Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Friday, July 25th, 2008
makinglight	7:51p	UCVH Seeks COO http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010444.html Upper Connecticut Valley Hospital (UCVH) in Colebrook, New Hampshire, is looking for a Chief Operating Officer. The hospital services an 850-square-mile area spread over three states, with a population of around 8,500 people. The right person will have management experience in a Critical Access Hospital (CAH). Pluses: Located in a scenic/recreational area--people pay thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles to visit. Small-town casual and friendly. Outstanding winter sports. No state income tax. No sales tax. Low cost-of-living. Two hours to Montreal. Really, really nice hospital. I hope we can get some testimonials from folks who've been there. Minuses: Rural location -- thirty-five miles to the nearest McDonald's, fifty-five miles to the nearest stop light. Two-lane blacktop with moose. Brutal winters. If you're interested, or know someone who might be, contact Louise A. McCleery (Louise.A.McCleery@hitchcock.org), CEO. 181 Corliss Lane Colebrook, New Hampshire 03576 (603) 237-4971 Phone (603) 237-4452 Fax This job is open right now. (Comment on this)
denvention3 [ larcb ]	2:46p	gluten-free in Denver Hi! My family is gluten-free, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for safe food options in the Denver area? I went through a GF restaurant guide, and marked those places on the walking map as gluten-free friendly, but some are pretty far away from the Convention Center. Maybe some locals might know of any places? Also, will there be options such as fruit in the consuite? Thanks!!! (Comment on this)
denvention3 [ redbabette ]	11:37a	Here's a Question ComicCon is getting tons of attention on the news here in SoCal...I'm curious as to whether Denver news stations will be covering WorldCon?  Just wondering?  Current Mood: curious (5 Comments |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ fogcitymike ]	10:23a	Need...room...please... Am still looking for a room share at Denvention, from Thursday thru check out  Monday morning.  Even two consecutive days would work, as would staying in a Party Room as long as it's not an allnighter kind of thing.  Can pay accordingly. Am clean, conscientious, housetrained non-smoker (in room).  Please email me back at my LJ page or at mlayneheath@att.net. Thanks!! Current Mood: anxious (Comment on this)
athenais	9:24a	The only clown who didn't scare me I've always been creeped out by clowns. I never liked oversized mascots, either. I thought very poorly of Santa Claus at the department store. Basically, I hated grownups in costumes designed to disguise who they really were. I liked plays and ballets and skating shows; they had grownups in pretty costumes performing at a distance. But adults wanting to interact with me when I couldn't see their faces? Screaming tantrums, ahoy! There was one exception. I was talking to Craig Loper last night, a friend from Seattle, and the subject of J.P. Patches came up. When I was growing up in Bellevue, Washington, I watched a kid's show featuring a clown who lived in the city dump. His name was J.P. Patches, and he was Must Watch TV for every kid I knew. He had a girlfriend (a guy in corny drag) called Gertrude, a rag doll named Esmerelda, and a lot of people who stopped by every day (all played by the guy who played Gertrude). Everyone who watched the show was a Patches Pal, and if you could talk your parents into writing to KIRO about it, he'd read off birthday greetings to you on your actual birthday. The highlight of each day was when Esmerelda went to school. You'd hear the school bus honking outside J.P.'s door, he'd kiss her goodbye, and then toss her through the open door. The recording of a little kid laughing would play, and my brother and I would screech with our own laughter. Man, that was a laugh riot to five and six year olds. After rambling through our memories of the show I had to Google it. Naturally, there's a website devoted to the most popular kiddie show in Seattle. I got to hear Esmerelda's laugh again for the first time in (sucks in breath, shakes head, remembers everyone knows how old she is) forty years. Maybe more. I don't remember when I no longer had time to watch the morning show because I had to be at school. But her laughter was exactly as I remembered it. This August a life-size statue of J.P. and Gertrude will be installed at the southwest corner of Fremont Ave. N. and N. 34th Street in downtown Fremont. It's been fifty years since the show started (it didn't go off the air until the early 80's!) and there are thousands of Patches Pals who fondly remember the funny clown who lived in the city dump brightening up their mornings. I'm really glad Craig and I got into the nostalgia fest last night. It reminded me that there was one clown who didn't scare me. And I'm charmed that the actors are still around, enjoying fifty years of having made children laugh like Esmerelda. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ luned ]	11:10a	membership for transfer I'm still going, but my mother sadly is not. We have a membership to transfer. We paid $175, and ideally we'd like the $175, but may be willing to negotiate. Our contact email is treecat (at) faerielands.com. (Comment on this)
