DATE: 25 Jul 2008, 7:38 pm / MOOD: Happy

Ok, 48 hours from now, I'm going to be sitting in Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ, waiting for BRUCE to take the stage!!!!!!!!


I saw this tour back in November, and it was one of my favorites of all time. I'm not a fan of huge solos during live performances, and the band really cut back on that...giving them time to fit in more songs.

The only sad note: this will be the first show for me since keyboardist Danny Federici, whose family lives just 20 mins from me, passed away. I still can't believe he's gone...

On the outside chance if anyone else is going to be at the show, let me know!



"Pour me a drink Teresa, in one of those glasses you dust off... as I watch the bones in your back like the stations of the cross."

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DATE: 04 Jun 2008, 6:57 pm / MOOD: Happy

The time has finally arrived!!!!! Next Tuesday, my sister's novel is being released in the US by Hyperion. It's also being released in Germany and Italy, and the audio book will be available in July.

This is BIG TIME!!!!!!

There is a big party in NJ on Tuesday, and it will be filmed by WWOR TV in NYC.

Please check out her site -- and by the book! :-D

www.maryannmcfadden.com

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DATE: 26 Feb 2008, 7:49 am / MOOD: Happy

Just to let you all know, I changed my screen name. As site owner, I can do that, LOL.

Novels4me was just cumbersome and complicated. Ringmaster is more reflective of what I do with all our sites--kind of overseeing the whole show and bouncing from ring to ring (site to site).

Thanks!

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DATE: 17 Sep 2007, 12:00 pm / MOOD: Other

Well, PhxVyper and I have been working like maniacs the past few months on a few projects--

1. Getting 16 new sites online for the Fall TV season:
http://www.fandomentertainment.com/oursites.html

2. Preparing our fan fic software to GIVE it away to any writer or site that wants to use it:
http://www.fanficfan.com
we're giving it away for FREE.
*seriously*
We'll even HOST your fan fic for you. All you have to do is upload a banner of your choice (if you have one) and pick colors if you don't want the default. If you'd like, you can even point your domain name to make the fan fic show up under your own domain.

I am sooooo excited about Fan Fic Fan! We want *every writer* online to use it to house their writing--fan fic or creative.

We want every SITE online to use it to have fan fic on their sites.

Check out the fan fic on our site here--it's the same software. It is ***so much better*** than what you see on other sites.

I have to believe that this is going to be a blockbuster for us.

We have worked sooooo hard to make this happen. I have so much hope resting on this. It's so important to me--to us--to feel that we have built something of use to writers.

PLEASE help us spread the word--
--of Fan Fic Fan http://www.fanficfan.com
--of our new TV sites http://www.fandomentertainment.com/oursites.html
--of myFandoms.com

I can't tell you how much we'd appreciate it. For those who don't know, we have NO venture capital. We are NOT a corporation--we are what makes the internet great. Just a couple of people with an idea and a dream! Please help us make it come true!!!

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DATE: 30 May 2007, 9:25 pm / MOOD: Happy

More GREAT news--the book rights have been sold to major publishers in Italy and Germany!!! These are the first two countries who had opportunities to present offers to have the rights to publish the novel in these countries, and both have resulted in very significant publishing deals in both countries!!!

Fingers crossed--many more countries to go, along with the TV and film rights. YIPPEEEEEE.

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DATE: 17 May 2007, 9:34 pm / MOOD: Other

Remember Emily Littella from Saturday Night Live? If it's not one thing, it's another!!

I can't believe the stuff I have to learn. Today's lesson, boys and girls, is about what happens when Red Cedar trees and apple trees don't play nice together. They make a disease called "Cedar Apple Rust." I think it's REALLY bad for apple trees. I just learned that it shouldn't kill the cedars, though we can treat it with a fungicide.

For the love of Mike! I have 50 cedars in just one area of my backyard!

Another solution--get rid of the cedar or the apples. GET REAL--this area is ****covered**** with cedars. And there is a massive apple orchard less than a mile from here.

People think nasty things about NJ, but the reality is that other than that northeast corner that borders NYC, this is one RURAL state. So here I am learning about identifying and treating Cedar Apple Rust. I'm adding this to my "NJ is rural resume" of: there was an FFA at my high school, there was a fly tying club at my high school, my hometown has a livestock auction every Tuesday (still!), and I learned to swim in a river--there was no "town pool".

We've got horse farms all over the place here--1 county south of where I grew up, which still has major produce, dairy, and sod farms. Seriously.

So, in the middle of coping with massive amounts of work issues today, I got to talk to two tree companies and surf a whole lotta web pages to learn today's lesson: Cedar Apple Rust.

I can't wait for tomorrow.

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DATE: 11 May 2007, 3:34 pm / MOOD: Happy

My partner and I have a vacation place on Cape Cod--Provincetown. P'town is famous for "whale watching", and since I'm coming to trust Dramamine more and more, we're starting to go out on the boats more often.

On Monday, we had the best whale watch trip EVER. We saw 11 - 15 humpbacks CLOSE up, 2 finbacks very close (they're HUGE), and a whole bunch of white sided dolphin.

Within minutes of leaving the harbor there was a humpback, diving, showing his/her fluke. The naturalist said that whale had been around "for days", but we weren't going to stop because we were heading out to Stellwagen Bank where there was a whole group, feeding. Stellwagen is a famous area where the whales come to feed. About 80 minutes in, we were *surrounded* by humpbacks and a few finbacks. It was ***inredible***. Everywhere you looked, there were spouts, fins, heads, flukes...it was a whale watching DREAM. Lots of white sided dolphin, some cow/calf pairs, and everything was super-active today. The weather was clear and about 60, and the seas and wind were calm. What a day to be on the water!

