I have way too much time on my hands

I can't believe I just made this image. Anyway, It's all the Coldplay albums that exist and the ones that I own.

Safety: In my life I will probably never own this one. It "goes" for over $1500.
Trouble: Bidding on this now on ebay.
Don't Panic: I'll probably try to get this one soon.
Sparks: I'll probably also never get this one. In fact, I don't think it was an actual official release. If I remember correctly, it is from The Netherlands or something. Looks like it's going for $450+. Should have gotten it when I had the chance!
Scientist DVD: I guess I could get this sometime.
Talk: Could also get this anytime.

I am the proud owner of:
Blue Room: Only 5000 copies ever made, goes for around $60 now.
Mince Spies: Only 1000 made and given to fan club members. I have no idea what it would ever be worth, but I got it as a gift from Ant, who used to edit coldplay.com. Yay!!! :)
Shiver: Just bought for $17.
A signed Talk DVD!
And a bootleg copy of the show I was at where The Scientist was dedicated to yours truly. Gotta give props to my ex-boyfriend for that one.

Yep, I've got quite a memorabilia collection here, thanks very much. I have 2 boxes of magazines also, and on tape pretty much every television performance ever done, except for the first time they were on Conan (I believe it was early April 2001).

So basically I am a nerd.

I am wearing what is quite possibly the itchiest fabric in existence.

Ringo is so funny. He has found a favorite place to sleep: on top of my router and cable modem. His second favorite place to sleep is in a back corner of my bedroom closet, behind a stack of bags. He also likes to sleep on my bed and on the futon. He spends a good amount of the evening staring at the door. He just sits in front of it and stares at it. Sarah, hope you don't mind cats. If you do, too bad, because it's not like I can get rid of him.

Things are looking slightly up

We just had a meeting about restructuring that's happening when my manager is gone. Apparently I'll be in a new group that creates products really quickly. The best part? No hotline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My weekend

Well, thought I'd write a little bit on my weekend. It was a pretty good weekend.

On Saturday I went over to Laura and Michael's and we went to Albertville to the outlet mall there. It's pretty similar to Johnson Creek except probably twice as big. The Nike store there is literally exactly the same as the Nike store at Johnson Creek. That was funny. We went to some shoe stores. I really love big shoe stores like that because they have the kinds of shoes I like (stylish athletic shoes). I am going to picture the ones I got. I didn't find a picture of the exact color of the Puma shoes. They are much brighter green than this, sort of the color of green grapes. My mom said lime, but they're not that bright. The blue is more of a baby blue. The Adidas remind me of Emily because they are red. There were some other shoes that reminded me of her also.

We went to a Coach store (not Craig T. Nelson) and a couple of kitchen-y type stores. Then we went back to L & M's.

We watched some of last week's SNL and had pizza for supper and played Trivial Pursuit - 90s version. That was fun. Michael and I kept losing focus. At one point I just drifted off to the side and was intently studying a power cord for Laura's computer. They were trying to get my attention for a while. That was funny and we couldn't stop laughing.

Then we watched some Kids in the Hall and I went home. I had such a good time. Laura - you guys are so fun!

On Sunday I drove over to my aunt's house where my birthday party was to be held. I arrived exactly on time. However, I was 45 minutes earlier than everyone else, even my aunt who lives there. Luckily her door was open, so I waited inside for everyone.

We had lunch and I opened my presents. I got a mobile from Ikea (red, of course, since my family is obsessed with the fact that I had a red wall). I also got a table lamp, some clothes, and some jewelry.

On that front, one of the pieces I got was a pendant that my sister Meredith made. It's dichroic glass, which is this thing my mom is obsessed with. Here is the story on that. Apparently she and her boyfriend got this idea in their head that they were going to make dichroic glass jewelry and sell it. So they bought some of the glass and made some pieces. They baked them in my mom's kiln at school. Then they brought some of them to show us on Sunday. They were talking about how expensive the glass is, blah blah blah. Her boyfriend was talking to me about it and I had to fight with my brain not to tell him to shut his pie hole. He is so annoying. Anyway, nobody was that impressed because everyone dislikes him. If it was just my mom it would be a different story.

My sisters were recruited to make some of the pieces and they aren't allowed to keep them. I think that's funny--they actually are making pieces to sell. Suzanne said she hid 5 of them. :)

I looked at the website and it looks terrible. It's "under construction," but honestly, it looks like the website was built in 1992. It's so bad. Come on, mom. You're an art teacher. Oh yeah, I forgot...you don't input any ideas into your relationship.

What else happened...apparently his son lives 4 blocks from my aunt, so he went to visit him. He came back a few minutes later and said he couldn't find it. My mom said, "do you want me to help?" And she went with him. How does she know where his son lives, when he doesn't?!

Oh yeah! He spilled melty ice cream all over my head. That was just the greatest thing. It went all down my back, too. And he didn't even say anything about it. What an ass.

Well, I took the cat and drove home. I decided to make a London Broil, which I had bought a few days ago because it was called a London Broil. I looked up some recipes, and long story short, I ended up burning the outside and the "marinade" to a crisp. The inside was pretty good.

Watched "The Brothers Grimm" which was pretty good. Watched Grey's Anatomy (D.H. was a rerun)--also pretty good.

I had the intention of going into work early this morning since I now have to work 8.5 hours, but I didn't. Instead I had to leave work at 5:39. That really sucked. Hotline was insane today. I basically did hotline work all day long. I hate it. What an annoying and strange job. Every time I think about it I am saddened because it's eating my life away. What's it like to have a job you enjoy? I had one not long ago...I can't remember it at all.

Advice needed

Hi! No, this doesn't have to do with ipod man.

 

My aunt works at Wells Fargo and there's a job opening in her department that she really wants me to apply for. And I mean REALLY. She bugs me about it constantly. And it's really starting to make me upset--yesterday I almost started crying when she was bugging me about it. Mainly it's because she gets frustrated at me about it and yells.

 

The reason I don't want to apply is that I've only been here for 4 months. I feel that would look really bad. For one thing, I would not be able to ask for references here; or at least, I wouldn't want to. On the other hand, I really don't like this job a whole lot. However, the idea of getting another one is absolutely horrible to me. I just went through that not long ago and it's not like I want to do it all over again right now.

 

So, it might be nice but it also has a lot of strong negative aspects. What do you guys think?

 

She's also always bugging me about dating. Which is quite possibly the dead last thing I want to do at the moment. "Well, someday you'll have to get married and have kids..." No pressure there, huh??? It's like if I don't start dating right this second I'll wither up and die alone. Which will probably happen anyway, but you know, I don't have to be reminded of it constantly.

My apartment is now housing two

That's right...I have received my grandparent's cat, Ringo, who will be here until Feb. 28. He is currently really enjoying the two external doors to the apartment. I think it's cooler by the patio door, and he keeps expecting people to come in the front door (or he is expecting to be able to escape).

He is a Himalayan. He looks like this picture except less poofy around the neck. And he doesn't have humungous jowls or whatever those are called under his eyes. He does have very light eyes and his coloring is pretty much like this picture.

A highlight of today

Today was a great day--went shopping with Laura and Michael and then did some stuff at their place. I will write more about that later.

However, just got back home and checked my email--I won an item on eBay I've been hoping for!!!



That's right. A signed Talk DVD.

When I worked overtime last week I decided to spend the extra money on finishing the collection of CP singles. So far I've gotten Yellow. I bid on Shiver (apparently that one's rarer than the others--so far I'm winning at about $15). Also bid on Trouble, which ends tomorrow. I was outbid on that so I'll go check that soon.

But the prize here was the Talk DVD--it has the video on it so I can probably quit trying to get it on television. That reminds me that I should check this week's top 20.

The final bid was $37 plus $4 shipping. I told myself $40 was my absolute top for the bid. So it's ok. I paid more than that for Blue Room. So I guess that's the value of 4 signatures...a product that is probably no more than $10 (not sure on that actually) is inflated to 400% its regular price. Interesting, but very cool. I'm happy about this one.

I'm not sure what to do now because it's actually the Talk DVD and not the single...I also don't have the Scientist DVD. Further, there are 3 separate versions of the Talk DVD. I think maybe I'll skip some of those. My focus now is the really old ones.

