Patia Stephens :: Missoula, Montana

Don't feed the trolls

I don't have much patience for anonymous commenters. If you can't be bothered to identify yourself, I can't be bothered to respond. I deleted one comment on my Hunter S. Thompson post because it was a flame -- rude and incendiary. I've left the second, more thoughtful comment. I don't have time right now to get into an argument. Really. I don't have time. I will only point out that I said he was MY hero. I never said he had to be yours. And I will leave you with this, which was for many, many years, my favorite quote. It no longer is, because I no longer need it.

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." --Dr. Johnson

From Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Sad news

One of my heroes has fallen.

Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself (Yahoo! News)

Never fails

It seems I almost exclusively get sick on my days off. Vacation rolls around, I get the flu. Three-day weekend, a cold. I sneezed my head off all day yesterday, and woke up today with the ickiness lodged in my chest. It's mild so far, but nonetheless enough to keep me from accomplishing all the grand things I'd planned this weekend. Waaah.

The good news is, my new mattress arrived yesterday and I'm in heaaaaaven.

Site updates

In the Shameless Self-Promotion category, I've added a handful of links to my Photography, Web and Writing pages. They include:

Web

Griz Greetings postcard gallery (Winner of a merit award for Web site from the American Marketing Report). I should note that creation of this site was very much a collaboration with some very talented folks. My contribution has mostly been limited to concept and maintenance (as well as a few photos of my own).

Writing

Archivist Offers Advice On Preserving Photographs, Materials, News To Use, February 2005
Return to Black Mountain: Less than a year after fire, nature thrives, Vision 2004

I'm also pleased to report that my spring 2004 Montanan story, Higher Education, has won a silver award for feature writing from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education District VIII. CASE is our professional organization and District VIII includes 12 northwestern states, provinces and territories.

Spring Creek
On the SCC Alumni page, I've added news on Susan Davis Lorch and Jeff Lorch.

In other site news, I'm getting ready to switch my web hosting from Earthlink to Go Daddy to save a few bucks. Hopefully it'll be a smooth transition.

Extreme email weirdness

Something bizarre is happening with emails I send from my Bloglines account. They are being sent to at least two other people I know. How their addresses are getting into the emails, I have absolutely no idea.

If you have gotten any strange emails from me (via my cowgrrrl email addresses), please let me know. I've written Bloglines and hopefully they will help me figure this out.

Friday Cat Blogging: Worth a thousand words

YAMB: There's a new show in town

Yet Another Montana Blogger.

Former Kaimin editor (and really good writer) Courtney Lowery has created the "Missoula Blog," which is part of something called the New West Network, which has been founded by former Industry Standard editor Jonathan Weber. Looks ambitious. Go check it out.

Sweet dreams are coming my way

I'm doing a little happy dance right now .... I found a bed! Best of all, it's the same model I fell in love with the other day, but I'm getting a killer deal because it's a floor model and it's just taking up space in the back room. Half off the list price. Wahoo!

Happy dance, happy dance.

Blogs that made me smile today

Monkey's quote of the day: "Whoever started the phrase "quiet as a mouse" never had the little fuckers running around in his attic!"

Sarpy Sam is calving. (Hooray! Spring is coming!)

To buy or not to buy

The good news is I've found a mattress I want. The bad news is, it costs twice what I want to spend.

I wish I didn't have such good taste!

I never knew how complicated mattress shopping was. I think it's worse than buying a car, only you're not spending quite as much money. But it's harder to comparison shop for mattresses than cars, because there's less information and the model names change in every store. I think the industry goes out of its way to confuse consumers. In the past month, in between school and work, I've been educating myself about coils and gauges and pillowtops and plushes and brand names and side support and frames and foundations and viscose foam and latex and warranties and ... whew, it's a lot of work. I guess I shouldn't complain. I'm fortunate to be getting a big enough tax return that I can even think about this stuff.

I just hope that the investment will pay off in less back pain and better sleep. Cuz I sure need it.

YEEhaaaaaawwwwww!

I'm listening to some swinging jazz and lounge music via Internet radio, courtesy of my fast new satellite hookup. Specifically, the LuxuriaMusic channel on iTunes radio. Let me tell you, if you have a fast connection and haven't installed iTunes on your PC or Mac, you are missing out. I've been listening to iTunes radio at work for a while, since I have a T-1 connection there. But I'm so excited to have it at home -- I can blast it through my stereo speakers and listen to raucous stuff I wouldn't normally listen to at work.

Wahooooo!

Now coming to you from outer space ...

Ta da! The old cabin enters the 21st century with satellite Internet access.

Satellite dish

More to follow, sooner or later ....

Internet access update

I'm getting Direcway satellite Internet installed at home tomorrow, if all goes as planned. (It was supposed to happen last week, but my installer had a family emergency.) So hopefully I'll be back online at home this weekend and can get in the blogging groove once again.

Actually, I'm struggling to get and stay caught up with my reading this semester, so posting will probably still be sparse. And that's probably just as well, if I can't find anything more interesting to talk about than my kitty's litterbox issues. :-#

I do have some pictures I want to share, though, and a few other things. Wish me luck.

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