richardthe23rd	10:00a	The Fat of the Land This is a pretty good week for free eats. Aside from my winnings (of course), I've been attending "Crossroads" workshops enlightening us about the mysterious workings of other departments in the company, at which fresh fruit and snacks are served. Liberty Mutual lured us to the first floor with frozen fruit juice bars to talk about switching our coverage. The company picnic is tomorrow at the Wonderland Ranch (which always sends my mind scurrying in panic until it realizes it didn't hear "Neverland Ranch"), followed by a poolside luau hosted by my apartment management. It might even be worth skipping a couple of the Saturday games. Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Seu Jorge, "Five Years" (Comment on this)
denvention3 [ quaryn_dk ]	5:24p	Westbound Amtrak Meetup? Hey WorldCon members from Chicago and the like -- those Californians are making us Midwesterners look like a bunch of anti-social dorks! To which I say: anyone else taking Amtrak westbound on Aug. 5 from Chicago or intervening points? Shall we have a WorldCon-bound meetup? perial and I have a roomette, since we were so late off the ball getting tickets so a normal seat was no longer possible, and we always enjoy sharing our dinner table with new friends. See you on the train! --Mickey Current Mood: excited (Comment on this)
denvention3 [ valeriefrankel ]	12:48a	Anyone need a room reservation? Like many others, I've found roomies and am thus canceling my reservation, unless someone here would like it. It's at the closest hotel, the "handicapped one" if soeone needs that or just has lots to carry. I have a room reservation at the Hyatt Regency available. It is a double-queen room, 8/6-8/10 (Check in Wednesday, Check out Sunday). $159/night.  Let me know valerie@calithwain.com (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
mishalak	11:09p	Birthdays, Rainfall, and Politics Today I went to my parents house. They need help with packing things up, especially the books and other things I have stored there. And later they will need help moving. But for now it is just finding boxes and packing. I hope that a great many of my books will disappear in October with the DASFA book sale at MileHiCon. I'm only going to be selling a few collectible or nice books, they're mostly reading copies that I'll be selling to benefit the science fiction club. Books that I once purchased or acquired with the notion of running bookstore. A job that I probably would have been very bad at. And I moved more of the books I'm going to keep to my apartment and tomorrow I'm going to work at getting more of these books put where they should be. After all we've only lived here a year. Tomorrow is also my father's birthday so we celebrated today with cake and steak in separate courses, of course. It was an excellent meal, I just with the low background terror of life had not been lurking. Death, bankrupcy, foreclosure, and general chaos. But cake and ice crea go a long way towards pushing other things off the mind. It rained while we were out there. A beautiful soaking rain that made the woods smell wonderful. I wish we could have stayed longer and watched a movie or something with my father. I have to make time for that soon. My day was rounded out with going to a nice backyard political get together. Met the candidates for the state senate and statehouse. They're all quite liberal Democrats, but there are differences in emphasis. One might be better in terms of being a nice boring fixer of problems who'll be busy with good government. But the firebrand who's passionate about the social issues really attracts me as the social issues are dear to me as I'd like to get 'civil unioned' or married someday. But of more interest the organizer mentioned Connie Willis's latest collection of stories, The Winds of Marble Arch, when she learned I was a fan. She's not a huge SF reader, but I'm going to let her know the next time Connie is down here reading. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ redbabette ]	4:29p	Burbank Airport  Still wondering if anyone is leaving out of Burbank on 8/5 on United flight 6532 who might want to hook up at the airport and go out together? Current Mood: giggly (Comment on this)