Later.

Bugs

My journey starts with “War of the Worlds.” I recently saw two versions of this story; one with Tom Cruise and one with a guy called C. Thomas Howell. I also read the book. The only real way the movies stayed true to the book is these bug-like alien things that come to earth and attack people.

This is a picture of what one might look like. These alien machines have extremely long legs. They also have tentacles which reach out and grab people. They store these people in a cage near the body until they eat them. The machines also have a very strong heat ray that burns everything in its path into nothingness.

At first, the machines in this story seemed to be bug-like, especially in the first movie I saw (the C. Thomas Howell one). This is because they came out of a burrow in the ground and they looked kind of bug-like. They had bug-like legs which frequently pierced through human torsos.

Upon further reading, however, I realized that these machines were not really bug-like at all, so I will comment no further on them.



-----

There is a movie called Starship Troopers that I watched one afternoon. It has a lot of famous people in it. It’s kind of a weirdish funny movie. I didn’t like it that much because it was overly gory. In it, earth is fighting a race of bugs that are extremely large, deadly, and gross-looking.

This is a picture of the “regular” bugs they fought. They were maybe 12 feet tall. Their leader was called a Brain Bug. It is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. It was about 50 feet tall and had many eyes. It was more beetle-shaped than these. I do not have a picture of it.

The “regular” bug used their legs to pierce human torsos (much like the alien machines). That’s about the only way they killed people. The Brain Bug had a proboscis that came out of its “mouth.” The proboscis shot forward into a human brain and sucked it out. That is how that one worked.

-----

There is a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode called “Beginning of the End” which features giant grasshoppers. It is a horrible movie. It features grasshoppers growing due to genetically engineered crops. Eventually they infiltrate Chicago and are drowned at the end of the movie in Lake Michigan. At one point some of them are climbing a building and one “steps off” the building (it’s just a plain grasshopper on top of a small picture of a building).

What made me think of this was a Slashdot comment in which someone said:

From what I've heard, the primary factor that keeps insects from growing much larger than they do here on earth, is the oxygen level. From what I remember, this is because the insects "breathe" through their skin, and as the insect increases in size, the interior grows too large to be sustained from the limited surface area.

There are other factors, and one was actually discovered back in the Renaissance. That is, muscular strength increases with height squared, but body weight increases with height cubed.Take a 1 cm ant which can lift 25 times its own weight (as is typical). If it magically grew to 10 cm long, it could only carry itself plus 1.5 other ants. (Compare how little ants carry around leaves bigger than they are, while large dung beetles can barely roll a ball of around their own weight) And if it expands to a full meter long, it could only lift 1/4 of its weight, making it totally immobile.

-----

Very prevalent “villains” in Stargate SG-1 include something called the “Replicators.” These are bug-like machines that can infiltrate any type of technology and manipulate it for their own purposes (which is really just to destroy everything). They run around in bug form most of the time because it is convenient.

They are made up of small pieces of metal, sort of like Legos. They are held together by a sort of electro-magnetic bond. The bond is also their way of communication. Each replicator piece can communicate with each other replicator piece, whether they are physically touching or not, as long as this bond is active in the piece.

The replicators were created by this weird pseudo-robot-girl-person. She was “made wrong” by her creator and thus her brain could not develop very well. However, she was able to create very advanced technology without thinking about it. She created a replicator as a toy and eventually it began to learn by itself. It “replicated” and stopped taking orders from the girl, and they went off into space, wreaking havoc on everything they found.

At first it was noticed that plain old guns can kill the replicators. This surprised more advanced races of aliens, who had tried just about everything against them. Eventually, guns weren’t enough, because there were just too many of them. Finally a type of energy ray was discovered that could sever the bond. However, soon after the energy ray was discovered, the replicators figured it out and made themselves immune to it.

I don’t really have anything to pull these things together. I thought it might be refreshing to write an essay and just include the examples. I just thought it was interesting how giant bugs always seem to become an issue in shows.

I didn’t even mention the innumerable movies about giant bugs. There are SO many of them. This weekend there is one about bees. Michael Shanks stars in it, so I will watch it intently........

Remembered another thing

This may be a long and boring story, but I find it funny/interesting.

 

This week we were having a lot of server problems, so a lot of the calls were people calling to freak out about the server going slow/throwing errors/etc. Well, this afternoon that finally got fixed.

 

I was going about my merry business and going through the testing log to see if I could fix anything else. There was an error that said one of the links didn't work. It was a link that is associated with a type of object I can't edit. So I left that alone for a while. A little while later I overheard a co-worker talking about the same issue, and I thought he said that if you copy one of them that's working, the new one will work. I now remember that we tried that once and it didn't work, but at the time I was like "cool idea." So I copied one that was working and lo, it didn't work.

 

I had named it a really weird name, for some reason, and the now defunct new object was annoying me so I decided to delete it. The problem is, deleting objects rarely works in our systems. Most of the time it gets all error-y. We have this thing where you can disable objects and they don't show up on the list then. So I tried to delete it and it didn't work. So I went back into it and, as usually happens, its info (name, etc) had been deleted but the "shell" had not. So I entered more info and disabled it and it still got all error-y. I finally just left it and somehow it got itself disabled and was off the list, so I was happy with that at least.

 

Two minutes later I get a call on the hotline: "We're having a really weird problem!!! Every store with every login is bringing up the Prudential store!" Sure enough, I go check and every login for every store is bringing up Prudential. I went and told my manager and he said "shit." A second later another manager runs in and shouts out " Did anyone create a new object today!" I was like SHIT!!! I created this gigantic error in the system with my stupid object! So I was sort of petrified in my place. I began aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out how I was going to tell them it was my fault.

 

Meanwhile people are running back and forth frantically trying to fix the error. I overhear that a developer accidentally overwrote one of the main tables. I still managed to think it was my fault.

 

Finally I found out that the reason she was asking if we had created new objects is because when the developer reverted the table back to its old state, our objects were going to be deleted. So she was trying to figure out how much work would be lost. Whew.

 

After it was fixed, I went and checked and the stupid thing was still there. It turns out nothing was deleted after all. Some people's stuff disappeared but mine was all ok.

 

What a strange string of events.

 

It has been beautiful here the past few days--over 50. Yay!

New developments at work

It has been an interesting couple of days. First of all, something I forgot to write in here. Last weekend my sister was driving the van and said that something was making a noise in the right front wheel. My dad picked it up from where she was (Panera) and started driving it home. As he was turning a corner, the wheel came off!!! Just rolled right off and went about 20 feet, finally coming to a rest in front of an apartment window. Hahaha! He said it was fixable and cost about $200. The van is so beat up and has a new problem about every month. He thought this might be the end of it, but he's going to keep it for a while longer. A couple of years ago the transmission got weird. It wouldn't let the car go into gear until you had moved up the street a little bit. It was kind of funny. We'd roll out into the street and my dad would press the gas again and again until it finally caught. What a difference from the new lap-of-luxury car.

 

Well, work stuff.

 

1. I had to suddenly go on hotline yesterday which immediately stressed me out. I keep getting testing feedback for my work; plus, they just had this meeting yesterday which decided to completely change the way the site was laid out. If you ask me (and my manager), it's absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I'll explain sometime. Anyway, I've had to deal with the phone. I figured out 2 things on my own today. Not bad.

 

2. We had this staff meeting today in which we were told we now have to take a mandatory lunch; therefore, we have to work an extra half hour. And we not only have to take a lunch, we have to leave our cubicles and go somewhere else. Weirdly, I swear to god our boss was staring at me the entire time she was telling us this. I was like, quit making it seem like I personally have done something wrong!!! Literally nobody takes lunch here, except orange ipod asshole, and he doesn't work an extra half hour. I sometimes take lunch and go home.

 

She said you can't just leave half an hour early. Sometimes I do leave early just because I can't stand to be here any longer. I have this strong aversion to staying until 5. I'll get here 10 minutes or so early sometimes but I have a lot of trouble not leaving by 4:50. I don't know why. Ok, yes I do. It's because I don't like missing the teaser part of Stargate. Lame-o. Last week I stayed until 6 twice and worked 4 hours on Saturday. That should count for something. Actually, I am frequently under 40 hours. I sometimes wonder what, if anything, they can actually do about this. Or if they even care. I don't clock in for any more time than I work. I just frequently work like 38 or so hours because that's all the time I can successfully fill. I guess maybe I should try harder on this, but every time I think about it it makes part of my soul die. It's already hard enough to fill the time.

