Donnelle's World

This article is hilarious for so many reasons, perhaps none of which the Herald intentioned, but the all-time best part is:

TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards said the broadcaster had a policy of trying to match sound between ads and programmes - but said it was difficult to test sound compression with the network's current equipment.

Okay, so apparently TVNZ does not have a computer capable of downloading a program that weighs in at a massive 2.13 megabytes that will run fine on Windows 98... I mean, with all the tax cuts and shit going on, it must be hard measuring the dynamic range of a 30 second piece of music. BUT...to be fair, it takes me, an independent, amateur musician a whole minute or so to work out the average RMS decibel value of a song, so how can we expect a government-owned commercial media enterprise to be able to work this out in time for a statement for a newspaper that only comes out once a week!?

Spokespeople should check their information before making stupid announcements about not being able to tell whether the ads are louder than the shows they interrupt, when it's been a problem I've been fighting since I was a kid, even if then I'd no idea why they were so loud, they just were.

I took loads of photos of Tariqa today, only about 200 or so, I think she looked hot in about 100 of them, but it's not up to me which ones she likes.

Ever killed someone? Its like sex only there's a winner.
    -Hyde
Best quote evar.

Ok, I can annouce this now :) I have taken on my first apprentice! Yay!

Very exciting and will certainly be a test for us both but I think so long as communication is open we will both do well out of this:)

Oh and this is all about *you* yes *you*. Not about me having minions but you having support in the structure of the SCA to do what you want to. Access to the hive mind and all that. Remember; me=control freak. Help for me just is so far down the list of reasons why.

Well I graduated. They got my name wrong when they called it out. I never thought it possible to mispronounce my last name, but there you go. :)

I have a nearly full container of Naturade NRG Protein Powder (Vanilla) and a nearly full container of Naturade Total Soy Original Protein Powder (Vanilla). You're supposed to use them to make shakes but the shakes are just gross. I also have another product that I'm using for shakes now so I don't need these two any more.

However, each of the containers is 32 oz. I'm wondering if I can use the powder to bake something. Perhaps something like a high protein muffin, cake, or cookie? The label on the NRG Protein Powder says it can be used in muffins and pancakes but has no instructions on how to do this. I'm not skilled enough to know how to take a regular recipe and figure how to substitute some of this powder for, say, flour or something. Have any recipes?

for fucking around with LJ colors OMG!

I made James bring my piano when he moved. It's a digital piano, an older model of one of these: 88 weighted keys, two pedals, handful of different "voices," and a quarter-inch jack for headphones (hooray privacy!). I'm not hip to the lingo of digital instruments, but it's worth noting that it pretty accurately reflects the force with which I hit the keys. My only gripe is that the keys are all uniformly heavy, which just isn't the case on a real piano if you compare higher keys (shorter string) with lower keys (longer string).

Having no money for instruction, I've downloaded a boatload of sheet music, from musicless exercises—to build stamina and resurrect dead fingers—to the likes of Bach and Liszt—when I wanna pretend I'm Liberace sans chandelier.

Freaked the shit out of myself when, after hitting a few random keys, my muscles automatically launched into a song I hadn't played in years. Ah, the miracles of motor memory?! After an hour of practice, my arms and fingers feel rubbery, as though I'm swimming in a giant bucket of flan.

Still not tired enough to sleep, but I've run out of things to do.

I'm addicted to slathering this on my lips. Eee, it tingles!

my 3 week old daughter has a little redness around her eyes and on her nose. do you know what could be causing this?

she doesn't seem to have any rashes or anything, the rest of her skin seems normal?

I finally have the ability to be a stay at home Mom after five years.....and I have no clue as to what to do with kids during the day Monday to Friday. Muffin, my five year old, is thinking Disney channel and Googles, my two year old is thinking playground all day.

Saturdays are pretty full with morning snuggles, breakfast, bathing, errands, lunch, nap, visit to relatives, dinner, bath then bed. Sundays are breakfast, church, lunch, nap, park and/or free time like video/tv/computer/games, then dinner, bath and bed.

Should I try to schedule out the day and weeks? What is the best way to meet other Moms who are SAHM? Does any have suggestions on where to find sheets I can print out for daughter to do? Are getting the workbooks from Wal-mart a good idea? Also, on the weekends when my son naps I normally do to and DH stays up with Muffin. I would like to nap during the day if I can because frankly I would like to enjoy my husband company when he comes home. Should I try to get Muffin to nap or should I just forgo my nap and do school work with her during that time?

So far what I have come up with: story time at the library, different park every day, picnic at park, picked up writing paper for daughter to practice her letters and numbers.


I am open to suggestions!

Bored.

Sorry, the link didn't work.. I'll try it again..

beach cake

Um, I'm not sure if this is okay to ask. I found a picture of a beach cake that was professionally done, and I really like how the decorator was able to get streaks of white into the ocean. I think maybe she used white icing and then airbrushed on the blue color, but I'm not sure. Either way, I don't have that kind of equipment, so I was wondering if anyone could suggest a different way to get those streaks of white into the blue ocean so that it looks like real surf foam.

i took a stab at rainbow cupcakes. they came out better than i expected. :D

unfortunately the pictures aren't very good because my camera is broken


( we call them 'ninja warrior happy cupcakes' )

my friend and i might try to selling them at a hippie music festival we are going to in july

Here's a total shot in the dark ... I recently won on Ebay the sequined little black dress (just above the knee, 'flutter sleeves', black sequins all over it) from Torrid (of course, not available on the website anymore) in a 3, but it's too big on me. I missed my chance to buy it in the store and I was wondering if anyone happened to have a size 2 that they would want to swap? Or possibly even sell me? I really do love this dress.

Thanks!!