damn!!!

well, here i am back to talk about something that was annoying to me this weekend. my dad's wedding was this weekend and i'll discuss that later, but of particular interest to you is the fact that i was escorted down the aisle (to my seat, but "in" the wedding processional) by sandy's nephew patrick. i had never met the guy before. the other day bright was telling me "maybe he's your future husband. people always meet at weddings."

 

so i met him at the rehearsal and tried to be my "funny" self but he was having none of it. he is really cute, by the way. for emily's reference: he looks kind of like mr. wright, but not as tall. he's like an inch taller than me. so i was trying to strike up conversations and be funny. conveniently, he was never around when i made my best jokes.

 

everyone came to our house on friday night for dinner and i talked to him a tiny bit then. it consisted of me finding out from other sources that he is 24 and lives in st. paul (??!?!?) so we discussed for a very brief time where i lived in st. paul and what we do for a living (he does graphic design). that was about it between us that night.

 

so then on the actual wedding day, he escorted me down, we had the wedding, and then i totally forgot what to do at the end of the ceremony. i just sort of waited there and he came down to get me. then i sort of whispered to him on the way back, "i had no idea what to do, if you were going to come get me or if i just got up myself." he just kind of went "huh".

 

the worst part of all was this. i was standing in the receiving line and here comes patrick. i said to myself, i'll tell him a joke. this was my joke: "hey, you're the person who escorted me! my name is elizabeth." he just gave me this look and goes, "congratulations..." and walked away. i felt like the hugest tool in the whole universe. christ. if there was ever a moment when i ruined the chance for anything, that may have been it.

 

i also wanted to tell him on friday that his shirt was really soft, but that may have been out of line.

 

later on i thought, well, he is sort of my cousin now, so i guess maybe it would be weird if we dated. what do you think?

 

anyway, later sandy was talking about how her nieces were trying to "hook up" with my cousins on the other side and various other dating scenarios, and how funny patrick is, and how great all these various people are, and i felt bad. what about me?????? i LIKE to think that i'm at least funny. maybe i'm not a desirable person in any other way, but i would still like to be considered funny.

 

i'll just tell myself that maybe it is because i am a daughter figure in the situation, rather than a farther removed person. either that or everyone thought i was lesbian because sarah accompanied me to the wedding. either way, damn you patrick for not really talking to me, because i am cool. and also, i think i really need a boyfriend.

changes

weirdly enough, i just found out that saves the day released a new album two weeks ago, which i bought yesterday, and listened to, and it is painfully good...very like "stay what you are" and very, very saves-the-day-ish. it's so weird when bands have trademark chord progressions, or harmonies, or something. it is nice to have something new by them, because as i said a few days ago, the spark had left. someday i'll post a few lyrics in here and you will really see what makes them different from others.

 

ok, so on to my subject line. in the past few weeks my mental state has sort of been spiraling out of control. this ended in a really bad incident yesterday which i don't really want to talk about. thank fucking god i am on the highest possible dosage of my medication...that's all i'll say there.

 

i decided that i need to begin to discipline what enters and exits my mind. so, firstly i am going to stop writing in my blog, because it has been really destructive for me lately. i probably will only hold of for like a week (because i know you all love reading this so much - ha, ha). secondly, i am ONLY listening to sigur ros, indefinitely. too bad for my new saves the day album, but you will need to wait. actually, i started this yesterday, and incidentally i went shopping and in the store on popped a death cab song (lack of color). i was like, "god, why did you do this to me?" thirdly, i am limiting my internet time, which will be difficult since i spend 40 hours a week on the internet. but i actually mean free time. so i am going to update my website today, and after that it will be checking news and email.

 

hopefully that stuff will allow me to be able to focus on other things, such as books, or even stargate or something. anyone remember (i guess maybe only emily knew me at the time) one time when i only allowed myself to watch x-files and no other television? how about when i ate kosher? haha. i apologize to all for how i acted during that one. well, it's similar to those except for different reasons. hopefully i can return to a healthy blog-writing state, and also a healthy music listening state, and a healthier total state. see y'all on the flip side.

life aquatic

i finally just watched life aquatic (which by the way has the cutest dvd menu i've ever seen) and during the climax scene they played starálfur. it was really interesting because it was unlike any other music in the movie. i really liked the movie a lot.

depressing...

i remember taking a test like this once before and all of the results were depressing. you think they could put something slightly uplifting in there besides "good at saving money."

Global Personality Test Results

Stability (30%) low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious. Orderliness (70%) high which suggests you are overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense too often of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun. Extraversion (23%) low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

Take Free Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

depressed, introverted, neat, needs things to be extremely clean, observer, perfectionist, not self revealing, does not make friends easily, suspicious, irritable, hates large parties, follows the rules, worrying, does not like to stand out, fragile, phobic, submissive, dislikes leadership, cautious, takes precautions, focuses on hidden motives, good at saving money, solitary, familiar with the dark side of life, hard working, emotionally sensitive, prudent, altruistic, heart over mind, unadventurous

pictures (you think you're sick of emily and 3 posts? check out my 94th post of the day!)

franz ferdinand and the disconcerting photos and euro-boomerang-platform:

















here is ben at the beginning. he is the tiny lit up head at the piano, slightly right of center.













sort of pretty view of stage

















crappy picture of lights coming out of the house (the house even had a working door!!!)















here is a pretty well-lit picture. that's ben on the left, nick (bassist) in middle, chris (guitarist) on right, jason (drummer) on...the...drums.

















ben solo (be still my heart!!!) (and he sings a song called be still my heart! but it is not this one!)

I AM SORRY!

i had to write this because i just saw it in my notes.

 

anyone remember when dan (yellow shirt) had to play a "character" in the chadbourne olympics? and he just saw "character" on the one side of the card, and acted goofy? HAHA!

 

laura reminded me of that! i had totally forgotten!!!

friday afternoons

friday afternoons at work are awesome. there is literally nobody here and there hasn't been since like 4.

"Would I be competely out of line if I likened them to Jimmy Eat World? They sound kind of similar to me. Mind you, I've haven't spend a long time listening to them yet."

you would not really be out of line. when i first started listening to both of them, i likened them to each other as well. i got into them at the same time, i think (maybe jew first), and not only did they kind of sound alike at first, but ben and jim also looked alike. now they have different hair. it weirded me out looking at pictures of them the other day because jim's face generally looks nothing like ben's and i really thought in my mind for a long time that they were nearly twins or something. then again, a lot of pictures have ben in glasses and he doesn't wear them all the time. anyway....................

i appreciate your comments on the loving people thing. i wonder, is it the same for you and a.r., where you literally cannot help loving it so much, and you almost feel disturbed by it?

i guess there really isn't much more to say about that. it is difficult to write about because it takes a lot of thought. last night i think i was sufficiently tired so i didn't think too much, and therefore it came out all weird, almost like stream of consciousness.

franz ferdinand

franz ferdinand was funny. they had a boomerang-shaped platform that the drums and keyboard were on. or, if you prefer, it was rainbow-shaped with a pot of gold at the end and a sun in the middle. :D or, if you prefer, it was shaped like something else which none of us dared speak of.