 

Anyway I overheard some people talking about how they were really mad about this. It takes an hour for some people to get here, and now their day will be even longer because they have to work longer. I guess I will have to start at like 8:20 now, so that I can leave at 4:50. Note: next week I have hotline for 3 days. I am not taking lunch because I don't like asking people to watch it for me. Maybe I will take lunch at 4:00 when someone else gets the phone.

 

Some people were asking if we could clock out and just eat in our cubes and she said no. Brian was like, "Can I eat in Seth's cube?" Then we all laughed and joked about how we could just switch cubes for half an hour a day. Haha.

 

I can't really think of much else at the moment. Just got an email so must get back.

 

You should really see how they set up these pages. I'll explain it later. Also still have to do my bug essay.

Nice Friday morning.

Get this. On one side, asshole has his orange ipod. On the other side, asshole-ette has an actual radio, which is on and playing. Are you freaking kidding me??! I'm being bombarded from both sides by crappy just-audible music. Yesterday came from the ipod "Tell her about it" by Billy Joel. Heard the whole thing in crystal clarity.

Ideas

Does anyone have ideas on how I could "politely" let this guy know that he's making me seriously think about quitting my job because of his music? I cannot concentrate. I cannot be in a halfway decent mood. Basically, it is hell.

How I feel today

Mean co-worker

We have this lady who sort of works with us that everyone dislikes. She is just really mean. Yesterday she was testing my site and when people do that they create a testing log with things they think need to be fixed. Here are some examples from today.

 

Can you advise so I can be prepared when client asks why we didn't set the transition ads that are nearly the same just diff sizes up as versions - like CBAd1 and CBAd18.  One is big, one is small.

Is the marketing resource page going to be more like the design the client supplied?  

 

Jesus! Sorry! Just the tone she uses is what makes everyone dislike her. It is funny because all of our products go through testing at least 3 times. And the testers are harsh. It's not like we haven't looked at every possible thing that could be wrong.

AUGH!!!

I can't TAKE THIS any longer!!! That guy is, I swear to God, out to kill me. He's sitting there listening to his f-ing ipod and pounding his fingers on the desk to the beat of the music. [horrible face] I can still hear the music! And if it was good music I'd be less pissed, but it sucks!

 

And I am sick and it's 1000 degrees in here, and I just got half-yelled at, and I am forgetting a lot of stuff today, and not understanding things very well, which is why I got half-yelled at. And my manager got a new job and is leaving next week. I don't know what I'm going to do after that because he is the only person I feel comfortable asking for help. I think he might have gotten a job my aunt wanted me to get. It's with her department. She was on me to apply for it not long ago. But I didn't feel like I should leave here so quickly. I am starting to think I should have. I dislike this job so much. I can't imagine staying here much longer. It pays well, but I hate the atmosphere and I don't really enjoy the people who work here. We had this training thing a while back and we had to go around saying what we liked about working here and everyone said "the people." I was like, "what people do you work with?" I wish I had a job where I could do stuff I like. I am so mad.

 

NOT HAVING A GREAT DAY TODAY!!!

 

By the way, if there is a presale tomorrow for Coachella, do they expect people to buy without having any idea who's playing? I guess so.

 

I do not care what is or isn't done. I am leaving by 5 today because I have to watch Stargate. Foot Down Now.

Headache

My "favorite" person brought his stupid ipod again today. Pretty much the last thing I wanted this morning was to hear loud music coming from the neighboring cubicle. :(

 

Yesterday he came in and stood here for a minute, which he does when he wants to ask a question. Finally I turned around and said "yes?" and he started in on this complicated story about how he went into the wrong thing by accident and started editing stuff. His question was: "How much stuff did I mess up?" I had no idea how to answer that. I was like, "Uh...you messed up however much stuff you edited, I guess..." I was so confused at that question. You won't mess up something you didn't edit, and you will mess up something you do edit accidentally. That was one of the most confusing conversations ever. It's like trying to fix a computer problem for someone who has no clue whatsoever about anything computer-related. Then he kept asking questions about if I had ever done that and I was thinking, "just go away, please." Go and listen to your stupid orange ipod mini.

I feel horrible!!!

I am getting sick too often these days. I remembered this morning a cold I had in early December (I think). Plus the one I had in October. Then I had stomach flu over Christmas. What the hell??? This morning my ears are all plugged up and I feel really queasy, and I'm really warm. Waahhhhhh.

Finished

I kept my promise and did the setlists and reviews. I didn't reply to the emails though, which I pretty much don't do anyway because most of them are non-repliable. Here's an interesting one I got.

Thank you for such a great site. I really enjoy listening to coldplay. Their music really appeals to my age-group, my husband & I both turn up the volume and play their cd often. The song, "Silver Lining" is one of my personal favorites, surprising why it did not become more popular.
Thanks again, Keep well.

I'm trying to go through my brain to figure out what song she's talking about. I don't think I've ever heard of that song. I just did a google search and "The Hardest Part" has those words in it. Funny that she thinks it should have been more popular. If a band doesn't release a song as a single, it is not going anywhere. Period. Radio will never play a song that hasn't been released as a single. And there won't be a video, nothing.

Anyway, that's my email o'the day.

Whew

This cold is killing me. I can't stop coughing. What's sucky is that I had a cold not that long ago. I had one on my first day of work here.

 

I am obsessed with that book I'm reading. I read over half of it yesterday and had to force myself to go to sleep. It better have a good ending, that's all I'm saying.

Interesting

Hey Laura, I am so hoping the bands work out as hoped. I'm actually getting pretty excited about the whole idea, even though I was unsure at first. For others: we are thinking of going to California for the Coachella Festival but are not sure yet. We're going to wait until they have a set in stone list of bands.

I started reading this Stephen King book. Perhaps you can follow my thoughts here as I started this book. It's called The Long Walk. Here is the premise. 100 boys of ages 15-18 (or something like that) walk in a "marathon" of sorts. It is supposed to be televised and really popular and people line the streets to watch them, etc. It says in the summary that they get warnings if they walk too slow or stumble or whatever. I believe they don't ever stop. They just walk however long they can. Wouldn't that suck? I can just imagine after rain how your legs and feet would start chafing and getting sores. Well, if they get three warnings they get a ticket. Fine enough, right? Get this. I'm reading along and the first kid gets three warnings. They're in the middle of a town with people watching from the side. So he gets three warnings and what do they do? Blow his head off with four machine guns. WHAAAAAAT??!?!! So when you get three warnings they shoot you in the head. And all the kids knew this before they went in. What the f-ing hell?!?! I'm telling you. Stephen King...he just crosses this weird line every time. I can get the story, everything's going well, and then he inserts this bizarre weird-ass plot thing that blows everything suddenly out of proportion. Yet, I continue to read. P.S. Can you imagine watching a marathon and then some kid gets his head blown off right in front of you? I don't really get the meaning of it, but perhaps I will find out.

Hehe, on Stargate the other day there were a bunch of "alternate" SG-1s running around (coming from different realities) and Col. Mitchell referred to one of them as "Bizarro SG-1." Ha. Oh, how it reminds me of when I made a joke about "Bizarro DCG" to Tom and he laughed for a full 5 minutes. I really miss Tom.

I don't want to go to bed or work tomorrow. I really, really need to work on my website. Badly. I have slacked for so long. All I need to do is get current on the behind stuff and I'll worry about the rest later. Ha, all I need to do. That itself will take a couple of days. :(! Maybe if I write about it in here I'll do it. Ok: tomorrow night after work I'll do it (wahhhh!!! no!!!) Ok, I'll do it. Jesus, Jesse Ventura looks weird these days. Back to the weirdest book ever.

Sunday

I finished War of the Worlds. It was interesting. I saw The Family Stone last night...eh. Not much else to say.

Work

I now know what Tom must have felt like at the library. I have an unbelievable amount of work to do, and I have to go in tomorrow to work because the site has to be done by Monday.

