reason she’s lonely is because they are parents after all, whereas the movie made it almost seem that she was largely ignored by her parents. And second (and more importantly), there was just a bit more foreshadowing of the tragedy than was necessary — one of the reasons the book impacts a reader so powerfully is the entire lack of foreshadowing regarding what happens at the end. I remember being 12 or 13 and frantically reading through the last few chapters prior to the sad part (which I’m most carefully being vague about, to avoid spoilers), because I was certain that something that terrible couldn’t just happen out of nowhere, with no warning! It was stunning to me precisely because that’s often how terrible things happen in real life: with no warning. And I think the movie fell flat in that one spot, although if you haven’t read the book you might not notice it.

But the rest of the movie was, as I said, just about perfect. This isn’t a “kid movie,” although it is a movie to see with your kids, especially if you’ve read the book together, although I would hesitate to take a child under age 8 simply because it is an intense story. If you don’t have kids, it’s a movie to see with someone you love (and someone you won’t mind seeing you cry). I rarely purchase DVDs — there are hardly any movies I’m interested in seeing more than once — but this is definitely going to be on my shopping list as soon as it’s released on DVD.

Can you imagine driving through the lovely English countryside, and then suddenly coming across this sign:

Why doesn’t my country have a Secret Nuclear Bunker that you can rent for conferences? Damn Brits get all the fun.