for half of it they had a franz ferdinand graphic in the back and for half they had some weird pictures of themselves which were distracting. i have a very good picture of the stage with the distracting pictures.

they had a lot of strobe-light-age. they were also very loud. and they were very good and franz-ferdinand-y. during one song they had three people playing one drum set, and i thought that was awesome.

there was a drunk guy sitting next to me that was basically on top of me. his name was michael and he had dimples. he left after franz ferdinand and didn't come back, so i had plenty of space.

both laura and i were surprised that they didn't do "take me out". we were also very surprised that we were seeing franz ferdinand live, because it's one of those things you would never have guessed.

they did "matinee" (which they called "dark of the matinee" - is that its true title? i don't know). and it reminded me of my old days of listening to bbc radio. they used to play that every day. another one they played every day was "milkshake" by kelis, and also "fit but you know it" by the streets. it's weird hearing those songs because i swear to god i can hear the internet "noise" in them. you know, how internet radio has this creepy "noise" in it, kind of watery and tinny...funny.

death cab

death cab had not quite so spastic lighting. they also did not have a euro-looking platform in the shape of a penis. they had little houses with lights in them, and trees on the fabric in the background.

ben kept talking about first avenue and i was very proud that i had happened to wear my first avenue emo-style-hoodie that night. yay!

30 Helens Agree that ben has never been so talkative before! he told many amusing stories, including one time when they "crashed" at this woman's house who had free-reign gerbils and hamsters. that was a pretty good one. he also kept saying "thank you kindly" which i thought was exceedingly adorable. what else did he do? um, danced around and sang and looked adorable.

they played company calls (but not company calls epilogue, to my chagrin). one of the greatest wonders of the world will ever be the playing of company calls not followed by company calls epilogue. only because i love that song almost as much as transatlanticism. they also played title and registration, with the 2-electric-drum set, and what sarah said, which was incredible. and...president of what (which they always play, it seems). there is a speaking part on that on the album which i always say in my head hearing it live. also title track (third favorite song), passenger seat, soul meets body, crooked teeth, um...(laura, did they do marching bands of manhattan last time? i think so. this time they did not). maybe expo '86 (not sure about that)...new year, i will follow you into the dark, and i cannot remember any more.

what else can i say to waste more time? um...the opening band was called the cribs, from (warfield?) england. they had a coat of arms as their backdrop. i didn't really like them at all.

man, i'm excited for sigurros. i've been trying to think of why i call them sigurros to myself. i'm not sure. i was listening to the song "milanó" the other night and wondering at how beautiful it is. there are some string parts in it, and i could not believe how the violin could play like that. because it sounded like ice. it's really, really difficult to play that smoothly and quietly.

shite! thank god g-mail auto-saves, because i just hit backspace and it went back a page because i am also talking with brighton on chat. ok, i think this is enough of me for one day. maybe i'll do pictures later, but that's it.

post-concert depression

i hate post-concert depression. it pisses me off. i really feel horrible today.

 

emily, thanks for the comments! very nice and i will reply later. i am so glad you started listening. ben does have a wonderful voice. and he is so sweet. and lovable. my favorite song is transatlanticism (maybe my favorite song of any band ever), which to our surprise and delight, they played last night (last song). last time they didn't play it and i was really upset about it. i was hopeful because last time they played what sarah said last, and this time they played that in the middle so it seemed there was a good chance for transatlanticism to make an appearance.

 

i like marching bands of manhattan as well. and, i like what sarah said. i love the part when the singing starts, where there is an organ that starts in the background. a tiny detail, but it's gorgeous to me. and i like soul meets body because the melody is so unusual. what else? title and registration is one of the coolest to hear live because ben plays this 2-pad electric drum while singing. hehe! laura said one time it was broken when she saw them and it was sad.

 

**that reminds me that i have to discuss franz ferdinand a little bit. and i have some pictures of both bands that turned out pretty well.

 

laura and i both like we have the facts and we're voting yes. i can forward you on some songs from that (and other albums) if you wish.

 

also, i don't know if you got all of bsg, but the one i downloaded didn't have the last 6 or so episodes. so i bought them on itunes and can forward you those as well at some point.

 

well, i'm going to take a slightly early lunch today and blah.

just so you know

that last entry came out NOTHING like i meant it to. i thought i wrote it way differently, and then read it over and was surprised because it wasn't really what i meant to say. i think it's probably because i only got 4 or so hours of sleep last night and i'm basically loopy at the moment. i need a good cry. and then a snack. good-bye. "thank you kindly."

exhaustion

so, sometimes i wonder what makes people feel certain really deep emotions. for instance, right now i love ben gibbard more than anything in the entire world. i have thought about this. i love him at this moment more than:

 

london

coldplay

tom

stargate

any band/music thing

 

you see? that's pretty deep. i love him more than london? wow. even i am surprised. but it is true. it is kind of a selfish love, though. not a "true" one, really. one that makes you say, "if i was just around him for the rest of my life, i would want nothing else."

 

and why? i don't know. i don't know the guy, i have never been less than 20 feet from him and have only seen him in person 3 (4? can't remember) times. but it's what he does. it is amazing the power musicians have over people. i bet a lot of them don't know it at all. like, does ben know there is this person out there who, because she has some kind of emotional defect, is considering him the center of her heart? actually, he probably does know that.

 

i would think it would be hard. for one thing, it's not like i personally can help loving ben gibbard. he just is. so i'm guessing that it's the same for other people, and i'm sure some of those have let him know their feelings. it's probably really weird and stressful. i don't know if i would like random people worshipping me as a god. i would feel always in the spotlight.

 

i guess it's probably the connection this person has with things in your life. like, you were listening to this song when blah happened. listening to stuff is very personal. and death cab...i have listened to death cab so much that i've probably heard every song 500 times, and spent 6 total months if you put it back to back, or something obscene like that, listening to them. i listen to death cab more than any other band, by far. and it is "in" me, if you will.

 

i wish i wasn't such a tool about these things. it would be much easier if i didn't freak out about shit constantly. but i do. and i happily love ben because he is ben, and i cry at a lot of live shows. so what?