The worst part is that you get distracted every 2 seconds. I would have gone faster, probably, if I just did everything in straight progression instead of having to switch back and forth and re-figure out what I was doing. Christ.

To top it off, I have a cold now. I just had one!

I haven't forgotten about my bug essay. Don't you worry.

Something I wish I could do is see Coldplay every night. I still have to call them on Skype. I don't know what to say. Half of me is worried that the voicemail will be cut off really quickly and I'll look like a tool.

Well, Stargate's on in 15 minutes and my chicken is almost ready! later.

oh my god

i'm gonna flip my lid here soon. the new guy brought music today and i can hear it. well. it's pissing the hell out of me. if he does this every day i'm going to kill myself.

My idea of heaven

I think that if there really is a heaven, God would allow me to have a clone of Michael Shanks to "attend to." I think that is really all I need to keep me happy for all eternity.

When I used to post on a Stargate message board there were other women who shared this desire. We would frequently talk about activities we would do with our clones.

Calmate!

I am freaking out because I have so much work to do. I need to take a break here for a second. Breathe, Liz. Whew. ok.

Roller coaster of emotion!

Oh man. I wonder if any of you are watching American Idol. Emily, I hope that you get to see it sometime. It's frickin' hilarious! I love it!!! I was laughing my ass off yesterday and today. What a great show. A particularly funny part that I took note of went like this:

[They're in Denver, guy sings horribly.]
Simon: That was horrible [etc.]
Guy: But I came so far!
Simon: Where are you from?
Guy: Denver, Colorado!
[later]
Ryan voice-over: And now, Marco (or whatever his name was) will start the long trek back home...to Denver.

HAHA!!!

Tonight after that I watched this show called Criminal Minds. No, I will not stoop so low as to watch Skating with the Stars. Anyway I cried at that show. And it was about LSD poisoning. I can't even remember what I cried about...at all. I think I cried at CSI:NY, too.

But the biggest thing was Stargate. I watched a repeat from yesterday and Daniel made a guest appearance. Jesus, he looked cute. I am going to get a screen cap sometime soon. I have a bunch of stuff I need to get screen caps from. I'll get around to it. Anyway, long story short (yes I just said that) I was sobbing my head off at the end. Loudly. I have not noise-cried at a form of visual entertainment since the first time I saw Legend of the Fall back in the day. Wow, that was powerful.

Anyway, I'm going to read now. I have already marked some funny quotes. Ciao.

I AM AWESOME

I am awesome.

Hi

Laura, the most recent Rolling Stone has this ad which contains some websites for clothing that look like they might contain that shirt Ben was wearing. Long sentence. P.S. I can't find the bookmark for those shoes. I'm upset because I loved them.

I'm in love with this sweater I just got. I feel like a tool calling it a duster but it is one. I am also in love with my new jeans. I feel like the coolest person in this outfit right now.

I ran around town trying to find a TV Guide today because it has collector Sci-Fi Friday cards in it. I then had to dig through to find a Daniel one. But I found one and now own it.

Who's watching American Idol tonight?!?!?!

I bought "War of the Worlds," the book, the original. It appears that neither of the movies are like the book! That is because the book is set in late 1800s (I think) England. Anyway, it was written in the late 1800s. A lot of it takes place in London. I'm excited to read it. The language is funny. "By Jove, I declare! I am alarmed by the presence of this Martian!" etc.

The book was $3.99 but then I had to buy a Stephen King one for $7.99. Bah. I am so slacking on my website.

Near death experience

I think I may have just had some kind of mild heart attack or something. Out of nowhere my heart started beating really rapidly, at least 120 bpm, and was working really hard. I could feel it in my throat and it was causing me to get really faint. I in fact almost passed out. That was really scary. I thought for sure I was going to keel over and die right here at my computer.

Poem

on my last post i meant to say that the good thing about the sci-fi version is that it doesn't have Tom Cruise. Because he annoys me.

 

Here is a "poem" I wrote while falling asleep earlier. I used to do this all the time in class while writing notes. When your mind drifts into other consciousnesses, your hand writes weird, weird things. I should see if I can find my Shakespeare notes from a few years ago because those contain my best falling-asleep-notes ever. I thought this one was funny.

 

worded differently

elegant comforting

radiant empathy

overdose ivy league

wintry antitree

antipose wintertree

absolute dignity

 

 

So Tired

I watched War of the Worlds last night and it was actually pretty good. I deemed it worthy of recording to my computer. The funny thing is that I watched a version the other night on Sci-fi (not with Tom Cruise, one of its best parts), which was totally different. I'm kind of curious as to which is closer to the book. I'm guessing the Sci-fi one. More comments will be to come in my essay. :)

Top 8 Most Hated Videos of Elizabeth

8. The Click Five, Catch Your Wave
It's just annoying. It reminds me of the crappiest of crappy boy band songs. It has the dumbest lyrics. "Hey, girl I wanna catch your wave. Hey, girl you're in an undertow" or something. Taking a metaphor to the next level, when the metaphor was a stretch in the first place. That particular crappy boy band image is not being helped by having about 8 trillion screaming girls in their video. Not to mention, one of them text messages, using text-speak. I guess I'm getting old.



7. Sean Paul, We Be Burnin'
Nice screen shot, eh? I don't like this song just because it's just like a lot of other hip-hop songs. It's annoying to listen to, I don't like Sean Paul as a rule, and there are scantily clad girls wiggling their butts around. Not quite the thing I like to watch 45 times a day.



6. T Pain, Sprung
I am sure you can guess what this song is about. And your guess would be right. I don't have much else to say except it sickens me.



5. Pussycat Dolls, Stickwitu
Despite the fact that they are formed by Jonathan Antin's sister, I can never fully appreciate the Pussycat Dolls. Maybe it is their name. Maybe it is how they are also scantily clad. Maybe it is that I can never actually spot J.A.'s sister. Is she actually in this group? Another reason I don't like this song is the name. Another is: why should I like them? They are the opposite of me and stand for things I don't like.

4. Black Eyed Peas, My Humps
Ok. I'm not one to be overly feminist, but when it comes to videos, it's hard not to be. I saw a show on that subject the other night and it was interesting. Anyway, this song is all about a woman's butt and breasts and how they are going to please a man. Nice, huh? Now that woman have tried so hard to become equal and not to be objectified, it's nice to know that the Black Eyed Peas rewound decades of effort in one fell swoop.

Up next: More Hated Videos!!!

Aquafresh Extreme Clean. Experience a feeling of clean like nothing else.

3. D4L, Laffy Taffy
Who is this band, you ask? No idea. But I do know that the entire song is "Shake that laffy taffy, that laffy taffy" over and over and over and over and over again. That's it. In the most annoying voice imaginable. And, apparently some of the girls hold Dum-Dums in their hands.

2. Mariah Carey, Don't Forget About Us
Funnily enough, I couldn't find a place to get a screen cap of this video. So the one pictured above is not it. Considering it plays at least once an hour on all channels, that seems strange. I don't like this video for many reasons. 1) It is a bad song. Period. 2) Why is she getting so many awards? I could understand it if it was for her older songs, but in recent years she has really sucked. She has a good voice and she wastes it on crap like this. 3) Stop wearing those horrible clothes and stop being pictured in bathtubs. 4) Make people play your video less. I hate it. 5) She is, honestly, really weird looking. To me it's almost Michael-Jackson-esque.

Stay tuned for the Number 1 Most Hated Video of Elizabeth.

The Army. Strength for now, strength for later.

1. Nickelback, Photograph
Can I even come up with words to describe how horrible this video/song is? I don't think so. I don't understand this band. I don't understand how they are so popular that their video plays 500% more than Coldplay's. Who honestly likes them? The singer dropped out of high school and discussed that in this song. He was also in jail. When he got out, he just decided to become a musician and lo and behold, here they are. His voice makes my ears bleed. Ok. At the beginning of the song, while he is holding the photo pictured above, he says/sings, "Look at this photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh." At the end, he sings, "Look at this photograph. Every time I do it makes me laugh. Every time I do it makes me................" and then walks away. I frickin' HATE when songs do that! It's so bad it makes ME laugh when I see it! (I sometimes watch it just to see that end part. It's the cheesiest damn ploy to do in a song. Please!!! Write something halfway original.