The best part was comign back in...that humpback that we didn't bother stopping for on the way out was still there. We were sitting downstairs, facing backwards, thank goodness. That whale just HURLED itself out of the water in a full breach. We jumped up and shouted to the people next to us, who missed it. Then, it did it again...SEVEN times in a row that whale breached. It was absolutely beautiful there, in between the lighthouses, just having a grand ol' time all by itself.


We also went back out yesterday, but Monday was better. We were really hoping to see a Right Whale. The sighting reports have been amazing: http://whalesight.kissblogs.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/4/2926098.html

Spring is the best time to whale watch on Cape Cod!


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DATE: 02 May 2007, 7:38 am / MOOD: Dont know


i used to be a good golfer a lot of years ago, but it went to hell when i went back for my final degree. then, work was super-busy. last year was the lowest # of round i'd played in probably 15 years. so...it's a bit of an effort, but we got out to the range mon & tues and will do so today. there is a small social group that plays on thursday afternoons, so that's our motivation...go to the range for 3 days, then go join the women for some thursday golf. i need some routine to get me back playing regularly, so maybe this is it! except next week we'll be in Mass., and it's way chillier there than here (NJ) right now, so then again...I probably won't play next week. Sigh. Not good. i may have to force myself to play in the chilly weather. but then, as my sister says, golf becomes a JOB--when you feel like you *have* to play and you're not playing for fun.

god, i seem to make everything difficult these days. now i've done it with golf, too.

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DATE: 01 May 2007, 3:08 pm / MOOD: Disapointed

I've never been one of those ranters about Microsoft. Or PC's.

But I've become one.

I bought an IBM/Lenovo last June. Kick ass machine, intended to be a desktop replacement. Except it blue screened the moment I was done loading my programs. 10 calls to 10 different techs, and I figured out the problem myself--it was a web cam monitor problem. But the "LCD" screen (my a**) is too dark to use outside. And the touchpad kept freezing--I'd have to plug in an external mouse.

I had gotten my partner a Sony in October. LOVE THIS machine to pieces!!! FE790, so I decide to bite the bullet, get myself one, and sell the IBM on ebay. Btw, my partner retired from IBM--fabulous company. Crappy laptop.

But the Sony I get comes with freakin' VISTA on it. *******Load of garbage****. This thing is going to impact the US economy. It's that bad. We were side by side in a hotel room catching up on email during a road trip. She was online and working--I could barely connect and pretty much couldn't work.

Sony took it back.
I got an HP with XP pro (I want that HP/Sony gorgeous screen for working outdoors).

The HP has been terrific (I've had it one whole week), but their tech support SUCKS. I got the Phillipines. They didn't understand my explanation that the external monitor was displaying *horribly* *and* knocking out my laptop display too. I tried again this morning. Got Ireland. After explaining the whole problem, I was disconnected. Called back and got India. This guy actually understood, it seemed. He had me update BIOS (last night I updated the graphics driver). But before he could go further, I found the freaking settings I was looking for to configure the external display separately from the laptop display.

What's left? The piece of garbage Maxtor Mini Touch III hard drive that hasn't been working--and hadn't been backing up my Lenovo, even though I configured automatic backups. Nice, huh?

What's so horribly discouraging: a) everyone's tech help SUCKS, b) go on to the support forum for any computer, and you'll find it loaded with frustrated postings of people who have garbage machines and they're looking for help and answers.

The worst thing I've ever heard *anyone* say about a Mac--you'll have to buy new software. Well, given then money down the drain this past year on PC laptops, I'd be HAPPY to buy new software.

This has been my life. I've gotten next to no work done this past week. I feel dazed and drained. I'm playing poker and blogging, trying to figure out what the hell hit me and how to get myself back on track. I'm at finally back at my desk instead of the kitchen table with two laptops and external hard drives strewn about.

Just trying to figure out how to dig out of this hole...


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DATE: 26 Apr 2007, 7:12 pm / MOOD: Happy

A year ago, I was ready to kill my sister. She had self-published a novel, after trying to get it printed by a mainstream publisher, to no avail. So, she published it herself and then wrote to ALL my friends. I think her email program automatically added addresses, and many times I had her copied on emails with some of them at one point or another. She probably just sent mail to her whole address book, and my friends were in there. I hit the ROOF.

My sister has busted her back on that book. Yeah, she made me nuts at times (picking out business cards was like making a decision pertaining to US foreign policy!), but she hustled unlike anything I've seen.

In January, she had a major breakthrough. A serious NY agent signed her, in part because she was so successful in self-publishing and marketing herself and selling books.

This past week, the agent got her meetings with several major publishers in NY city. It paid off. Today was OFFER day. The offers came in, and she is going with one that made her a MAJOR two-book deal for hardcover books!!!

I am so incredibly happy for her, I'm ready to bust!! She MADE her dreams come true. How many people do that?! She has absolutely busted ass and made it pay off.

The hardcover won't come out until next June, but I'll be filling everyone in as things develop. This is SUCH a motivating story, especially when i look at this site--my "novel". I know if we just keep pushing, making this site's tools as good as we can, and recruiting serious fans to come visit, we have the potential to be a site unlike any site on the web!

And that's my goal--to make this THE fan site. A place for fans to be fans and not to be hit up with porn, spam, hit-ons, and other crap. I want myFandoms to truly be FAN CENTRAL!!!


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