Gakked from seangaffney:

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:
5,800+ (ripped from my CDs or purchased online). I listen to all of my music as MP3s anymore these days. One thing to note, however, is that this includes audio stories (Big Finish et al) which are over 900 of those files.

2. The last CD you bought was:
Ricky Martin’s Almas Del Silencio and Heart’s Little Queen. Last night, however, I almost made a music CD from tunes purchased at Rhapsody.com. But I thought I’d wait a bit to see if I think of any more songs I want to buy.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
Well, in all honestly, I read this last night, but decided to wait until today to respond. “Martyr” by Rusted Root is playing now.

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you.

“Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles
“Homophobia” by Chumbawamba
“Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
“That’s My Impression” by the Pet Shop Boys (which has a tendency to get stuck in my head and won’t be excised until I play it multiple times)
Christmas songs sung by Julie Andrews

5. Since there is no 5, [really? where?] here’s a song that will get any song out of my head:
“That’s My Impression” by the Pet Shop Boys. But nothing can get that damn song out of my head. (I do love the song, so that’s OK.)

6. Who are you going to pass this stick to? (3 persons) and why?
judiang, if she ever stops playing City of Heroes long enough to post.
dark_pheonix, to see how many Pet Shop Boys make it into her top 5 (if any).
prairiepete, to give Pete something to do at work next time work is slow.

In seangaffney‘s answers to this meme, he passed the stick to me because “I wonder if Sylv playing the spoons will be in her top 5.” Well, hate to disappoint, Sean! However, my favorite version of the Doctor Who theme is, indeed, the Spoons version. 🙂

Valentine’s Day doesn’t belong to lovers. It belongs to all of us, whether we’re single, together, or in some other state. Yeah, I’ve had times^* when I’ve grumbled about gooey-eyed lovers on Valentine’s Day, but I’m now deciding not to let them get the holiday all to themself.

When I was a kid, I loved Valentine’s Day for some of the same reasons that capriuni mentioned in her post. (Funnily enough, I decided to write this up on the way in to church today, and then later read her post. Looks like we’re on a similar wavelength here.) I loved buying a box of those tacky kids Valentine’s cards (36 to a pack, with one special one for the teacher). Trying to find just the RIGHT one was always the challenge. I even did this from time to time as a college student and beyond. Of course, the candy was always a plus (the chocolate, not those nasty Necco hearts). And usually mom & dad would send me a card.

So today, I made my mind up. No more will the couples spoil Valentine’s for me. I’m going to celebrate love and my loved ones. I start off with the fluffball that’s sitting in front of my monitor and staring at the blinded window. I love my cat! Leo’s a major delight in my life and I’m grateful to have this time I do with him. We took a 2 hour nap today and it was quite relaxing. (I find naps are even better when spent with a cat laying on top of you.) Happy Valentine’s Day, Leo!

I had Bachelor Dad this weekend, and I loved it. I love my dad and my mom equally, though I do tend to take after dad a lot more, and we’ve had similar careers. I love those crazy ladies in Minneapolis, which is where mom is now. I love BadGurls Amy & Rachel & now mom. I’ve been very lucky in the sister department. Sure, I used to resent Amy when I was much younger (going from an only child to an older sister is quite a lot of stress on a 4-year old). But I love Amy lots, and have fun with her when we’re together. And Rachel’s been such a wonderful addition to our family. Let’s hear it for little sisters! Happy Valentine’s Day, family!

judiang and elsaf have been friends and mentors to me now for 9 and 10 years (nearly) respectively. I love them both dearly and enjoy the virtual times we have together as well as the real times we have together. So Happy Valentine’s Day to both of you!

Thanks to the Internet, I now have many lovely friends whom I keep in touch with via e-mail, mailing lists, and now LiveJournal. You folks are lovely and are loved, so never forget that. And thanks for sharing your lives with me! Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

If you have a significant other, I hope the pair of you have a wonderful & romantic holiday! If you’re single or between lovers, go off and tell the people that you love what you feel about them. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to belong to the couples, we single folk can celebrate as well!

^* Like that time when I accidently went to the Olde Towne Inn in Eaton on Valentine’s Day. I was the only person there by myself – everyone else were couples. They had a man in playing a synthesizer and singing love songs. And the waitress offered me a newspaper to read. (This was, I think, when I decided to bring a book with me wherever I go from then on.) So I got back home feeling a bit depressed. Now, however, I just have to laugh at the incident.

Today is a nice day to goof off and play with my games. Mostly I’ve been playing City of Heroes and getting Icy Hot Man up to level 7. Even better, gordon_r_d‘s Spitfyre invited me to join the British Bulldogs SuperGroup. So IHM now has a second uniform to wear. You can see his main costume here.