 

it just goes to show you the power of words, and of sounds, and movements. you put the right words in the right locations and you can do anything. you put the right sounds together, you move. and that is it.

a gret dey (scottish accent)

emily says something of me resembles g.p., two people say i look nice today because i'm wearing makeup...there's hope for me yet!!!!!!!! too bad i really should have gotten more sleep. time for lunch now. i have started creating an ad to post on here later. fun.

earliest wake-up time ever

i woke up at 6 this morning. aughhhh i'm going to regret it tonight...but hey, we get to see ben&chris&nick&jason. (and franz ferdinand). i got a compliment today that i looked nice because i don't wear makeup that often. yay.

fuckin' a

so ace got voted off...what the hell? i tried voting for him last night and it was busy to the end. there is something seriously flawed with the voting. seriously. plus, i just don't like this show anymore. i just am over it.

another picture

i have had the most random posts lately. here is a semi-bad picture that i took at the concert. it's so weird how cameras make it seem like you were 80 miles farther away than you actually were. we were pretty close.

the paltrow-martins

please ignore the horrible title on the british tabloid. i love the picture of c & g. i have never seen a picture of them together, so it's kind of weird. apple is 23 months, by the way.

replies

i wish i could reply to comments from email. as i mentioned in an earlier entry, i realized that you meant concerts, sarah, and i was exagerrating, and also, i wish i hadn't gone off so much. anyway i love dcfc and coldplay concerts, obviously, more than anything in the world. and i get to see death cab tomorrow! ben!!!!!!! :D

 

i'm going to try to post some pictures i found of apple, moses, gwyneth, and chris. maybe later though since i can't go on the actual site right now.

list

since i feel bad about my little tirade about hawthorne heights, and then sarah made it worse by mentioning how i didn't mention jim adkins, i thought i'd make it up to them by doing a list. and it will be similar to the list emily did a while ago about people she liked and didn't like. but mine will only be people i like. i had to cut out some people, but basically it is celebrities i love. and mainly you know them all. and now i am going to spend 80 hours trying to get photos on, and then get frustrated and give up. ok, that wasn't bad at all.












Michael Shanks
We all know I love him dearly and my greatest wish is to have a clone of him in heaven. I just think he is beautiful and hilarious and a wonderful actor.


Ben Gibbard

I had to get a full-body picture for some reason. While I was looking at some pictures I realized how similar he looks to Tom, which freaked me out. I was going to do a side-by-side comparison, but it was too painful. Anyway, B.G. is one of the best songwriters of our time, or maybe any time, and he is also beautiful and enchanting to watch, and his voice is one of my most valued things in life, if that makes sense. I hope to marry a guy like him someday.

Jim Adkins

Jim is, as you may know, the singer from Jimmy Eat World (although he wasn't always). I love him because he is an insane performer and when he's done with two songs he is covered in sweat. And, like Ben, I value the sound of his voice.

JT Woodruff

We all know what I think of him. Why can't I get a normal face picture? I found one and he looked like Rain Man or Forrest Gump, so I decided not to use it.


Conor Oberst

Isn't this adorable??? I love Conor because he writes the most unbelievable lyrics, and because somehow it's really difficult to find people that love him, so he's mine in a way, and because he's indie, and angsty, and ethereal.

Ed Harcourt

Ed's voice is the third that I couldn't live without. If you haven't heard it, I am sorry. I sometimes wonder why he isn't so popular, because he is really original, and very good. He not only plays guitar, as above, but piano, trumpet, and 80 other instruments, and sings. He is from Brighton. And he's just very sweet, and wonderful and everything you think a good guy should be.



Gwyneth Paltrow

So Lately I have been obsessed with this picture of her, which is from Estee Lauder's Pleasures perfume. This copy here makes her teeth look way too white. But the ones in magazines are so gorgeous. If there's anyone I wish I looked like, it's her. And she has the best life (obviously).

Anyway, that is my list. I didn't put members of Coldplay on because they are obvious. I left a few others off who I don't think of as often. So, now you know what takes up most of my time--being obsessed with famous guys and girl. Nah. It doesn't take up that much of my time, really. I just think, if I can't enjoy looking at guys, and enjoying things about them, especially if it's their job to entertain me, then life isn't really worthwhile.

jimmy eat world

since i can't reply to comments i'll just do this: of course i remember. i will forever love jim. there are many people i love. as i'm sure you all well know. jim, ben gibbard (who i truly love), conor oberst, etc. i need to start listening to jew more...

note: later i guessed that maybe you meant other shows i had been to. i know. it was just exaggeration. we all know how much i love dcfc and coldplay, so i hereby apologize for maybe seeming like i didn't appreciate them in concert, because of course i do and always will, more than anything else.

we out!

Dessert???!?!

Here is a picture of marrow pudding. Apparently it's a bunch of stuff like cream and butter mixed with marrow from beef bones. And I thought it was not actually marrow. I should have known better. And the best of all, it's packed in cleaned out pig intestines. YUM!!! What a wonderful dessert!!! In this picture, the marrow ones are in the center and rice puddings are around the outside.



To cancel that out, I have to show two pictures of hot guys.



I am JT and I am the personification of sexiness. Ok, this maybe isn't the best picture, but shit. I mean, he looks like he's in the midst of a certain very pleasurable experience, and he is singing, and it's just a perfect shot expression wise. [brain exploding]



I am Michael and I am the personification of gorgeousness. [brain exploding again...can't take very much of him at a time, i'm afraid] oh, he is so beautiful. how can a guy be this gorgeous?

p.s. i officially asked for vacation days for the stargate conference. yay!

bleak house

here is my synopsis on dickens' bleak house, the most gigantic and difficult and time-consuming book i have ever read.

some funny or interesting things from the book

- a kid named Peepy Jellyby
- "O my eye! Where can I move to!" [a kid who talked funny--I'm wondering if this was his way of saying "oh my"]
- Marrow puddings (I have to look up what those are)
- "Mangering is as necessary to me as it is to a Frenchman" ["manger" means "to eat" in French and this guy said it like it was the thing Jesus was born in]
- "He wouldn't have liked me dying at his place!" [A guy talking about how another guy died in the apartment he lives in and he is now creeped out by it]
- "He is devoid of the light of Terewth." [It took me forever to understand that meant Truth, and not some mystical land like Narnia]
- There was a guy who kept yelling stuff out randomly and one of his favorite sayings was "Brimstone devil" or "Brimstone idiot" or "Brimstone ____"...so one time he said "Brim--" and then thought better of it and ended with "my good friend" so it ended up to say "Brimmy" and he "appeared to have an impediment in his speech." hahaha.
- "Yes, you did say about ten. But, according to my count, it's ten times ten--it's 100 o'clock!"
- "Will somebody obleege me with a spitoon?" [That was said by Brimmy guy and made me laugh out loud...just try saying it out loud and you'll realize how hysterical it sounds]
- Someone had a visitor one time and it was "A person of the name of Michael Jackson in a blue welveteen waistcoat with a double row of mother of pearl buttons. [1. Michael Jackson in a weird outfit? Was C.D. psychic? 2. welveteen - haha. 3. Nice observation of fashion details there.]
- This sentence made me laugh: "It is not unlikely that you may inquireof me why Inspector Bucket, Mr. Woodcourt, and a lady call upon us in Cook's Court, Cursitor Street, at the present hour." [P.S. I looked up that place and there is indeed a "Took's Court" on Cursitor Street, off Chancery Lane, in London right now. I wonder what is there.]

So. What can I say about this book........I learned a little bit about English law in the 19th century, which seemed incredibly confusing. I learned that some illnesses they had altered their appearances. They would be in bed for like 4 months with these illnesses. I'm thinking that maybe it was tuberculosis? People died of what would now not be life-threatening. People frequently had multiple houses, one in the country and one in the city. Um...noble occupations were doctor, surgeon, lawyer, detective. A lot of people went into the army or navy. If you were poor you had a very, very shitty life. They drove places in carriages.