I have a lot to write about

After these few things I will follow with a countdown of my least favorite current videos as well as an essay on bugs in science fuction (really!)

From AP:

Conan's endorsement no joke to some Finns

[some stuff about how Conan looks like the Finnish president]

In one show, O'Brien presented a mock ad for Halonen in which he and two Finns were discussing the election while fishing on a frozen lake.

When they talk about rival candidate Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, a dead fish shoots out of the hole in the ice, prompting a joke about how the mere mention of his name causes fish to commit suicide.

"Fish recognize a bad leader," O'Brien says in broken Finnish to laughter from his studio crowd.

[etc...]

"I think it's quite funny," said Mia Myllymaki, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher. "Of course we are proud that Conan O'Brien talks about Finland and Finnish people. ... People in the USA don't even know where Finland is, so maybe it helps if he talks about it."

Are you kidding me? I've known where Finland was since I was 5. It really pisses me off when individuals in other countries make assumptions like that. Such as: "All Americans are gun-toting idiots who love Bush."

Two-year-old called for jury duty

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Kaylee Reynolds had a problem when she recently received a summons to serve on a jury. She wasn't old enough to read it.

The 2-year-old has quite a few years to go before she reaches the minimum age of 18 to serve on a state jury. Lucky for Kaylee, Massachusetts Jury Commissioner Patricia Reynolds seemed willing to let it slide for a while.

"We'll give her a 16-year grace period," Wood told The Standard-Times of New Bedford.

Wood guessed the mix-up could be traced to a local census form. If the form has a blank or mistaken birth date, July 4, 1776 is filled in.

"With that date we'll know it is wrong," Wood said.

Besides her questionable understanding of the concepts of guilt or innocence, there are other reasons why it's best to wait for Kaylee to serve. Her mother, Patricia, says Kaylee gets really cranky if she doesn't get her noontime nap.

Weather today in Rochester: 28º F, Freezing Fog

I don't know about you, but I've never heard of freezing fog...

From The Onion:

St. Paul, MN – A child in Minnesota is 1,217 times more likely to feel out-of-place for not being of Norwegian ancestry than a child from any other state, a St. Olaf College study reported Tuesday.

Something smells disgusting around here.

I am growing to kind of like the guy who replaced Daniel. He's ok.

"Talk" didn't play this morning on the show I was 80% sure it would be on. The show is called "Fresh New Music" or something and is supposed to be differentiated from other videos. Nope, it isn't. The only way it's different is that they don't play any intro for that hour of videos. And you know what? Apparently a "Fresh" and "New" video is "Don't forget about us" by Mariah Carey. When I saw it I went and vomited. Then I watched the rest of the videos and they were all exactly the same ones that they play on non-"Fresh new Music" video blocks. Screw that, I am giving up. I'll watch the countdown on Fridays and that's it.

I always wonder what accents in other languages are like. Are British and Americans differentiable in other languages?

I said 2 things considered "funny" today at work.
1. A woman (Deb) was asking me and my manager who she should email some files to. Here is how it goes.
Deb: Who should I email these to?
Ben (my manager): Dave would do that.
Deb: Who works with Dave?
Ben: We all work with Dave.
Deb: Do you work with Dave, Elizabeth?
Me: Who's Dave?
Which was enormously funny to them since we do all indeed work with Dave.

2. I went to ask my manager some questions.
Elizabeth: I have some questions.
Ben: Go ahead.
Elizabeth: First, I updated the spreadsheet. I guess that isn't a question.
Apparently that was the funniest thing ever. Ok!!!

AHHHHHH!

I am so mad! I was bidding on this thing on ebay which was ending at 11am and DIDN'T WAKE UP TO CHECK THE BID! So I lost it! Shit! I am trying to buy the "Talk" single and I was bidding on one that was signed by the band. I guess I can feel slightly comfortable in the fact that it ended up being at least $40.

I had a crazy night. I stayed up until 3 watching videos. Then set the tape to record until 5. Then woke up at 5 to check what was on the tape and set it to record until 7. The 3-5 block didn't include "Talk" but did include "Creep" by Radiohead. Odd. I haven't checked the 5-7 block yet. If it doesn't contain "Talk" I'm going to go nuts. I am so tired of watching videos. They are almost all crap. And do you know how many times I've seen "Don't forget about us" by Mariah Carey? It's actually eating my brain away because it's so bad.

Frustrating

I bought this purse today and I have been trying to find a picture of it online. I have been unsuccessful. It is gorgeous. Perhaps sometime I will get a picture of it. It's made out of tooled leather and has a really intricate print all over it.

Because I know everyone is interested, here is what else I got.
- a purple shirt
- purple earrings and necklace
- a tan "duster" (long sweater) --I'm wearing it now and it is the most comfortable thing I've ever worn
- new jeans that I love
- a Python book
- a MySQL book
- a new candle
- groceries
- a cd case
- containers to house my extra wax

I noticed that Barnes & Noble has the best selection of CDs I've seen recently, which I thought was really strange. They had 3 Sufjan Stevens albums and all three CP albums PLUS Brothers and Sisters. They had You Can Play These Songs With Chords and Transatlanticism by Death Cab, who coincidentally is on SNL tonight.

Shopping takes a lot out of you. I had to get something to eat at some point so I went to McDonalds and got a salad. While I was eating it struck me how incredible it is that the world is able to produce enough food every day for so many people (ok, I know about famine, etc, let's just put that aside for now). I was looking at the lettuce and imagining how much lettuce has to be produced so that there will be enough for every person to eat a certain amount of it every day if they want to. I guess there would probably be a problem if every single person in the world had to eat a salad every day. That brings up another point--how do they know how much they need? Restaurants probably just have an educated guess, and if there is a high demand for salads one day they might be up a creek (is that the right saying?) Anyway, as I threw away the stuff I didn't like I just kept thinking of the sheer amount of food that needs to be created to sustain life. I just remembered that a huge amount of produce is imported from other countries. That seems weird to me. Shouldn't they import non-perishable stuff? Another big import thing is fresh flowers. Apparently they have really stringent guidelines on those. Strange.

One solution to the population growth problem that has been discussed (if it gets super bad) is having temperate zones solely dedicated to food production, while people move to the poles. We'd have to ration our food to like 1 cup of spaghetti a day or something. And we'd be living in a very cramped area. This is if the population reaches 75 billion (I think). I believe that number is considered the absolute limit of sustainable human life. Which honestly is not incredibly far off, considering it's exponential.

Oh god, there was just a thing on SNL where Andy Samberg was a "Swedish Chef" and sang a "ringtone." HAHAHA!

"The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia!"

Next week--Peter Sarsgaard??? Yay! God, sometimes I sadden myself at my male-celebrity-loving. Last night on Conan Will Arnett was on and I thought he was really good looking. I haven't noticed that before. I like the tall, strong type. You know, it's just nice to look at them. I like looking at guys who are good looking to me. So sue me.

Shopping

Since I am sitting here at my computer I will mention that I did not go to MOA. I went to Rosedale and a bunch of other places. Spent a few hundred dollars, scarily. It was fun, although I am achy.

Saturday

I may go to Mall of America today. It's already 2:30, so it's not like I have a huge amount of time to go there. We'll see. I am going somewhere, though.

My stupid mother sent me another stupid email yesterday. The third in a week that made me feel like shit. I think it's a given nowadays that any communication with her will make me feel like shit for at least 2 days afterwards. In this one she went on about her "pitiful existence" and that therapy "almost killed her" so she's not going to consider it. Pitiful existence. What does she want me to say? No, mom, I really think you're great. Anyone who treats their kids like a pile of dog shit really deserves my respect and admiration. I don't even want to bother replying back because it's useless! Utterly useless! She'll just come back going on about her pitiful existence. Read: "Tell me I'm really important to you." Fuck you. That's what I have to say about that. Whatever.

All y'all out there reading this, you should repeatedly thank our Lord and Saviour that you do not have to deal with a person like my mom.

Well, I better get ready to go wherever I'm going this afternoon.

Haha

From The Simpsons:
"After you go through menopause, you're no different than you were before. You can do anything you did before."
"Everything?! Even bear children?!?!"

Haha.