Icy Hot Man of the British Bulldogs

Thanks Gordon – hopefully we can get a game in together sometime! 🙂

Now, I haven’t just been playing CoH today. I’ve also been redownloading all of my Real Arcade games (since I’ve yet to do that from reinstalling Win98SE several months ago). They’re raising the price of the GamePass monthly subscription (AKA, my Game of the Month club) in March (or April?) and I’ve decided to leave GamePass. At least for now. I’ve gotten 22 (counting the one I’ve yet to pick for February) “free” games from them since I joined. Gee, that would mean I’ve been a member for nearly 2 years! (For $7 a month, you get 1 free download of any game they have, plus discounts on their other games. I was in it for the “free” games, myself.) Of the 22, there’s probably 5 to 8 that I love to play. A few that I sometimes play. And a few that I probably shouldn’t have downloaded, but there ya go. Oh yeah, and the price they’re raising to? Well, only a buck more a month… So it’s not like it’s evil or anything. But there aren’t that many games I’m interested in downloading anymore. Perhaps when even more new games show up, I’ll re-up my GamePass.

This morning, I also went to Curves and Walmart. Then off to Tokyo Peking to get dad and I General Tso’s (with egg roll, crab rangoon, and hot & sour soup) for lunch. We watched last week’s episode of Monk and then went off to Tipp City in search of stained glass. (He and mom make stained glass items – actually, mostly him – since they took a class on it together sometime last year.)

So all & all, a fine day for Trinas. (And Bachelor Dad, for that matter.) Hoping that Mom is off having fun with Amy & Rachel! (We figure they’re having a ball together.) Tomorrow, dad and I are off to New Madison Unitarian Universalist Church cuz he’s preaching. And I’ll probably just goof off the rest of the day too. I love a good Goof Off weekend. (All weekends should be, you know?)

Re: Yesterday’s Blackmail. To make the person being blackmailed sweat a little. I will admit that said person is on my flist… But isn’t: akadriver, elsaf, kiri_l, michaellee, rustyverse, or versaphile, to name a few…

Remember, $100, unmarked bills, paypal account… 😉

In other news: Sylvester McCoy is currently touring the UK in a production of Arsenic & Old Lace. It’s playing all over the country, so if you’re there, look for it in a nearby theatre. He’s playing a part that I know all too well – Dr. Einstein. (The part that I played in my HS production of it.) I do wish I could get over to see it, but it doesn’t look financially viable at this time. Alas! Thus far, I’ve only found one review of it, and Sylv wasn’t flattered by it. (Actually rather unusual, since he’s usually praised for his stage work.) Still, it’s early in the production and that’s just one reviewer’s opinion.

The Seventh Doctor and Ace have recently been added to the BBC Cult Galleries, I discovered tonight. There are quite a few pictures of Sylv there now. And lots of other Who notables, too. My particular favorite would be this one (from That Circus Episode of Doctor Who.) There are a couple different ones in the Sophie Aldred Gallery, so be sure to check there as well.

I need inspiration for another Sylv LJ icon… Suggestions on a post card, please, sent to this address:

Tonight’s a new Monk – yay! I think I’m gonna watch it “live” and eat graham crackers w/ chocolate frosting between them and a tall glass of milk. Mmmm!

Trina Short, scatterbrain, signing off!

As seen on IRC during Truth or Dare, December 5th, 1998:

<trinalin> Do you think Sylv is cute?

<Evil_****> Well, yes, I do think there is certain puppyishness about those droopy eyes….

The identity of the above person will be revealed unless $100 in unmarked bills is deposited in the PayPal account of my choice… (I leave the rest of you to ponder the identity…)

I have modified my original “Valentine’s Day” icon to be a little redder. So this is a Gratuitous Icon (Modified) Post. 🙂

Isn’t it the way? rustyverse is complaining on IRC that he can’t update his LJ cuz it’s currently Read Only. And I’m complaining on IRC that I don’t have anything to write about tonight…

I listened to some Shonen Knife and Bally Sagoo tonight.

It’s Ash Wednesday.

Leo’s sleeping.

I got Icy Hot Man to level 5 and Van De Graaf to level 4 on City of Heroes today.

Tomorrow’s Thursday.

Hmmm, I think I’ve written enough for tonight. 🙂

Firstly, a celebration of dehydration – I think I finally unplugged my dryer – yay! While talking with dad about it last night on the phone, he mentioned using a buret brush to try and get further down in the dryer. I actually had thought of that some time ago, but couldn’t remember where my buret brushes were stored. I found a nice big black beaker brush which I brought home and had been using to help clean out the vent. Of course, weeks passed and I saw my buret brushes in the lab and thought “Oh! There they are!” but didn’t think to take one home. Today, however, I took one home and punched through from the top where the lint filter is and from the bottom where the connection to the outside vent is. Then I ran it shortly without being hooked to the outside and a whole slew of lint blew out. Yay! I swept up the lint, rehooked it to the outside, and made my second attempt at drying my jeans. After just 20 minutes, they were noticibly drier.