What else? Part of the reason it was so confusing was that there were approximately 97 sub-plots that were all different until the end when they finally all came together. Some sub-plots were said in the narrator's first-person voice and some sub-plots were said in a different third-person voice. That was also weird. One thing that I never fully comprehended was the different houses everyone was at. I don't even really know where Bleak House is supposed to be. The book goes between Lincolnshire and London. I think that Bleak House is in Lincolnshire, but I'm not sure. Upon looking at a map this afternoon I realized that Lincolnshire is way up north, on the east coast next to Manchester. They always talked like it was right next door so I was expecting it to really be right next door. But it's pretty far up there. However, in England you can go anywhere in a matter of hours, so whatever.

I'm getting the DVD of the version that was recently on Masterpiece Theatre. It stars Gillian Anderson. She was on the cover of the book I got.

I just don't even know what to write because there was so much. If you have a question, I guess you can ask. There you go. Like anyone really cares!!!

damn

the guy from hawthorne heights is married. bah humbug. i saw a wedding ring in some pictures i was looking at. oh well, he is still hotter than hell. like i'm ever going to meet him, anyway. that really sucks sometimes. but i think it would be better probably if i didn't meet people like that, unless i could know them for real. actually, i was going to mention that we waited outside for the band(s) on friday and we didn't see them. this is because at the xcel center they have some secure exit in an underground tunnel. my sisters were sad but not as sad as i expected. whoa, just got a taste of kool-aid saliva.

 

i had to switch cars with my mom yesterday because mine is not working well. hers smells like shit because her and HSB smoke in it. so i bought an air freshener, and it is a kind with liquid in it. i did it wrong so liquid got everywhere. i've been smelling it on myself all day and it's pissing me off. to top it off, you can still smell smoke. :(

 

not much to say about easter except what i think i mentioned already (slightly better than expected, only because i was expecting world war iii). i was dreading it for a long time. it wasn't my favorite day by any means but at least my mom wasn't mad at me. i ate like a 1/2 pound of ham and 800 vegetables.

 

oh, i finally finished my book today and was going to do a review on here. i guess i'll do that now since i'm not doing anything else here.

had a bout of tom-missing today

today=not a good day for people who miss tom, and all of him, including the parts that were occasionally hard on me. ugh, i feel bad right now.

 

first order of business: i'm not sure i'll ever get around to writing about coldplay. it was good, of course.

 

second order of business: the concert i went to on friday night. at first i thought it was three bands, but it turned out to be five. fall out boy had four frickin' opening bands. wow. here they are: the hush sound, from first to last, hawthorne heights, all american rejects. the hush sound was a normal, typical band. fftl was an insane death metal band, and used the word "motherfucker" about 76 times a minute. hh was my aforementioned favorite. they are pop punk mixed with that weird-ass screaming of the guitarist. aar was "ok." they are a little more typical than pop punk. fall out boy was also "ok."

 

the crowd was hysterical. i had anticipated it being a younger crowd of girls, and it really was. the average age was 14. and about 50% of them had made their own shirts, with fabric paint, etc. you'd see packs of 10 girls running around with identical homemade shirts on. that was funny. my sisters bought shirts and they had to stand in line for probably half an hour. they did not open the doors until about 30 minutes before the show started.

 

i saw some kids there that had to be no more than 8. that was weird.

 

fall out boy is slightly full of themselves. i would never say that in front of my sisters because they revere them as gods. suzanne is literally in love with the singer and talks about him constantly. they both talk about the band constantly. except they don't care about the guitarist and the drummer. only the singer and the bassist. the funny thing about this band is that the singer never talks because he is too shy, apparently. so you hear him sing and then the bassist talks. it sort of weirded me out. the bassist is the most full of himself. he had this incident where naked pictures of him showed up on the internet. they made fun of that a few times. apparently they like to do jackass-like stunts and did some onstage, to which i was like, this is really unnecessary.

 

all of their stuff sounded kind of alike to me. and also, considering i was nearly dying because my back has been bothering me, i wasn't having that much fun at that point. i am getting old.

 

ok, about hawthorne heights. i liked them firstly because they were the only band that didn't swear every other word. ok, i don't mind swearing, i do it myself, but it gets very excessive when it's 50% of your vocabulary. they were very polite and sweet, which i never would have expected. secondly, they shot a video that night!!! they had to play the song twice--once was to get wide shots and once to get close-ups. i was stoked about that one. i hope i get to see it but i wasn't clear on if it's going to be an actual music video. i thought so but my sister didn't.

 

thirdly, i am in love with the singer, JT, who reminds me of ben gibbard. oh christ, he was unbelievable. that's what did it for me. i mean, you can have the best music in the world, but you really need something special to have the chemistry with the audience. which reminds me: the guy from aar (taylor?) acted exactly like mick jagger, with the strut, and lips and everything. and so to conclude that point, i'll just say that he (JT) was basically an explosion of sexiness.

 

i remember the first couple times i heard them--it was a year ago (did i write this before? i'm having deja vu) and i kept thinking i really liked them except for the screaming. that really weirds me out. so their new single does not have screaming and i like it immensely. i didn't realize until the other day that the new single is on a new album, so i'm hoping the second album doesn't have as much screaming. anyway, i probably would have hysterically laughed if i knew i was going to see them live, and also that i was going to exceedingly enjoy it and later buy both of their albums.

 

because, you see, tonight i went to buy the second album, and was kind of in a hurry. i found one that had a saying sorry sticker on the front (both of them look kind of the same and i haven't memorized the album titles) and then got to the car and noticed the sticker actually said, "look for the new cd now, with the single saying sorry" or something, so i'd actually gotten the old one. what the hell? that was so weird. so anyway, it was ok...got a little emo on the way home, and enjoyed it a lot, and realized i have been listening to the same music for a long time. they mentioned at the show that they signed all the cds at the merch table, but i didn't get one there, so i found one on ebay. there are actually two covers and the ebay sale had both. what the hell. $20.

 

the same thing happened when i was at that show...i was like "i swear to god the last 10 concerts i've been to have either been death cab or coldplay." i cannot think of any other show...i guess aqualung. but i don't know if i've seen a show of that ilk for a while, if ever. i don't know that i'd really want to that often.

 

p.s. fall out boy screams a lot as well.

 

so my only real emo outlet is saves the day, and i haven't listened to that much lately. besides, i've listened to that so much that it has lost its newness. i don't think i get the same thing out of it. there's some "spark" that's kind of gone there...listening to hawthorne heights i felt that and was happy. i mean you hear the lyrics and you're like, ahhhh. talking about you kill me and let me die and let her die slowly and all of that...it's beautiful. like the saves the day song about pinning you to the wall and your blood dripping down and the neighbors staring and drinking the blood. "i drink your blood, feel it dripping down my throat, and head for my heart." it's an art form, it is. i had forgotten about that kind of lyric. where it's like...i hate you and want to die, and i'm going to say just that. or the opposite i love you format. i am going to have to think about this a little more to talk about it more thoroughly. there was one particular thing i heard once or twice tonight that i can't remember now so i'll have to write that down i guess.

