Happy Halloween

I started off this day by waking up at 2:45 for work (after going to bed at 12). We had a big code release that I helped test. I stayed until 7 yesterday too, but that's nothing compared to the select few that had to stay here all night (such as poor Nate who was later discovered asleep in the conference room). So I woke up and my boss called me at some point and said "Log on and start testing". I did that and then I realized that something was running on my computer and I probably killed it. That was a great way to start out. (I did kill it).

I then tested until about 8:30 and then came in to work. Later, I experienced narcolepsy. I'm definitely not as young as I used to be.

Then my boss and the other woman on my team and I all sat around and talked for a while and it was hilarious. They are actually really funny. They're pretty quiet in usual life, like me, but we had a hilarious conversation about work. I enjoyed it. (Right now they're over there giggling about something - they sit next to each other and I'm a little offset). Then they both said "We're so happy you're on our team!" and asked how I liked it, to which I responded, "Soooooo much better". I really do. I've been here for officially a month and I love it. The best part is I am totally free from my old boss, and thus, I am free from office politics. :D It's so nice not to have that stress. And, I actually have work to do now. I have actually found myself unable to keep up with AV Club lately and so I have to read it at home, which doesn't usually happen. Joel is in a terrible mood this week though, which is too bad.

Well, I gotta go back to struggling to stay awake. Later. I can't believe tomorrow is November. Relatedly, Fall Back is this weekend and I was actually annoyed to hear about it. One thing I really don't need, in general, is more sleep. (Today is the exception of course).

Sudden Cardiac Awareness

Recently on the radio there have been a lot of ads for what is called "Sudden Cardiac Awareness Month". This confuses me. Are people all over the world suddenly becoming aware that they have a heart? And is this bad? I have thought a lot about this campaign and listened to the ads for it, and I have not yet been able to make sense of what they say in the ads. They say things like "Every year, x amount of people are stricken by SCA". To me, that stands for Sudden Cardiac Awareness, because a) They didn't say what it actually stood for, and b) they also call October SCA Month. So in my mind, x people are stricken by Sudden Cardiac Awareness, which goes back to the idea of "Holy shit, I have a heart!" Obviously that isn't it, but I didn't know what it actually was.

Finally I looked it up and it's Sudden Cardiac Arrest. So it's just really unclear and not a well thought out campaign.

These are my thoughts from today. Happy Sudden Cardiac Awareness Month!

Farm Insurance

I am listening to this BBC show that I like to listen to, and they were talking about this American football game that's going on. One of them got a hold of a calendar of some of the dancers of one of the teams, I think it was the Saints. They noticed that each month was sponsored by some American company, and so they were reading off the company names and laughing at them. So one of them was State Farm Insurance. And the people were like "Farm insurance?? There's such a thing as farm insurance?" Hahahaha...I laughed a lot at that.

 

I like that show. Recently they've been doing a "Miley Cyrus" impression which is just one of the guys with a filter on his voice to make it sound high. She doesn't even have an American accent. It's funny, they are really, really good at different UK accents but they absolutely cannot do an American accent.

Gas Station Trip

I just went to the gas station and got hit on. I thought I would mention it on my blog because it hardly ever happens to me. The guy was also staring at my chest. Great place and method to pick up girls, the gas station and by staring at their chests! Classy! Also, the guy was like 10 years younger than me. Again, really classy.

I also performed my good deed of the day while there. A woman left her kid in the car and went inside, and I kept an eye on the kid while some dubious looking people wandered over and were loitering near her car. I gave them The Eye. I've been told my The Eye is really scary, so I thought that probably foiled any plan they had of stealing the car with the kid in it. Call me Crime Stopper Elizabeth.

Autism

I was just reading on Friday Buzzkills that Jenny McCarthy thinks she cured her son's autism with a gluten-free diet. Am I stupid, or is that impossible? How can diet affect autism at all? Sorry, I forgot that she included lots of prayer.

I watched the movie Jesus Camp yesterday and it kind of disturbed me. Most of the reason was that the kids were 6 years old and violently pro-life. Come on...they don't even know what abortion is. If you're going to be pro-life as an adult, fine, but this was just weird. Emily, you should watch that if you haven't. It would be fun to talk about with you.

I saw Melissa this evening (I'm in Rochester) and it was fun. Now I am blogging about it. Do you guys ever wonder how people lived without the internet (15 years ago)? I don't think I could do it. Seriously. Sometimes I think that I am made of the internet. Kind of like those people in that one Stargate episode.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the other day there was an AVC Q&A about best concerts ever and I wrote my story about the Coldplay show where they dedicated a song to me. Mostly everyone said "Great story!" Even Josh Modell who is an AVC writer in Chicago. I got a comment from Josh Modell! :)

P.P.S. To everyone who lives in Madison: go to Decider: Madison. It's a site by AVC and The Onion and it has Madison events, restaurants, etc. I said that I would tell everyone about it and I have been trying to think of the best way to do that and I guess it's here. There is a Twin Cities one coming out early next year. They already have a Chicago one where I wrote a little bit on a Sigur Ros article. The Madison one looks good so far. It was launched last week. I think you guys will love it!