jane_dennis	6:40p	Happy Birthday to renegade500 - and many happy returns!  (1 Comment |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ cmdrsuzdal ]	1:22p	I have a one king room at the Crowne Plaza from Wednesday Aug 6 through Sunday Aug 10 (checking out Monday the 11th) and am looking for a roommate. The con rate is $129/night, so if I'm taking the bed (I am) I'm figuring to share at $60 a night if anyone is interested. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
athenais	11:32a	Purchased It's the newest Daniel Abraham novel and it came out on Tuesday. I bought it yesterday. I must not rush through it. It is a delight to visit that world again. So far I have bought twelve books in the Year of Not Buying Books, which is to say I have failed utterly at not buying books. But I figure I would have bought three times that many books by now if I weren't exercising restraint. Other things I have not bought: A new camera. Lenses. An iPhone. A laptop. Shoes. Cloudberry jam (but I will on Saturday). I am full of virtuous non-buying. For the most part, anyway. (15 Comments |Comment on this)
richardthe23rd	8:13a	And Still... I think this is a first for me: First place wins on two consecutive nights. Last night's game was at the Mill Hill, and I can use the bar tab I won for one of their deluxe pizzas, so it's all good. Thought for a while I might be leaving early last night. The first time I finally had a decent hand, my phone rang and I had to step outside to take the call. It was an old friend asking if I can show up at her parole hearing... Current Mood: complacent Current Music: Devo, "Gut Feeling" (Comment on this)
threeringedmoon	5:47a	Deckers, Colorado Originally published at Five Acres with a View. You can comment here or there. Two recent fires in Colorado, the Oxyoke fire near Deckers, Colorado, and the Hilltop Fire near Parachute, are both now 100% contained, thanks to the valiant effort on the part of the firefighters. I’ve been through Deckers, which is not all that far from our house as the crow flies, but is a considerable drive on mountain roads. As is my habit, when I heard about the Deckeres fire, I found it via Google Maps, and discovered that Deckers, Colorado has a street view on Google Maps. (Colorado Springs doesn’t rate high enough to be on Google Street Views.) Check it out if you want to see the proverbial one-horse Colorado mountain hamlet. Be sure to rotate the view (arrows in upper left) so you can see the mountain stream. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
mishalak	11:06p	Possible Ice Tea Method This evening I put four Celestial seasonings tea bags into 1 cup of boiling water. I then let them steep for 20 minutes. The resulting very dark liquid was then measured out into a glass one (1) part to four (4) parts water and two (2) parts ice. It seems quite a good herbal iced tea. Scaling it up I could take what will produce seven gallons of iced tea (with ice) or about 74 twelve fluid ounce drinks by just transporting one gallon of liquid to the party suite. I have also tested this general method using regular black tea and a shorter steeping time. I did not taste much as it is very late and I did not want to get caffeinated this seemed to work. I'll have to work to perfect the recipe, but this seems to work so well that I may never boil gallons of water to make ice tea again. I'll have to test with ordinary tap water to see if this will work without the trouble of filtering. If not we may still need some sort of very large water container, but I think I've hit on a good method. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ adriennef ]	8:03p	Questions about the Denver locale I purchased a tourist map of Denver and couldn't find the Crowne Plaza on it. After doublechecking the location, this map says it's the Holiday Inn Downtown. Am I correct in assuming that the Crowne Plaza was formerly a Holiday Inn? Also, I checked the Starbucks website to see what stores are closing in Denver and there are three: 16th & Wynkoop, Colorado & Alameda, and Denver News Agency Building. From what I've been told, it's going to be another month before these shops close, so we're still in the window. Can any local fans point out which locations would be the most convenient to those of us at the convention? I know. Petty questions. But some of us need our lattes. Current Mood: inquisitive (38 Comments |Comment on this)
