What Was She Thinking?!

If you know me, you know my age. If you don't, well, you'll just have to figure it out. But the important thing to remember is that I've become quite vain as I hurtle toward that half-century mark. Most of the time, I'm told I look much younger than I actually am. This may be because I don't usually act my age.

But there are some clues flying around out there that I'm no spring chicken anymore. One such was the other day when I was out shopping in a department store. I had my cute little crop pants on, makeup still on from work, I thought I looked okay. I took my purchases (cute clothes and shoes and other girly girl stuff) to the counter to pay. As I'm standing there, the sales clerk asks me how old I am. (Well, it wasn't a bar so I knew I wasn't being carded, so I told her.) And then I committed a mortal sin. I asked her, "Why do you ask?" I should not have done that. Do you know what she told me? She said, "Oh, I just wanted to know if you qualified for the senior citizen discount, it's Tuesday."

Oh My Dog. Oh Long John. Oh Long Johnson. Oh Don Piaaaano. I couldn't believe my ears. I told her, "Even if I show up in here with FRESH CEMETERY DIRT IN MY HAIR, do not give me the senior citizen discount!" I felt like Shirley MacLaine in Terms of Endearment after Debra Winger informed her she was about to become a grandmother!

Because this blog just rolled over 50,000 hits, I thought this would be an appropriate time to give mad props to the people here at the OC (and elsewhere) who have inspired and encouraged me, and without whose support and friendship this travesty to online journaling would not even have been possible.

I'm no stranger to blogging. I started a Blogger blog at http://compassnet.com/~rojo/blog/ back in June 2002. From there, I experimented with the then-fairly new and popular GreyMatter. However, in no short order, GreyMatter ran amok on my small, locally owned web host's servers. I was asked (nicely) to remove the offending program or face account cancellation. I then decided to get my own domain and robust web hosting and set up a MovableType blog at http://jonielectric.com. That was in July 2002. I kept that blog and updated it fairly regularly. Then I let the domain lapse after two years, and started blogging -- this time using WordPress -- at my primary domain, http://jonimueller.com.

That didn't last long. I thought my blog should have its own cool rocking domain and although it had seemed like a good idea at the time, the domain jonielectric.com sounded kinda cheesy to me. During 2003 and 2004, blogging was sporadic as by that time Robert had become paralyzed and little time seemed to be available to blog. I mostly focused on incessant design changes and precious little content.

But in May 2005, I set up a WordPress blog at http://babygotblog.com, hoping the snazzy new digs and domain name would inspire. They did to some extent, and I enjoyed working with WordPress and its vast array of plugins and other features. But there wasn't any satisfaction in it. My self-imposed hiatuses in 2003 and 2004 meant that people weren't visiting me. Well, I did have a core group of three fans (two fan-girls and one fan-boy).

My fan-boy (he'll remain nameless; he knows who he is) followed me through all the design and domain changes and approached me to design a theme for him on his Opera blog, so I was happy to oblige. I had to set up a test blog of course, which is this blog. That was in September. Not sure what caused this to happen, but for some reason, I just started using the blog for "real" posts. Continuing to cross post at my newest domain, http://joniverse.com (still running WordPress). But after awhile, I quit cross posting to the "real" blog. Last post there, as you can see, was February 24, 2006. Over a month ago.

Why? I'm not sure, but I think it has a lot to do with the sense of real community that I feel here. Without exception everyone I've encountered here has reached out a hand in friendship, encouraged me and supported me. The network of friends I've made here is invaluable to me. So let me end this ... it's starting to sound like a really long and boring Oscar acceptance speech anyway ... by thanking those who, for me, are instrumental in my being here at all.

Words aren't enough, my dear friends, but they are all I have:

Troels
Troels' blog, Walk In Beauty, has been a source of personal inspiration to me. It's almost uncanny the way that Troels seems to divine exactly what is troubling me and then next thing you know, BAM!, there's this beautiful, thoughtful, eloquent post on exactly that thing that was plaguing me. As I told him once, people pay hundreds of dollars an hour for the wisdom that is dispensed on Troels' blog free of charge. Hope this doesn't mean he slaps a tip jar up there, although I'd hit it often! Pas paa, dear friend!

SerbianFighter
Ivan is a friend, confidant and partner in crime and web design. His tireless efforts on behalf of the Opera Community continue to inspire and amaze me. And he's been a real friend, through thick and thin. I owe my sanity to you, Ivan, what's left of it! Peace out, dawg, and vidimo se kasnije, moj prijatelj.

Zenya
Eve was the first person who reached out to me when my bags landed here in the OC. I spent Christmas Day 2005, waiting for my pork roast to be done, while helping Eve with her blog's design. She reminded me once again of the sheer pleasure of giving for its own sake. I have been rewarded in spades. Dear Eve, your price is far above rubies! In peace, sistah!

Ricewood
Allan has also been a source of inspiration and calm reflection. He's talked me down from the ledge on a few occasions. And although I took a stab at it, I fear undskyld, jeg taler ikke dansk. But I tried!

Trisha
Trisha is not an active blogger on the OC, but she's been my buddy for awhile and is the better half of the Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club II. Thanks for being there. Nice to know someone "gets" me!

Somebody asked me to take a photograph of my recent manicure and pedicure. We here at What Was She Thinking aim to give our readers what they want. So... behold:

You didn't think I was going to pass up a chance to do THIS, did you? Get real!

Whee! Thanks for stopping by, y'all!

Recall this post about a musician I once dated who I found out had made a movie. Well, I went ahead and bought a copy of the tape Of Strange Voices and Watermelon Men (it's available on Amazon.com, but anyone wanting to see it is certainly welcome to my copy!). Yeesh. I wasn't sure what to expect given the reviews and the synopsis of the storyline. I was also curious to see what my friend looked like after all these years. The production photo that is on the back of the video and which I had found on the Internet didn't ring any bells whatsoever. I don't know if that says more about ME or HIM! But bear in mind there's been a good 10 years' worth of water flowing under that bridge.

Robert was the first one to spot what I think is really curious about the videotape itself. He noticed that it wasn't copy protected like most videotapes are. At least commercial videotapes. Turns out this is likely a second generation copy, for which I should have paid half if not a quarter of what I paid. But it was worth it to satisfy my curiosity.

The guitar playing in the movie was excellent, as I had always remembered it being. No note was missed. This was the best part of the entire "ordeal." As noted in the review:

Austin blues musician Leighton Hamilton played an antique steel acoustic guitar from his own collection and performed his own composition of "H20 Melon Blues" and "The Crucifixion Blues" in this production.

The storyline was contrived, much as the plotlines to most porn films are. But that's because they're focusing on the porn aspect of the movie. I'm not sure what this film's focus was, it should have been the music because I couldn't make heads or tails out of the story, if indeed there was one. Much of the movie was spent with various characters running through the fields (I believe the movie was shot in Palmetto State Park). It was obvious that the actors (every one of them) were inexperienced, and the lead (Lisa Shelton) was way over the top in all her scenes, annoyingly so. It might have been me, but a couple of times, I could have sworn it looked like the actors were having a hard time keeping straight faces.

In short it was like staying up really late, being unable to sleep and consigning oneself to watching some oddities on a public access channel. The good thing is that I can record over it. Thanks, Robert, for pointing that out to me.