 

so anyway, i'm sick of writing now. later.

easter

ugh, this has been a really weird weekend so far. right now i'm at my grandparents' house. as you can tell, it is incredibly boring. i don't know why we're still here, because my sisters and i drove separately. it hasn't been as excruciating as i thought it would be, but i was really preparing for the worst.

 

i'm going to write more about the concert my sisters and i went to later on. did i ever write about the coldplay concert? i don't know. i will say this though: i was worried about seeing hawthorne heights because i thought they were mildly scary, and screamed in their music. but, in concert they impressed me very much and i LOVED them. actually, they screamed less than the other bands. they were very good.

cube

you probably couldn't see in the pictures, bec. i couldn't get a very wide shot, but my cube is always extremely neat. i think that is interesting, considering my apartment is usually the opposite. i clean my cube every day...someone came in today and remarked about it, which is why i mentioned it just now. funny how once it's not seen by anyone i cease to care. i wonder, if this cube was at home, would i keep it clean?

messed up again

messed up another important product today. this time it was directly my fault. i'm just having the most wonderful week in the entire universe. i really, really love how things are going right now.

slightly calmer

so here's my story of today. i got in this morning and was looking at this product that i did that was really important and was supposed to be done like last friday. but some things came up, like marketing adding more things. but the main thing that was wrong with it was that it wasn't printing correctly. it was getting errors. so it escalated into this ginormous thing and nobody could figure out why. the email was circulating around to literally everyone. then i find out this morning that it was this minor thing i forgot to do, and hadn't checked.

 

then, a few minutes after that dan comes over and asks, "are you doing store cleanup for cb burnet?" and i said yes, because i was. we were all assigned stores to "clean up" in anticipation for our busy summer. well, apparently i got rid of some stuff he was working on. i'm not really surprised i did that, but at least i just disabled it and didn't delete it. he said that if i deleted it he would have been very upset.

 

anyway those two things succeeded to make me very upset this morning. i told brighton it was a result of tom's hard attitude toward me in situations like this (where i messed up something important). i was petrified because i thought that any minute someone was going to take me aside and give me a stern lecture. i was paranoid all day long that the whispered conferences i was hearing around the offices were about my mistakes. but you know, i don't think they were. i don't know if they're going to mention it to me or if it's even that huge of a deal. but i was expecting an hour-long talk in a secluded room after which i felt like i would rather die.

 

i said sorry to dan a bunch of times and mentioned how prone to mistakes i am. he totally went into comforting mode and said "don't worry about it" about a million times, and came up with some examples of things that were worse than what i did, etc. he could probably tell i was nearly crying. i also tried to remember something he says all the time: "it's just real estate!!!" which is true.

 

then i found out that the death cab concert next week is at 6:30, and i have to work until 7. this is bad because i have an agreement with ipod guy where on wednesdays he does hotline and on thursdays i do it (every week) because he has band practice (whoopee). so i was horrified at that and nearly crying again. dan came over to say something and i said, "i hate my life right now!" and proceeded to explain why. he said, "just switch with me. i don't care." i had never thought of that before. i said i would think about it and i think i will take him up on it.

 

i guess, my point is, despite his hard drinking and smoking and sarcastic character (if that is even a bad thing), dan is a really good guy. i did not expect him to be supportive when i was all freaky-out-y, but he was.

 

another quote:

dan: why did the phone stop ringing immediately after my shift ended?

elizabeth: because they are afraid of me.

dan: ha! ha!

elizabeth: why are you laughing?

dan: because it's probably true!!!

 

i have to go to the grocery store tonight and also prepare my apartment for my sisters' visit. i'm more and more not really looking forward to this concert. first of all it's going to be very long, and second of all i don't know where to park, and third of all, i'm considering waiting with them by the tour buses to meet them if they want, which would make it even later. that's something i always want to do so i know they'd freak out of their heads. we'll see.

 

i just talked to a coworker (mary) for probably an hour and a half, and it consisted of me pretty much nodding. she likes to talk. and she kept going "am i talking too much?" what am i supposed to say? "yes, you really are. goodbye." i feel bad saying it bothered me, because she is nice, but it sort of did...it was just boring and my feet hurt because i had to stand up.

SERIOUSLY PISSED OFF

sarah, tonight is not a good night to call me.

 

i'm having the shittiest fucking day...i can't even write about it.

things overhead during tonight's yoga program

"stop telling me to soften my fucking neck!!!!"

"why do we have to do 10 sets of fucking back twists?! jesus christ!!!"

 

i forgot to mention something funny about this morning's bird call. it was louder than usual and started at 8:30 instead of 10. the guy above me (who incidentally is extremely loud himself and kept me up last night talking on his balcony) was annoyed at the bird and ran out to the balcony to shoo it away. it was really funny. i can hear basically everything that goes on up there.

p.s.

i don't know if it's this connection or what, but every single image on myspace is broken...that is, except all the ads. nothing works except all of the ads. how wonderfully ironic. screw you.

I Am In A Terrible Mood.

And what makes it worse is knowing that I have to do yoga tonight. Our servers are down right now so I can't do ANYTHING. ksdaj;flsdkjflaskjdf;laskjdf!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear to god. I had the most boring day in history and now I just feel like crap!!!!! Augh. I am just going to go home.

i love sci-fi so much

i only have a few episodes left of BSG. i will be saddened once i get caught up. saw a tiny bit of sg-1 today and was happy. i haven't really watched it in a while, and the tivo doesn't record it anymore because my hard drive is full. i need some dvd burning action.

i forgot to mention that today i brought my new jeff buckley cd to work and dan decided to take a look at it. he is a HUGE music snob. i said, "do you approve?" he said no. i said, "you can't disapprove, because he's dead." he said, "yeah i can! i don't approve of sonny bono!" hahahaha. he did say "the packaging is cool." way to go, jeff buckley. your packaging is cool. he was also impressed that there was a dvd.

forgot something

i forgot something? weird......

 

i have been on my diet now for a while, like since actually december. i went "off and on" though, especially around christmas and the time when i was in wisconsin. i don't like telling people about it or talking about it so this here is rare. i like being on it, in general...it just feels like life is more controlled. and once you get past the first few days of horribleness, it's fine.

 

anyway, i have been very strict lately, and i've noticed that i seem to be secreting sugar. it happened in december as well. it is so weird. my saliva tastes exactly like kool-aid. it gets very old. this did not happen last time i was on it. last time the biggest problem was with arms and legs falling asleep. this time, nope - kool-aid flavored saliva. it's kind of nice, because it makes me really not want to eat sugar because it's constantly in my mouth already. weird what your body does. brighton - ever had this phenomenon? another thing this time around is that i hate the cheesecake i used to make as well as the hot dogs i ate every day. have not had a single hot dog, and have only tried the cheesecake once or twice. the saliva just makes it unbearable.