denvention3 [ xanalogica ]	7:07p	Hotel Room to Transfer to Someone I have a reservation at the Grand Hyatt Denver hotel (#6 on the con map I believe) for dates: Check-in: Tue 05-Aug-2008 Check-out: Mon 11-Aug-2008 2-Double beds, non-smoking room $159/nite I found accomodations in the party hotel and need to transfer this one to a WorldCon person who can use it, or release it into the hotel any-convention oblivion pool. Note that I believe you can reduce but not extend the date range covered if you aren't staying that long. If interested, please contact me at jeff AT taupro DOT com (Comment on this)
mishalak	5:45p	More on the DASFA Worldcon Party Okay, I did not explain before I jumped in with my thoughts on tea and parties in a previous post. DASFA is going to have a party at Worldcon to try to promote itself as being something locals might want to join. And also to have a bit of fun with the money we've raised for this. So due to the health club I worked for going out of business I was able to get a deal on the smoothie mix and free use of the machine to make them. That will be the big impressive thing for the party, I think. All sorts of flavors and easy to make as this commercial machine was designed to crank them out easily unlike a home blender. Otherwise I would not consider this at all. Cost to produce about 250-260 drinks will be about $130 including the ice. This seems reasonable to me as the same product retails at $4.00 each in restaurants and bars. I and some other club members thought that iced tea might be an inexpensive and very Colorado thing to have at a party. Unfortunately I think the logistics might kill the idea due to needing either a long brewing time and lots of containers or else people constantly brewing tea and a place to do this as the party goes on. These do not seem like ideal options and the cost is much higher than I had thought. I'm going to bother Celestial Seasonings to see if they'll cut us a deal on cold brew herbal teas like Tangerine Zinger or Black Cherry Berry, but I'm not hopeful. Ordinary loose leaf tea is quite inexpensive and makes better iced tea anyway. But again it needs to be heat brewed or left to steep a long time if the water is kept cold. I estimate that I could make gallons of regular black tea for about $2.00 and water, the problem is being able to get it to the party. Containers are the problem either way. Cans of soda are relatively inexpensive and convenient, but that's what every other party does as well. And I'm not entirely sure that fans are as enthusiastic about soda as they once were. I know I have about eight a year, myself, and young fans seem to want bottles of water or 'energy drinks'. The later are very, very expensive even at wholesale and I am not going to seriously consider them. But sodas are a very easy option and a limited supply would not be amiss. But not more than three cases (of 24 each), I think. And there are no sodas that are particularly iconic for Colorado, though the idea of making it a very Colorado party might have to go by the board due to practical considerations. And then there is food. We're thinking chips and salsa as that's more Colorado than potato chips. And good chips and salsa can be had for a decent price at Costco. But after that it is a mystery. Buffalo sausage was brought up, but the expense. Then someone suggested hot dogs. Possible... But cooking facilities are problematic in a hotel room. No killer idea yet, though I'll be sure to hit the local farmer's market the day before the party and see what fruit they have. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
mishalak	5:36p	Weather Commentary It has been quite hot lately. Not weirdly hot, but in past years I remember more thunderstorms to take the edge off in the afternoons. Maybe I'm misremembering in this and I certainly do remember long sweltering stretches without a drop of rain. I note this because today it actually was a bit cooler. I think this is the most pleasant day we've had for about two weeks, but still no rain. I've yet to see a proper drown the frogs thunderstorm this summer here in my little corner of Denver. Don't try to connect this up to global warming. A month's weather has a relationship to the global climate, but it is far too soon to say exactly what that relationship is yet. Though I would not be surprised if in retrospect this was part of a trend towards drier summers I would also be equally unsurprised if we got more thunderstorms rather than fewer. This would be due to the heat producing low pressure over the mountains that would draw in the monsoon flow over Colorado. I'm just commenting that so far I'm disappointed. I want the monsoon flow to start to take the edge off this heat. It is certainly active down in Arizona. Searching for monsoon using Google news finds numerous stories about the start of the monsoon season including one about how the frogs emerging after storms are poisonous to pets. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