Today was the busiest day of work so far. I have to go in tomorrow, actually.

My aunt wrote and asked if I could babysit tonight. I really didn't want to but I cannot say no. So now I have to spend my evening watching 3 crazy children. Oh well.

More annoyingness

Oh man. I am beginning to get bombarded at work. Toward the end of the day I was beginning to get a huge stack of crap. My boss has been saying he wants to give me more responsibility over the project I'm on. Mostly this is because his wife is going to have a baby any day and then I will be on my own. I'm slightly nervous, but as long as I know what I'm supposed to do, I'm fairly sure I can figure it out. Better than the new guy, that is. I'm proud of my problem-solving skills.

I am getting Photoshop at work!!! :D

--------------------------

The things I am going to say now may make me out to be really pathetic, but I'm going to say them anyway.

This whole Stargate thing is really bumming me out. I woke up at least 5 times last night, remembered it, and was sad. It's one thing that he died, but he died of radiation poisoning. How did he get that? He was on a planet that was building a nuclear warhead, only they were using a very radioactive version of an element that doesn't exist on earth. The scientists had an accident and all died. He was watching behind a shield and decided to go in and get the reactor out of the bomb. He picked it up with his bare hands, thus saving that entire planet, while damning himself to a very painful death. A few days later his brain was eating itself and he had bandages all over his body. It was horrible.

And I just don't like that he is gone!!!!!!!!!!!

I actually felt sad today while reading an article about anthropology because he is an anthropologist.

One thing I don't understand is that when he comes back he has the same body. Ok, I guess maybe a new one was made, but it's one thing I get confused about. First, it was all radioactive and nobody could heal it with any technology. Second, when he comes back it would have been all decomposed. I know, it's just a television show, but still. This is the type of thing true nitpickers worry about. Besides, I need to know these details about his body because it is so hot.

I was thinking about this a lot today. I realized something. There is no reason for me to be so upset about a fictional character taking a hiatus from a show, especially since he is on the airings on Friday (the new episodes), Saturday (different channel), and Monday (SG-1 marathons). It's a classic example of me being too freaking obsessive over every little thing. I think I should channel my energy back towards Coldplay or something that probably won't go away soon.

I just feel that in a lot of ways I am too old to get into things like this. It happens a lot to teenagers, especially girls. I went through many years of feeling like I was going to marry one person or another. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that about Daniel Jackson or Michael Shanks. I simply enjoy his presence on my favorite show and feel an acute sense of loss when he is gone. And while I feel I am too old to experience obsession, I also feel that a lot of people of all ages, especially women, have this kind of thing throughout their lives, whether it be Brad Pitt or some other guy. I don't know. Perhaps I am thinking about it way too much.

What it comes down to is that I am emotional, I just am. And I got sad about it, and my emotion was probably heightened by other things going on, and I'll get over it. Especially if there is a funny one soon.

Totally crushed

I was caught off-guard this evening when I watched Stargate. The episode was the one where Daniel dies and is off the show for an entire season. I had no clue that show was coming up. Ok, so he doesn't completely die, he "ascends," and later on he is going to come back. But I was sobbing my damn head off. And now I'm all sad.

On a totally different subject: Sometimes I really wish there was a double copy/paste function on a keyboard, so that you could copy two things and then toggle which one you paste. I wasted so much time today copying a piece of code and then copying a different thing into it. I couldn't just change the code because the other thing I copied was different each time. I wished I had a double copy, or whatever it would be called. That is a request for those who develop Windows.

Missing posts

I posted twice yesterday and neither showed up. So here they are.

Subject: Whaaaa?

From Slashdot:"Computerworld has interviewed Kurt Gerecke, an IBM storage expert and physicist who claims burned CDs only have a two to five-year lifespan, depending on the quality of the CD. From the article: "The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data 'shifting' on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam." Gerecke recommends magnetic tapes to store pictures, videos and songs."

Huh?? 2-5??! Reading the comments showed a few things.
1. Some people recommend hard drives.
2. Most people say this article is crap.
3. Store the CDs well, i.e. not in jewel cases, not in a high-oxygen environment, low UV, low temp, fairly airtight and scratch-resistant (such as a typical CD storage case).


Subject: p.s.

regarding the cds: they also said that it's impossible to find a tape reader, and also, if it's hard now, how would you get one in the future?

i just bought a 50-pack of cd-rs for some reason. why did i do that? there's no way i will use that many. besides, what if they turn out to be crappy? i didn't even do my little checking thing i was going to do. i think that at the time i was frazzled. i was at target in the tech dept. and felt as though i was being followed around by people. i was also looking at dvd-rs and was intently comparing them and employees kept walking through and looking at me. believe me, i know what i'm doing, ok?

the other day i was at best buy. i have a few issues with that place. 1) no matter how much you know about something, they make you feel like an idiot. once i was there with my mom getting networking supplies and someone came and asked if she could help us. i asked if there was a usb-ethernet adapter around here somewhere. she said "uh...those don't exist." "interesting," i thought, "considering i have one on my laptop." 2. every 2 minutes that pass, there is an obligation for a person to ask if you need help. no, for god's sake, i don't need help. i am looking for a microphone, ok? i am comparing them, ok? i know what i need to get and i don't need 10 people asking me if i need help. it is too bad they don't tag customers. i don't mind being asked once, but they should keep track of who a person has already asked so that every other employee doesn't also ask. 3) why the hell don't they carry sufjan stevens? or for that matter, shakespeare in love, and 28 days later? shakespeare in love was the freakin' best picture. and they don't sell it. 4) one of their best sellers is a rush of blood to the head. huh? an album from 2002? don't get me wrong, it's cool, but it just seems a little weird that that one is a best seller but not x&y.

end rant.

the new co-worker is exceedingly strange. more later when i am not at work.

Ew

The new guy is driving me frickin' nuts. This morning, he was sitting there and was leaning so far over that he was resting his arm on my chair. That was just not cool with me. Ugh!!! Who rests their arm on the other person's separate chair?!

CD Information

I compiled a spreadsheet of CD Information. I couldn't post it on here, and by golly, I tried. So I just uploaded it. http://www.easytoplease.net/atip%20info.htm

I think that Media sub-type is a number that represents a "grade" of sorts. Under 6 is excellent and under 50 is good. I could very well be mistaken, though. There were a lot of pieces of information I didn't include on that spreadsheet because I didn't know what they meant. I tried to find information online but couldn't. That is weird for me. Usually you can find basically anything by utilizing Google effectively.

Conclusions:
1. Pretty much any CD will be ok.
2. Manufacturers are believed to be the real thing you should look at when considering CD quality. Nothing really stuck out to me except that CMC Magnetics looks to be pretty good. From what I've read, people like Mitsubishi and sometimes dislike Ritek. Haven't read anything about the others.
3. I tested a bunch of old Imation CDs and they all came out the same. I didn't test a really new one, but I'm guessing it's the same, or better.

So there's some not-really-telling information. I figured that would probably be the case. I think that personally, one of these days I'm going to get a good CD case. That's about it.

Oh yeah. I found a link where you can look up some of this information by brand. http://www.cdr-info.de/index_cdrohlinge_e.php

etc

I don't know if other users of this site have noticed this, but the buttons seem to always load looking like this:



I was going to type something but now I don't know. I have horrible dry skin patches all over my legs. Worse than ever before. There's some information I am sure you wanted to know.

Sometimes I wonder. How boring can my life really get? Am I pushing the limit now? Then, the next day I realize...this day is worse than yesterday. Can it get worse? Life sucks.

On Skype they have a promo where you can leave a message for Coldplay and if yours is the best you can talk to them for real. I've been trying to think of something to say. I wish I knew how long I could talk for because that would be embarassing if I got cut off.

Sadness

Our new co-worker is not my age. He has to be in his late 30s or early
40s. I am seriously starting to wonder about this place. It's almost
like they're age-ist in the opposite direction. Ok, maybe not that
bad, but you get the gist.

I wonder if people my age simply don't apply here. I don't know of any
reason why they wouldn't, though. I actually didn't even apply. I was
recruited by an employment agency. Who knows. I have no idea where the
majority of people my age in my field work. You know, maybe there
aren't that many people my age in my field. I personally don't know
anyone who does web development at all except for people who do other
CP websites. They're all over 30, I think. What a strange idea. I have
no idea what the mean age for web developers is. I would think there
would be plenty my age.