 

i made some dried zucchini with splenda and cinnamon on it and i couldn't eat it bec. it was too sweet. it tasted like a cube of sugar. i had some barbecued pork last night and it was possibly the best thing i've ever eaten.

ugh

there were two things i wanted to say but i only remember one.

we had a short meeting today and it was about how we're going to have a giant workload over the summer (and vacation won't be as readily available, we'll have mandatory weekends, and lots of overtime). anyway, during this meeting we discussed how the beginning of this is to start cleaning up stores, which we are to do now.

so one of the things we talked about was something that i apparently do in a different way than everyone else (which i might remind everyone is the way i was taught). anyway my manager was like "i don't want to single you out, elizabeth, but you do this." in my mind, i was like "you don't want to single me out, yet you just did, in front of everyone." it was weird. not a big deal but still...it was not necessary at all to mention my name, especially since i did not know it was "wrong" to do this.

oh my god, i just had a very bad scare. i don't know if i mentioned this before but i've been having trouble lately remembering to punch out. I had the same trouble at the library. I just go in this downward spiral of not remembering. I feel SO bad about it because I feel like my manager hates me for it.

anyway, last thursday i got home and remembered that i had forgotten. so i ran back in my pajamas and signed out (luckily i remembered not too long after i left work). well, on friday i forgot again. i was so pissed off at myself. and i'll have you know i am very good at time tracking (which is where we list what we worked on and the number of hours). dan does not do time tracking at all. and, my manager said she used to have troble with signing out too.

so today she seemed not too annoyed about it. but she reminded me a few times not to forget. and right when she walked out the door she was like "it's a firing offense, you know!" and left. i was mortified. then she called a little while later to explain that someone she knew had been fired by "forgetting" to sign out on friday and then lying about what time he had left, to get paid more.

god, i feel sooooooooo bad about it. i guess i just have to show by actions that i can do it, and not forget for a long time. i hope to GOD i do not forget anytime soon. i'd kill myself. i think i should have a sign on my door at home saying, "did you punch out?" i have one on my computer right now. i wonder if there's any way to program my computer to ask if i punched out when i log out of windows.

today dan asked me, "you're kind of insane, aren't you?" i had told him i don't really like copying products for some reason. so i replied, "sure, if you consider not enjoying copying products insane." i love how he thought that was weird, but when i said i thought there was a hidden camera in the ceiling, he was totally fine with that.

another thing he did was ask me to make some images. i do image stuff practically every day for him so it was nothing new. he asked me to make two images that were 150 x 99, with any image i wanted. but really they were supposed to be postcard backs. so i just made a white image and wrote "Back 5" and "Back 6" on them because they were the 5th and 6th choices for backs. i figured that would be acceptable since the testers freak out if any image was weird. i couldn't just put like a random house in there, for instance. but he looks at them and goes, "wow, you really went overboard on these" (sarcastically). i yelled out, "Dan! What did you ask for? You asked for two back images. Would you like me to make up two postcard backs and have it take forever?!?" He meekly said, "No...." Hahahahaha! Then a minute later I said, "And! The testers would freak out with anything else!" He goes, "Whoa, calm down!" Later on he said, "You could have put borders on them," and I said, "Well, the person who assigned me this task did not specify that they wanted BORDERS on them. So it's not MY problem!!!"

I just feel like I am being attacked today!

anyway, i'd like to say that i did coding for a long time this weekend and got a huge chunk of my internal software done. i am so proud of it. here is what it does (i only did reviews so far): when a person enters a review into the form, it takes the review, creates the database record, and creates a text file of the review (that's what it needs to display). then, when some have accumulated i go to my special page where there is a list of recently entered reviews. i can view them or delete them. if i click on view for one of them, it brings up another page that shows the database record and text file. i can change the information or "set it live" or delete from that page. the set live function makes the database record active and adds one review to that tour date. there is a thing that asks if the associated tour date is correct, because sometimes people put in the wrong one. Updating goes two ways: either it updates the record or updates the file and record, depending on if I checked "update all". Delete goes to a page where it asks if you are sure, and then deletes the file and the record.

Pretty awesome, huh? I did that all on Saturday night and Sunday. It will make my life so much easier.

Moses

Moses: both a Coldplay song and the name of Chris and Gwyneth's new baby boy. :)

 

I found that it's 75% probable that the strange noise I've been hearing is pigeons. They have really low voices. I saw some this morning, as I looked out at precisely 10, when the noise began again. Those buggers are punctual.

strange noise

yesterday and today i've been awakened by this loud noise, which i thought was a bird. more specifically, an owl. i've only heard an owl a few times before, and that was in rochester in our backyard (a great horned owl).

the noise started both days at 10am. yesterday it only continued for a few minutes and today it was about an hour. i've been trying to think of what it could be. here is what i thought:

it's not human.
it's not any other kind of bird except owl, because it's too low.
it's not a raccoon.
it's not a bear.
it could be a dog, but probably not. too calm and not dog-like.
it's not a rabbit because they don't make sounds.

so i guess it was an owl. now, i went online and looked for owl calls, and the sound i heard matched a great horned owl again. it was a tiny bit different because the one i heard was the exact same note over and over again and the one online was slightly different notes. they only had three calls, but the one called "harnk" was most like it. what's that? no idea. i couldn't find many other owls that live around here, and if there were some, they sounded completely different. i just read something that said that sound was rare. hmmm.

another thing: why is it calling in daytime? my guess: it must be hurt. i may go out there and look a little later on, if i have time. i know it's right around my window because it's VERY loud.

photos

i entered some photos of work into facebook, fyi. the funniest one is one i took of dan's cube. it's totally opposite from mine. hahaha. sorry, he wasn't there when i took it.

strange day

i've been having a horrible week. i am in one of my totally exhausted body phases. so i took some iron tonight. other than that the week has gone fast.

oh great, the fucking thing won't let me upload photos. i just love that.

well, yesterday i got an email from my mom (who i haven't talked to for about a month or so and was very happy about that). as i opened it i was praying, please god don't make me feel bad, please god. and it was surprisingly ok. so i was like, i guess i'll reply after work. but i just went right to bed. then this morning i go in and there's one from her that's all crappy again and made me cry. this is why i don't talk to her. but i guess i did something horrible in a past life so i have to try to appease her. therefore, i bit my tongue and replied. the past few months i have just hated her and tried to avoid her as much as possible, which has basically worked. i am sure she's totally depressed, but she should know by now why this is happening. something is wrong when a child actively tries not to talk to you.

i'm sure i've talked enough about that, even though i have 80 million other things to say. i am so mad at her and my grandparents. on and get this. next weekend i have to go to their house for easter. if there's anything that i consider hell, it's sitting through church and then sitting through a meal with my mom and her parents. i'm going to have to build myself up well for that day.

the other day i burned something in the oven (ok, it was parmesan cheese and it was in there for literally a minute and a half, but at 400). it was actually on tuesday evening. the place still smells like shit. i don't know what to do about it. i cleaned everything. maybe i should remove the trash. maybe clean the oven? it's an overwhelming horrible smell. it's not like rotten food or anything, but it's extremely burned parmesan. can't be that high on the list of great smells. ugh. i was shocked that it did that. how can something burn that thoroughly, set off the smoke detector, and stink up the apartment for ever after in a minute and a half?

oh man, i'm pissed at this image thing. Fuck off, blog. I was so excited to show everyone my first picture from my camera. It is of the courtyard.

