I was tagged almost simultaneously in Flickr by Jubi and in Facebook by Lanna. I decided to go ahead with the 25 facts from the Facebook "Tag" for both. I also debated whether to post a RL pic for this, but eventually settled on a pic of my SL av. So, 25 Random Things about me... 1. Once I moved out of the house, I started collecting Barbies and other 12 inch female action figures. I still have over 200 dolls loose and in boxes in my walk-in bedroom closet. 2. I'm the middle child of three well spaced kids. My brother is 6 years older than me, and my sister is 6 years younger. 3. I came into Second Life after reading about the Capitol Hill sim in my local newspaper. My congressman was involved in getting it set up. 4. My favorite dessert is either German Chocolate cake or German Chocolate cake ice cream. 5. I live in the town I grew up in, and always have except for a total of about 16 months of my life. 6. I bought a house here in town, but in 2006 it was broken into twice. I've now moved to a much better, 4 bedroom house and will probably be here for the rest of my life. 7. Also in 2006 my car was hit twice while I was driving. One rear-ender on the freeway by a woman doing about 85 to my 65, and the other was a near t-bone from a woman who gunned it leaving a parking lot. My family joked my poor Saturn should have a bullseye painted on it. 8. I love breakfast food for any meal! 9. My favorite music tends to be oldies from the 70's and 80s, plus Celtic Woman and a fiddle group from Canada called Barrage. 10. I don't watch a lot of TV now, but my favorite shows have included X-files, Brisco County Jr, Xena, Firefly, Star Trek TNG, Mythbusters, America’s Test Kitchen, and various travel shows (Rick Steves, Samantha Brown, Rudy Maxa). 11. I have an absolute phobia of any type of vermin, like mice, rats, lizards, or snakes. But I don't mind spiders at all. 12. I am a terrible slob. My desk at work as well as my home desk are disasters. 13. I have a terrible memory. In SL I try to write down a bit of info when I meet someone, like when & where we met, and any tidbits of info that would help me not be a complete idiot next time I see them. In RL I'm very bad at remembering names. 14. I really dislike cell phones and/or PDAs. I did like an HP Journada I had about 10 years ago though. 15. I’m often used by my company’s IT dept as an early adopter. For the last year I’ve lugged around both a Windows XP laptop and a Windows Vista laptop to test before we deploy Vista within the company. 16. I love to travel. 17. I love to fly. If I won the lottery I would probably take flying lessons 18. I was a theater major in college. Mostly backstage stuff, since I'm a lousy actress! However being a stage manager was great training for my current job as a meeting and event planner. 19. I have a real compulsive need to be on time to things. I hate being late to anything. I will leave to appointments or shows or sporting events early enough to have time to endure any delays, and if I'm early I always have a book. I force my family to be ready so we can be early so we can always be on time to places. Yes, I'm a PITA about it! 20. I got pregnant after a cast party in the spring of my senior year of high school with a guy I thought I was supposed to like. The health class teachers were right, it only takes one time. My son was born on Christmas day after I graduated. Since I was in no position to raise a child, I gave him up for adoption to my older brother and sister-in-law, who are unable to have children of their own. 21. Until last year, although we are very close, I was just the cool aunt to my son, and he would often come over with his friends and have overnight D&D tournaments at my house. But last year he started to suspect I was his natural mother, and when he asked we told him. Shortly afterwards my brother and sister-in-law split up and each moved out of town. My son wanted to stay with me, and moved in with me last summer. He turned 16 last Dec. 22. I'm something of an emotional retard. Until 2007 and joining Second Life at age 32 I'd never had a real relationship with anyone. I credit my platonic friendship with Strawberry Holiday with allowing me to break thru and have a true friendship with someone outside my family. This experience also allowed me to come out and be open to the concept of a romantic relationship. 23. I met my life partner Cheyenne in July of 2007. She manages a video store in town, and she came up to me in her store we talked for about 45 minutes about what movie to watch. She invited me over to her place that night and we watched “Bridge to Terabithia” on what was the first actual date of my life. 24. Cheyenne and I were married in her Unitarian church on Oct 25, 2008, just prior to the passing of Prop 8 in California. We plan on having at least one child together, and have made some inquiries about artificial insemina

The astro-imagining battery used on 7/2 just lasted the night, so to be sure, bought a better one, pictured above. This one weighs 44 1/2 lbs. considerably heavier than one bought from a national auto parts store for the same price. Lesson, don't buy unless actual amp hours is listed, see next picture. . According to figures, this battery should last two nights. My setup uses about 3.5 amps with 50% CCD cooling. Detail equipment draw. (rough figures from memory) CGEM mount = 400ma 12v ST-8300C camera, input to 200W inverter = 1200ma for 75% cooling, 2000ma for 100% cool. Laptop, 17 inch display, min brightness = 2.2 amp to inverter (internal laptop batt= fully charged), 1.9 amp with screen off. Inverter only 200ma As a value for the buck call, I chose a non-deep cycle. It is said that these should last 30-150 cycles. That's a lot of dark sky trips. It was on the shelf at Walmart for $65. . As a further help, set screen power-off to two minutes (~300ma saving). . IMG_3201CrS