gerisullivan	7:22p	Thanks to a friend... ...two to four days of my life just became much, much, much easier. Thanks to all of my friends, I'm able to do what I want to be doing those days in the first place. But now, rather than them being crazy complicated, moving myself from house to hotel to hotel to hotel on a daily basis, I go from house one hotel, then move down the hall on the same floor one to three days later. It's easier in other ways, too. I am blessed. So very, very blessed. I already knew that. It still has the power to blow me away. Reminder to self: pack the honey bees...and anything else likely to bring a bit of welcome delight. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
makinglight	9:50p	Open thread 112 http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010443.html 112 is the Europe-wide emergency telephone number, supplanting or supplementing (in the case of the UK, which still uses 999 as well) earlier emergency numbers. It is also the worldwide emergency number from GSM mobile phones, redirecting to the local emergency number depending on location. (Of course, there may be other problems once you reach the emergency services number, but that is outwith the scope of this discussion.) Universal public emergency services of are surprisingly recent in the history of urban living. According to Wikipedia, the first organized municipal fire brigade was established in Edinburgh in 1824. Sir Robert Peel is credited with establishing the Metropolitan Police in London in 1829. And although the history of the ambulance is much more gradual, civillian emergency medicine and transport seems to have been an innovation of the 1800's. Regular readers of this blog are of course aware that Jim Macdonald is an emergency medical technician. I, for one, would like to take this numerically convenient moment to thank him for what he does in that role, both online and in the all too real world. Jim, you rock. It's also appropriate to remind everyone reading this that the emergency number, and the services it reaches, are there for a reason. Call them at need, and let the vehicles by if someone else has done so. (Comment on this)
mishalak	2:47p	Tea Revisted Two liters of soda cost about $1.00 on sale, $1.50 at the most. Celestial Seasonings tea bags cost ~$2.30 for 20. That's a little more than eleven cents each. At that price it would seem to be a bargain, but each makes about 8oz. of tea. 67.6 fluid ounces in two liters and that will take about 8.45 bags of tea. Rounding down to be absolutely fair and that works out to be about 92 cents for an equivalent amount, so less expensive, but not by much. Why am I working this out? Because I'm working on the last minute plans for a party at Worldcon to promote DASFA. It is quite affordable until the containers needed are factored in. Unless I can find inexpensive water or inexpensive bottles I can fill it is looking less appealing than having the usual soda. Because the least expensive I've seen a gallon of water is 79 cents. If someone just had a very, very large container to brew the tea in the problem would be solved. But so far no luck on that. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
athenais	8:43a	I never hope to see one I visit Second Life for the first time Originally uploaded by lucy huntzinger Self, I said last night, now that you have this fast new computer it must be time to visit Second Life! I'd been there once, quite briefly, and it was impossible to do anything but establish a body before the computer rebooted itself in agony over the graphic input. Apparently, I chose a demented yoga instructor fond of a cheesy gold necklace with giant Afro puff hair. Why must my avatars always have bad hair? Am I wearing a top made of astroturf? The red lipstick is nice, but maaaaan. So I spent half an hour pottering around trying not to fall into the volcano, practicing flying, attempting to alter my hair, and learning to walk. It's a lot of effort merely to chat with people, and you know that's the only reason I go online. What I need is a SL coach who can sit with me for a session. Since I know no one who'd want to do that, I think I give up on SL for now. If you get to this castle in the learning areas, you can sit on the throne, ho ho, and have a snapshot taken of you, which you can email. I mailed it to myself so I could add it here. Behold: Silja Laryukov, my alter ego. (21 Comments |Comment on this)

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