Laura, you should remind me to tell Michael about my ringtones. You know how he has mentioned before how he wishes he could just chop a song and put it on his phone? Well, I just did that...it connects via USB. For my parents calling I used an Arcade fire song that says "Three cheers for my parents!" I absolutely love that song and especially that part. Ok, maybe I'll just use it for my dad.

dan's whiteboard drawing

see what i mean? can you imagine a guy like, let's say, the rock or something, drawing that while whistling? hahahahaha.

i got my new phone today and it is the coolest thing in the entire world. it has an mp3 player, and a gigantic screen, and a very good digital camera. i was totally surprised to find that it takes pictures up to like 1024 x 1280. that is gigantic considering my current phone's largest size is above, and the quality is really crappy. the best part is that the phone has a usb cord and connects to the computer. i am in love with it.

i actually varied my evening a little because the shows were reruns. i'm still going to bed early, though.

what i am going to do after i get home

eat chicken with barbecue sauce, watch criminal minds and csi:ny, and go to bed.

 

nothing else.

i don't know what to title this

yesterday i wanted to roast a chicken again and you'd think i learned from the last time, but i didn't. this time was far worse.

i hate raw meat. i hate it. and also, i hate it when you have an entire animal sitting there, without a head, but you can see where its head was because its spine is jutting out. it is the most disgusting thing ever.

i got a roasting chicken (i'm queasy thinking about this) and thawed it overnight. then i opened the package on the counter, and whoosh, out comes all this blood. wonderful. then i had to take out the giblets which were in a bag. why did they even include them? oh my GOD that was gross. it was like a paper bag with bloody intestines in it. oh, ew. the blood ran all over the counter and on the floor. after that i was like, screw you, you're going in the oven, blood and all. ok, i drained most of the blood but i really wish they had gotten more of it out of the actual chicken because there was a lot within the meat even after it was done.

then i had to bleach the counter and dishwasher and floor, and boil the cleaning rag. that was not the best thing in the world. i was thinking about avian flu the whole time.

after the chicken got done i wanted to eat the drumsticks and i couldn't get them off. it makes sense that they are connected well, because they are legs. i wouldn't like it if my legs could be just pulled off. so i just cut off the meat.

oh man, that was not a pleasant process at all and from now on i'm going to remember to stick to prepackaged boneles skinless chicken breasts. let someone else deal with the bird.

there is a funny part in an arcade fire song that i wanted to share. it's during the instrumental part, he is yelling out some stuff.

I don’t want any pushing, and I don’t want any shoving. We’re gonna do this in an orderly manner. Women and children! Women and children! Women and children, let’s go! Old folks, let’s go! Babies needing cribs, let’s go!

ok, it was funnier when i thought he said "Babies in their cribs, let's go!" i thought that was so cute. like they can go. well, like babies needing cribs can go anywhere either. i guess it's funnier when you hear it anyway.

OH MY GOD!

ok, furthering myself into complete and total geekdom, i want to say something.

 

there is a stargate convention in august in chicago...and...michael...shanks.....is going to be there!!!!!!!!!! [hyperventilating...hyperventilating...]

 

i've looked at the conventions before but never saw this one!!! oh god, i'm so glad i looked at this random piece of news. oh, now that i looked at it i wonder if i did see it and he wasn't on there before. it says he's a new addition.

 

hehehehehe!!! i'm so there. from what i hear, female fans are very "attentive" towards him. gee, i wonder why. maybe they saw that photo in which he is posing in underwear.

 

emily, are you back by then? not that it has anything to do with this. just wondering.

 

-----

 

Stargate Atlantis co-star Jason Momoa ("Ronon Dex" ) will make his first Creation convention appearance this summer when he attends The Official Stargate SG-1 / Stargate Atlantis Convention in Chicago, Illinois , Creation Entertainment announced today.

Momoa is the final guest to be added to the list, which also includes Michael Shanks ("Daniel Jackson"), Joe Flanigan ("John Sheppard"), Beau Bridges ( "Hank Landry"), Gary Jones ( "Walter Harriman"), and Cliff Simon ( "Baal"). Shanks is also a new addition this week.

The convention will take place August 25 to 27, 2006, at the Wyndham O'Hare hotel. Learn more at Creation's official Web site.

wonderful

i got an email from gordon yesterday, to which i was like "holy shit." in it he was like "i'm trying to clear out bad karma from my past and wanted to tell you you're a beautiful person" etc etc. oh, whatever!!! clearing out bad karma. you'll have to do better than that, my friend, to vindicate yourself in my mind...i guess it was a nice effort and whatnot, but sorry, he screwed up badly. and that is all i have to say about that.

 

today dan messed up the homepage on one of the sites and i was trying to help him fix it, and by that i mean i was laughing my friggin' ass off. oh my god, it was funny. he kept messing up and putting the wrong images, or forgetting a bracket so that part of the code showed up on the page. i was in tears by the end. he was like "yeah, keep on laughing. that helps me a lot." i'm laughing thinking about it now.

 

you guys will be happy to note that people here think i'm too quiet. dan maintains that sometimes i use a voice that has a pitch that can't be heard by humans. like a dog whistle. hahahahaha.

 

oh another weird thing about him: he does this drawing on whiteboards, which i will take a picture of one of these days. it's a face peeking over and edge. it's just one of those drawings that you do like in 5th grade or something. one time i was watching him draw it and i almost cracked up. because he is this ginormous really masculine guy, who drinks and smokes, and he's drawing this "cute" thing on whiteboards everywhere. to top it off, he whistles while he does it. hahahahaha!!!

 

on a darker note, today something went wrong with some of the products (i think it was ipod guy who did it). it became this giant issue and at one point we were having a discussion in my manager's office. i will try to talk about this without using work terminology, as best i can. ok, i don't think that will work very well.

 

my section of our department is setting up products (me, dan and pat do all new products and that's all we do). in our system we have this way of setting up products called "field groups" which makes setting them up a lot easier in some ways. when you start from scratch you can use field groups and it allows you to edit many products at once instead of just one. however, the problem is that when you copy a product from a store to another store (like if century 21 wants the same postcard that's on coldwell banker or something) then the field groups do not copy. everything else does, though.

 

now, i am all for field groups and i use them constantly. but my coworker christi was going off on how her products are superior because she always uses them and never has to fix anything, and nothing goes wrong like what happened today. i piped in that when you copy products, it's about a million times faster not to use them, especially because they don't copy.

 

in my section, which is new products, we have turn times we have to meet and frequently there isn't enough time to build products using field groups, and most of the time it doesn't matter. and besides, a lot of times we only have to copy one product, so building it all new would waste so much time, and if you have to edit just one, field groups actually make it more difficult.