Unwanted Laughter

I'm sitting at work right now and it's silent in the office. I decided to read something on AV Club and I read something funny and can't stop laughing. I'm trying really hard not to burst into audible laughter. I thought maybe writing on here would help. Oh god...here it is again. Stop! Stop!!! I feel like I'm back in college trying not to laugh during a lecture. Though really I could just go to into the bathroom or something. Ok, I think it's gone for good now. Nope, I had to go into the bathroom. Man that was funny.

 

Speaking of where I sit now, it has the weirdest acoustics. I kind of hate it. Sometimes, like now, it's deadly silent. The rest of the times it's not loud, but there are lots of individual voices. It's like, either it's silent or I can hear 20 people's conversations. It's not combined together enough to create just one noise that I can tune out. Plus, I can hear everything everyone in the area says even if they aren't near me. So I got some noise cancelling headphones and so far they are working well. A few times I heard my old boss say something and she's way the hell over on another side. So I emailed her with a response once and I could hear her laugh. You guys know how weird I am about noises. So add this one to the bunch I guess. All right, I gotta finish up and leave. Later.

Order #7

I finally ordered this Icelandic game that I want (from Iceland). I found a site to order it on a few months ago but I can't get it on there because they don't ship overseas, so I found a different one today. I went to pay for it, first of all, and it said that the only payment type accepted was cash on delivery. Huh? How will they enforce that halfway around the world? And how will I actually do that? Go to FedEx and pay the FedEx guy? Mail the person a check later on? Go to a currency place and convert $43.00 to Icelandic Krona and mail it? Do they even have Icelandic Krona anywhere? Then, I noticed on my order confirmation that was emailed to me: Order number 7. Huh? I can't be only the 7th order. Even if this was a brand new site, you'd think they would have done more than 6 test orders, or started their numbering system with 1000 instead of 1, or something. Order number 7. I feel great about this order and I am sure it will go through without any problems. [rolls eyes]

 

I'm kind of thinking that the overseas delivery option was a mistake, but I'm hoping they'll do it anyway. I guess it's possible it wasn't a mistake. For one thing, they got the address formatted correctly for the US even though I had to enter it in 27 different boxes. Usually they don't quite get it right. When my teacher mailed me my diploma I'm surprised it even got to me. It was like a Yoda address. (Which is funny since I sent it to her in an email formatted correctly). Secondly, a lot of the site was in English, which makes me feel better.

 

Iceland is terrible with online stuff, I've noticed, when it comes to someone who doesn't live there using the services. First you have the address thing and how it's impossible to format yours correctly. I would like to mention that at my job when we have an international address, we allow you to format it how you want. Then you have their ID numbers. They have this ID number system there, apparently, and they want you to enter the ID number everywhere. Obviously I don't have one of those. At one place I've looked at (this dictionary site), they wouldn't let me do anything without one. I typed in "none" and that worked. At that same site, I had to pay for something and the only way you could pay was with a bank transfer. WTF? I had NO idea how to do that. I looked around for a while at Wells Fargo but saw nothing. I thought maybe PayPal would work, but that didn't either. So I can't get a subscription there, which sucks. So now we got COD and bank transfers as the primary means of payment to Icelandic merchants. The school that I am enrolled in actually allows credit cards, surprisingly. But they have the worst problem with addresses.

Unbelievable

I just went to the gas station and managed to injure myself on my car door. The car door has a dangerous point on it. I jammed my arm into it kind of hard and it hurt really bad. I'll have a big bruise. Then, I looked at it and it scraped skin off too! I was wearing a sweater!! Lame. So that was my exciting lunch trip.

Crazy evening

I went for a walk around the ol' haunt and saw a rainbow and an insane sunset. There were only 2 other people walking and they both stopped me and wanted to talk about the rainbow and the sunset. I had my phone with me so I took some crappy phone pictures.

Boo

I got an email this morning that Ryan Adams, one of my most beloved music people of all time, is coming here. (I marked the email with a red label that says "PAY ATTENTION") However, it said Target Center. I was a little wary of that so I looked it up and he's opening for Oasis, one of my most disliked music people of all time. Why, God? Why, Ryan?

 

Is this tour going to be called the "We Think We Are Deities" tour? They also should have Creed opening for them. That would make it truly complete. Kidding. We all know that Ryan Adams is my boyfriend and I love him. He is kind of full of himself though.

 

Anyway, I probably won't be going to see "We Think We Are Deities" since gods usually charge a large amount for tickets to see them. Too bad.

Radio

I was just thinking about the radio and remembered the time like 6 years ago that an email of mine was read on BBC Radio. Coldplay was on a program of some sort and I wrote an email and it got read to them. Funny, huh? I wonder if that's online to listen to anywhere. I don't have a recollection of what program it was at all, but I think it was in the summer in 2002 right around when their album came out.

Gmail

One of my favorite things about Gmail is how, when you have ordered a package, and you get a tracking number in an email, Gmail puts a link up on the side with your tracking number so all you have to do is click. Love it.

Well, I'm getting myself drunk tonight. I think I might be voluntarily turning into an alcoholic. Not really, because I can count the number of times I've had alcohol this year on my hands, but whatever.