What a strange day.

Last Friday I was sitting here and my coworker Christi (aka Christ)
asked my manager a question about CSS. He couldn't figure it out and
told her to ask me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was floored! It was very
heartening, since at the library I was considered a CSS genius and
everyone was always freaking about that. I like that some of that
somehow filtered over. I don't know how, except that maybe I mentioned
I knew it well in my interview, or maybe a reference said it. It's
nice to have a speciality (said 'spe-see-al-i-tee'). The funniest
thing ever is that on my own website there is barely any CSS. That's
mainly because I created that design way before I knew much of it.

It's interesting that I was chosen to show the new not-my-age guy
around, too. I like to think that it's because they trust me to be
good at it, but in reality I have an inclination that it's because
everyone else was too busy. Oh well.

Speaking of that. My manager came in early for him today (did not do
that for me). Another manager got him a bunch of office supplies and
gave him documentation on everything. Me? No office supplies, nametag,
nothing. No documentation. I was thrown in. I don't think I even met
her right away. What on earth is that???! I was listening to her list
off the stuff she was giving him (after she ran over 1 second after he
arrived), and was very annoyed.

jesus!

i have to train in the new guy today. what is it with me and being
trusted to train in new people? i hope he is not as annoying as liz.
this is really strange because i've only been here 3 months and i feel
really nervous. yikes.

Someone is messing with my door.

Recently the apartment building maintenance people moved the plaques that say the number of the apartment. They used to be on the walls next to the doors and now they are on the doors. I was annoyed that they did that because it looked weird and I swear mine was crooked. Now, they moved my plaque to right above the eyehole, so that it is touching the eyehole. I hate it! And nobody else’s is like that! I can’t move it because it’s adhered with super glue or something similar.

Ok. My sisters are obsessed with Fall Out Boy, this pop-punk band. They are almost as bad as me and CP. Well, they also really love All-American Rejects, another pop-rock band. I was just looking at tour dates for Fall Out Boy because I know they would die if they could see them. I found, get this, they’re playing in St. Paul in April. On a Friday. With, get this, All-American Rejects. They are going to flip their lids when they hear this. I am going to plan to take them (hopefully a 12-year old will be allowed—it’s at Xcel Energy, but you never know). Hopefully tickets aren’t that bad. Apparently they are also having Hawthorne Heights. I like/hate that band. I like them because I like the singer’s voice. However, they have a screamer in the band and it completely ruins all of their songs. It sounds like shit to me. It’s almost laughable how horrible the screaming sounds.

I went to Best Buy today. I was able to find a microphone I needed for Skype. However, I did not find a USB cable. This is because the only ones they have are $30. For a plain old cable. I needed one because mine got misplaced somewhere. I guess I might as well just look, or, ask my dad if he has seen it at home.

Going to make some dinner now. Later.

2:33 AM

I went to Laura and Michael’s tonight and I had a lot of fun. It was a really good evening. We had pizza and played “Scene It.” The Kinks came up at least 5 times in the game. Later, I saw them in Spin. I watched some Death Cab stuff on Laura’s new computer and she lent me their DVD. I am excited to watch it.

When I got home I was all energized and was going to clean, even though it was 1:00. However, I just got a drink and sat down at the computer. Put on Sufjan Stevens and am now just randomly looking at things online.

My website is the most massive piece of work. I can’t even begin to think of the amount of time it’s going to take to get it to where I want it to be. Today I made some scripts that duped some tables in the database. And that’s all I got done. I was going to do more but was wiped out after that.

Comments on recent musical listenings of mine

Sufjan Stevens: He has a perfect voice. That's the only word that I can think of when listening to him. There is no hint of any off-key-ness or any hesitation in any of his singing. It's quite remarkable. Plus, he plays about 50 instruments. Including the oboe I mentioned earlier. That's a hard one, too. As I listen to this album more and more, I realize how incredibly complex and genius it is. I often call Sigur Rós music a huge ball of noise, and that's sort of what this is, except in a different sort of way.

One problem. I am slightly disturbed at how I really love the song about the serial killer John Wayne Gacy, Jr. He raped and killed over 30 boys and buried them under his house. The song is really pretty and I feel bad for liking it so much. I guess I'll go with the one about a girl dying of bone cancer.

SS: "I am pretty cute, no? This here's what a perfect voice emanates from.
Take a good look, folks."

Death Cab: Whilst listening to "Plans" I have been stricken by this song, "Someday You Will Be Loved." Here is a sample of lyrics:

You may feel alone when you're falling asleep
And everytime tears roll down your cheeks
But I know your heart belongs to someone you've yet to meet
Someday you will be loved

You'll be loved you'll be loved like you never have known
The memories of me will seem more like bad dreams
Just a series of blurs like I never occurred
Someday you will be loved

Ok, I'm going to be frank here. I know I have said many and sundry things about Tom, as well as jillions of things about other guys. But the fact is, I loved him dearly and not a day goes by where I don't want to just be around him again. I feel that in some way that song sort of speaks for him, whether he knows it or not.

Their songs are incredible. I frequently wonder how they can actually write and sing those songs. Such as "What Sarah Said" which is all about being in a hospital when someone's dying. The song repeats over and over, "Who's gonna watch you die?" I can't really explain it but when I listen, I feel like I'm getting a taste of the "real world." Like what they're singing about is the meaning of life. I feel a sort of enlightenment. This is why I say they are a good band. They don't just play pretty music. They do something with it. There is just something in there that makes you go, shit, what the hell was that? And then think about it for the rest of the day.

Ben Gibbard: "I am also very cute and so sexy when I play, and my voice is heaven. I am considered an idol and god to the one who writes this blog."

Follow-up

Sufjan Stevens is from Detroit. From his bio: [His parents] fed him carrots, they read him parts of the Bhagavad Gita, they combed his hair, they sang songs and tap-danced in the living room. Things were looking good!

I just love how it says “Things were looking good!”

I mis-quoted the song titles before. They are “A short reprise for Mary Todd, who went insane, but for very good reasons” and “One last ‘Whoo-hoo’ for the Pullman” and “Let’s hear that string part again, because I don’t think they heard it all the way out in Bushnell.” Etc. One of my favorite songs so far is, the very complicated, “Chicago.” Ok, the titles are too funny. I have to print them here.

1. Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois
2. The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight...
3. Come On! Feel The Illinoise!: Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition/Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream
4. John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
5. Jacksonville
6. A Short Reprise For Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But For Very Good Reasons
7. Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother!
8. One Last 'Whoo-Hoo!' For The Pullman
9. Chicago
10. Casimir Pulaski Day
11. To The Workers Of The Rock River Valley Region, I Have An Idea Concerning Your Predicament
12. The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13. Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14. A Conjunction Of Drones Simulating The Way In Which Sufjan Stevens Has An Existential Crisis In The Great Godfrey Maze
15. The Predatory Wasp Of The Palisades Is Out To Get Us!
16. They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!
17. Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All The Way Out In Bushnell
18. In This Temple As In The Hearts Of Man For Whom He Saved The Earth
19. The Seer's Tower
20. The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders: Part I: The Great Frontier/Part II: Come To Me Only With Playthings Now
21. Riffs And Variations On A Single Note For Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, And The King Of Swing, To Name A Few
22. Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind, And I Shake The Dirt From My Sandals As I Run

Oh my god. I am watching this True Life show and the people are total morons. Not even exaggerating.

Later.

Continuation

My dad says that he did not forward the mail and Suzanne probably didn't either. Huh. This after she complains and complains about people hacking into her email. Like we're so interested in it. Grrrrr!!!

 

A funny typo (or string of them) from a work request:

Customer is following the steps to save a act file to save a mailing list. She is not getting a error message. She is able to go threw all the steps but there is not a file saved.

 

Last night I got this strange feeling that I had to buy the newest Sufjan Stevens album (Illinois). I figured they might have it at Target, and was going there anyway. I went to the spot in which it would be and lo, the copies were gone. I was so mad. Determined, I walked around the CD area for a while until I happened upon a display hidden in the back where there were 2 copies. It was $8.99 and I am now the happy owner of Illinois. I really like it a lot. Sometimes I'm surprised it takes me so long to find these albums that I will obviously like, and also that I have sudden urges to get them.