Secondly – Mardis Gras! I used to give up things for Lent when I was younger. (We’re not Catholic, but we still celebrated Advent and Lent.) I don’t do that anymore, but I still celebrate Fat Tuesday. And so do my folks. Mom called to invite me out to eat for supper tonight. Woohoo! For those of you who celebrate either (or both) Fat Tuesday or Ash Wednesday, I hope you had/have a wonderful celebration!

My clothes dryer is being inefficient. I’m 99% convinced it’s because of the vent being clogged by lint. Dad and I fiddled with the tube that goes outside, but I think we’ve cleared that out pretty well. So it’s just a matter of getting rid of the blockage in the dryer itself. I was down in the basement today trying to get rid of the blockage. And I’ve got a load in the dryer now attempting to get dry. (It’s basically like a sauna when I open it – lots of heat, lots of moisture. Hence my conviction that air/moisture isn’t venting.)

While moving the dryer out to fiddle with the back, I accidentally undid the external ground wire. I checked with dad (who is a qualified electrician, among his many talents) who said it was best if I unplugged the dryer before reattaching it. Of course, no actual plug – the dryer is hardwired in. No matter, it’s hardwired directly to a circuit breaker. So I turned off the circuit and reattached the ground wire. It’s times like that when I realize that I actually am growing up. 🙂 (Yeah, Trina, you’re 34, you’d better be growing up!)

I’m just hoping that I’ve sorted out the vent blockage because the next step is to pay for a repairman to fix it. And if that won’t work, buy a new dryer. (Isn’t that the way – get your tax rebate & suddenly appliances decide they need fixing/replacing.)

As always, to keep me grounded in frivolity, Leo insisted that we play with one of his toys for 15 or so minutes. I love my cat – it makes being a grown up easier to bear. 🙂

Ah, the joy of First Come, First Served! I managed to be the third person today. I arrived about 15 minutes before opening, and already folks were waiting. And what’s more, some apparently had been & gone, but came back after we three hangers on arrived. I figured I’d just smile & nod a lot and if it looked like it was going to take a long time, I’d just schedule a time to get the thing installed. It turned out to not be a problem and I was officially third.

So, once I gave them my receipt, car key, and cell phone number, I headed in to shop around Best Buy. (I did no BB shopping yesterday other than the CD/MP3 player because I knew I’d have waiting time later.) I bought a couple of regular CDs – Heart’s Little Queen (cuz my favorite song, “Say Hello” has yet to be available for purchase by download) and Ricky Martin’s Almas Del Silencio. Nothing else really caught my fancy, so I bought the CDs and wandered around Big Lots before returning to the Mobile Install place at BB.

I sat & read more from The Princess Bride (my purse book) while I waited for them to finish and around 1pm, they gave me my key back, etc. On my way home, I played one of my MP3 CDs as a test, and found the balance was off. At first, I was afraid they’d hooked the front speakers to the rear jacks, but once I got home and checked out the manual, I found where to change the balance and have it pretty well sorted out. It’s really lovely – and best of all, it remembers the last song it was playing! Woohoo! (This has been my biggest annoyance with my other methods of playing MP3s in my car.) Best of all, when I turn off the car, the deck turns off too! (Yeah, of course it does, but when you’re used to using MP3 players and CD players separate, you have to turn them off when you’re done.)

So, now that I’m set with my car audio, I can sort out my in-house audio more. I’m thinking of maybe moving one Rio s10 into my reading room and move that MP3 player to the bedroom. Or something. As for my PC, I’m testing out MediaMonkey as my MP3 player/ripper/organizer. There are some features about it that I’m already loving. (It sits in my system tray and I can control play/pause/etc and see the current playlist just by right clicking on the little monkey.) I don’t care much for how it does Playlists (keeps ’em in a database rather than as separate .m3u files), but it works with my folder of pre-existing playlists just fine, so that’s good. (It can export to .m3u, apparently, though I haven’t tried that yet.) I gave up on MusicMatch for a few reasons. Mostly, they never pay attention to suggestions from us paying customers. (What’s worse is, back when I liked the program well enough, I paid for unlimited upgrades.) They’ve now got their online streaming audio service so entwined with their regular MP3 player that it’s annoying. If I want streaming music, I’ll stick with Rhapsody, thankyouverymuch. Oh yeah, and the latest version of MusicMatch doesn’t work with Winders98, so I’m screwed there.

I’m hoping that MediaMonkey will prove to be my player of choice. The things that it can’t do, I’m beginning to learn I can do without. So that’s a good thing.