 

but she was like, "well, I always use them and blah de blah." i just gave her this look at one point, which was like, "don't get on my bad side, lady."

 

believe me. if i had the time, i'd do the same thing. and i do--i use them most of the time as custom queries and custom edit tools. which i doubt most people do. so there. she does not have the same volume of products as we do, but hey. i know where i'm coming from and i understand her as well. i just wish she had a better way of explaining herself without coming off like others are inferior. she's done this before and it really pisses me off.

 

i went over and tried to complain to dan because i was annoyed, and i can't do anything when i'm annoyed. but i was afraid that she would overhear. so i just sort of alluded to it and he was like, "wow. this is such a great day. i wish we had days like this all the time."

yoga

why does yoga most of the time make me feel absolutely horrible? i just did it for 40 minutes and i feel like i wish i was dead. i literally feel like the one thing better than my bodily state right now is to be dead. i think i'm going to go to bed.

it just hit me

i'd just like to reiterate how strange it is that i work in IT and fix people's accounts. i mean, i am the person who, when you call customer service, actually fixes the account. that is so weird.

constructive weekend

here is a funny email i got.

THEY HAVE THOUGHT TO VISIT THIA AMERICA
YEAR OF THE SOUTH AND OF BEING IN WHAT MONTHS THEY HARIAN IT.
I AM AL READY ONE OF ITS FANS I NUMBER 1IN AMERICA OF THE SERIOUS AND VERY GOOD WHAT VISIT MY COUNTRY THIS YEAR.

harian sounds like an armenian family name. they all end with -ian or -yan, in case you didn't know. remember ani from chadbourne? her last name ended with -yan and she was armenian.

this morning i talked via im with my website "helper" (brian) who is very enthusiastic. he lives in washington state. he provided maybe 6 songs (lyrics) today that i don't have up yet and i have posted 3 so far. what most impresses me about him is that he has great grammar and spelling. yay!

i've been watching battlestar galactica a lot lately, which i will heretofore refer to as BSG. it's really good but is much less sci-fi-y than i originally thought. the thing that bothers me the most about it is that it's EXACTLY like earth life except that they have spaceships (they are from a very far-away galaxy). and ok, i know it's a show, but it's like they made no attempt at all to make their life different than earth life. i know they have to speak english, be human, etc. but i mean, they have books, regular plumbing and sinks and flushing toilets (well, i'll give them that they made the sinks triangular). they have history museums with regular-looking sculptures and artifacts. they have regular guns. the military people wear dog tags.

what really got me laughing was when they went to a political conference thing, and there was an x-ray machine like what they have at airports, which you put your bags through. what are the chances that a totally separate civilization would have that? and besides, was it really necessary for the story? NO. a lot of the stuff isn't, and i think they should remove that kind of thing. of course, it might make viewers more comfortable with the show, but christ, an x-ray machine???

the things that are more prominent are obviously made different, such as playing cards, money, the color of alcohol (it's usually mountain-dew-green), etc. how strange.

stargate is good about that type of thing. they have explanations for why people on other planets are human and live in similar societies and have a lot of the same shit. and actually they're pretty good explanations. and a lot of the time they don't speak english. one time they went to this planet where the people didn't speak at all and they communicated by some sort of weird humming. they were "nourished" by this giant mushroom thing, which was in turn nourished by the sound waves the people made. that one was weird.

i cleaned a ton this weekend and did very well. i decorated my patio and it looks kind of sad except for this cool mobile i got at ikea. i put my papasan chair out there, thinking it will be ok outside, and if it gets wet i don't care because it's falling apart. it will be nice once it gets slightly warmer to read out there. i bought a hanging cabinet thing for $40 with the purpose of displaying certain items of mine (it has a glass door). i spent like 4 hours putting the fucking thing together. and my hands are all cut up. christ, it was hard. the biggest problem was that one of the pieces was too large, so it was throwing everything else off. thankfully that piece is hidden, so i just shaved it a little. then when i went to hang it i discovered the screws i have weren't quite long enough (the cabinet did not come with hanging screws, only a piece of wood for the wall). so i finally was able to secure it better using those screw holders that you sometimes get in a package. it's up there nicely now.

i cannot believe how messy this place gets so quickly, and how long it takes to clean. i think that my problem is i always have to start projects, like the chair, and while i'm doing a project i just leave crap where it lies. i need to fix that about myself.

i have three regular light bulbs in my apartment (the rest are halogen) and on friday two of them burned out. that was weird. i was going to replace them but i have no more regular ones. the paper lantern has to have a regular one.

brighton: my laptop still works. the hard drive never fried: the only thing that really gave out was the power cord input. it wouldn't stay in very well, which is why i was always complaining about the computer turning off randomly. my dad says there is a spring that keeps the cord in, and it came un-soldered. he re-soldered it once and it broke again a few weeks later. the other thing that didn't work was an external piece, the PCI card i had, which was a USB hub. the PCI card was crappy and gave out after a while. but the hard drive was and is perfectly fine.

fan site returned to safety

arcadefire.net is now itself again. that was so strange.

whoa - fansite hijacked

this is so weird. i wanted to see if arcade fire is touring (they are in europe). so they have an official site and an official fan site. i went to the fan site because the official regular one doesn't have any normal information on it. and what is at the address? an arctic monkeys site. GO AWAY, you morons! i'm sick of you.

but besides being sick of them, i'm confused at this seeming-hijack of a fansite. i mean, i went to it several different ways, including google. i went to the cached version on google and it was normal. it is SO WEIRD.

Arcade Fire EP

I absolutely love this Arcade Fire EP I bought the other day. It's only 7 songs, which is sad. I didn't really love it at first, but now I'm obsessed with it. It's so good.

finally

i bought the phone. it turns out that i do get a discount. i love having a steady job. i get all kinds of insurance, plus deals. get this. the phone is $450, but i got it for $100. that's a deal if i ever saw one. plus free shipping, 2nd day. i will get it monday! :) finally a mn phone number.

oh man, shipping is something i know about, too. how funny. when i started my job this is the analogy i made in my mind

configuring shipping and mailing:configuring products::file input/output:other coding

that may not make sense to anyone else but me. it's just that file input/output is so weird to me and seems totally unlike other parts of coding, even though it really isn't. there's just something about it. and it was the same way with configuring shipping and mailing. it didn't really make sense to me at first.

it's so funny. for the stores that are located in southern california, we only offer ground shipping. for all other stores, we only offer 2 day and next day. i'm not sure why. it has to do with the cost. we used to offer all of them but after the post office changed prices in january we discovered that ground ended up to be more expensive than 2d or nd. and in the so cal stores, ground is free.

i could go on for a while about shipping and mailing, especially the hell i went through the other day trying to go through items that someone else set up crappily, and also the hell i went through trying to figure out why a few items were coming up with the wrong prices, and discovering that the person who made them labeled them wrong. but i won't.

ok, i've just discovered that my delete key does not work. what a shitty key to not work.