 

For those who don't know, it's actually an album completely about folk history of Illinois. He did one previously called Michigan. The CD has an image of the state on it as well as state birds and stuff. Lincoln is on it and the ferris wheel (apparently invented there) and some pictures of the Sears Tower, etc. I wish he'd do MN or WI. :) Anyway, it's very beautiful. It's sort of folk-y and orchestral at the same time. For some reason, I recognized a lot of oboe parts. Not very common. The guy's voice is very smooth and sounds similar to Gary(?) of Snow Patrol. I am not sure where Sufjan Stevens is from but plan to find out. Quite a Scandinavian name, if you ask me. Another funny thing about the album is that some of the song titles are really long. For instance, there is one called something like "An Ode to Mary Todd, who went insane (but for good reason, I might add!)" Also, "One more woo-hoo for those who didn't hear it in Burlington" which is a song that's like 10 seconds long with a "woohoo" in it. :)

 

I've been enjoying Death Cab recently, also (like I haven't before). It occurred to me today that they are actually a very good band and I feel that I would be hard pressed to find someone who actually dislikes them. Not just a person who is indifferent or hasn't heard them--a person who has heard them and hates them. They have had, what, 6 albums? 5 LPs at least. And no backlash that I know of. I LOVE Ben Gibbard. As Laura has heard me profess probably many times. Literally love him.

A really great email

Ignore this if it bores you. I am a little wary of posting this on a public blog, but hey. I don't really care all that much.

 

I got such a great email this morning from my mom. I want to reply to it here.

 

Hi

Your dad forwarded this message to me.

[It was a message from me to my sisters saying sorry Mom was annoying one day. I am pretty sure he didn't forward it. I think either Suzanne forwarded it or she found it on the computer.]

    

In reply, I regret that the three of you are annoyed and fed up with me.  I am trying to do what I can but it is hard to be a mother to children that I rarely see.

[Wah wah wah. You're certainly doing a fine job of scaring us to death.]

 

Meredith and Suzanne were supposed to spend the week after Christmas with me.  They did not.  I felt betrayed and angry that I am merely a chauffer for my own children.  I do agree that it is wonderful that the three of you are spending time together. 

[a) she expressed to me and my sister that it was ok if they go to my apartment. She explicitly said she would pick them up. When the time actually came, she freaked out and didn't talk to my sisters for days, including the entire time she was driving them home. b) Did she actually speak with my dad about this? I am almost 100% sure this spending the week was in her head. c) I am over 100% sure that they did not want to be there because HSB was there.]  

 

Since being forced out of the house by your father in 2002, your dad has gone to great lengths to take over my role in your lives. [Oh really. Do you honestly think that's true? That he's so evil he spends every waking moment trying to ruin your life?] I no longer know the details of your lives.  I dont know when you are sick, I dont know when you get acceptance letters to college, I dont know what is on your report card, I dont know when you are in Rochester, I dont know when you leave Rochester, etc.  I am merely a passing acquaintance in your lives.  [And you certainly don't hesitate to let us know every single time we don't call you 1 second after something happens.]

 

The last few years have been extremely difficult in many ways but losing my children has been the most difficult. [So? Even if that was true, don't get mad at us!]   I dont expect you to understand all of the complexities and being annoyed with me is probably quite normal.  Thankfully, your dad is caring for you and providing for all your needs.  I will continue to love you even though it is difficult for you to see. [Thanks a lot. Now we're supposed to feel guilty and sorry. The most important issue here is, why are we even dealing with this? It's not our problem.]

 

love,

mom

 

So that's basically the type of thing we go through on a daily basis. The shittiest part is that when you're around her, she acts all depressed and does not talk. Or, she is mad. We're quite literally petrified of her. That doesn't make it easy for us to tell her things, because she is almost never in a good mood. No matter how quickly we tell her things, she is sad or upset that we didn't tell her sooner. Then, she says mean stuff and in return we feel bad. We feel bad so often and we never do anything. Most importantly, as I said before, why should we be feeling bad? Honestly? Why?

 

I think much, if not all, of her issues are caused by her own mind. My dad isn't stealing us...she's pushing us away by acting like a horrible human being to us. And you can't say this stuff to her because she's like a child. When my dad gets married in a few months my mom is going to totally flip out. Totally.
 

I am half thinking of just screaming back a scathing response with all this stuff I just said, but I honestly don't think it will make one bit of difference. I have to at least tell her to get some help, I think. She is ruining our lives. The people she supposedly cares about the most (sure...) are the people she is slowly killing.

I am not writing in here any more today

A quote from BBC about text messaging:

 

A professor at University College London set out to condense the words of some of English literature's classic tomes into a few lines of text as a learning aid. And in Australia in October the Bible Society translated all 31,173 verses of the Bible into text-speak in the hope of attracting young people to the holy book.

 

I think that is dumb. When I hear this I wonder if people actually like text-speak or understand it better than regular speaking. I find it annoying. But then again, I am almost 24. Not the young kid I once was.

 

I am in a bad mood.

 

I just noticed that Gmail's embedded ads includes this one saying as follows: "Is your name encoded in the Bible? Discover the answer with CodeFinder." I think my name is pretty much in the Bible, not encoded or anything...must click...I cannot believe I clicked on that. Curses. It is a thing about your name might be crossed with phrases about your future in actual Hebrew, or something...I don't know.

 

My grandparents are here today and called me last night. "We're going to be at Scott's and it would be nice if you could join us for supper. See you tomorrow." That pisses me off to no end. I am not going. That is all.

I would like to say

M.S. was offered the role of Beowulf in an upcoming movie version of Grendel. And turned it down!!! :( :( :(

 

Death Cab is a great band. I may do a commentary later.

Poor pictures of my paintings

I apologize for my inability to take any good picture. This is my best try. I just don't have any good camera. These are so horrible! Believe me...the paintings look way better than this. They aren't grainy or pixelated.

Painting 1




Painting 2

Frodo, Lestat, and Apple

So in recent months I have grown to really love this movie called "Queen of the Damned." You may know it as Aaliyah's final movie. It's about the vampire Lestat. Well, the guy who plays Lestat is hot. I also noticed today while watching it for the 80th time that there is a striking similarity between Lestat and another fictional character I love:



Interesting, huh?

Here is a picture of Apple. Doesn't she look like Chris in that picture? Sources say she will soon have a little brother or sister!

YES!!!

I have made it. My site is listed on Wikipedia for Coldplay.

[trumpet] do do do do!!!

Whilst looking at referrers (or, as they are called in programming, "referers"), I noticed that the #1 refer(r)er behind the site itself is Myspace. Interesting, huh? Right after that is Google, and #3 is some blog I will have to look at later. Must be a pretty big blog if it has sent 230 people in 2 months. No sign of Spanish-only sites. In fact:

#	Hits	Country
1	32359	39.54%	Network
2	11987	14.65%	US Commercial
3	8328	10.18%	Unresolved/Unknown
4	3662	4.47%	Canada
5	2777	3.39%	France
6	2109	2.58%	Italy
7	1964	2.40%	Australia
8	1807	2.21%	United Kingdom
9	1723	2.11%	Belgium
10	1631	1.99%	Argentina
11	1579	1.93%	Netherlands
12	1251	1.53%	Mexico
13	1211	1.48%	Poland
14	803	0.98%	Sweden
15	734	0.90%	Peru
16	721	0.88%	Israel
17	678	0.83%	Brazil
18	531	0.65%	New Zealand (Aotearoa)
19	497	0.61%	Germany
20	473	0.58%	Austria
21	389	0.48%	Finland
22	382	0.47%	Czech Republic
23	364	0.44%	Denmark
24	320	0.39%	Switzerland
25	284	0.35%	Spain
26	242	0.30%	Slovak Republic
27	219	0.27%	Norway
28	218	0.27%	Chile
29	213	0.26%	Singapore
30	187	0.23%	Portugal

Where is "Unresolved"? Sounds like a cool place to go. At any rate, Spanish speakers must just be going through a must-email stage.

You know, I really love my site. Don't mind me doting on it here a bit. <3