In spite of who I am

I was watching the news tonight and there was a story about some kind of kids' program. The gist is that they have mirrors on a wall and saying about how the person in the mirror could be anything, even the President. Anyway they had some lady talking about it and she goes "The idea is that the kids will see that they can be anything, in spite of who they are." I thought it was funny. I can be anything, even though I'm my lowly self. Semantics, but still funny.

Scary internet

Sarah's recent comment reminded me that I wanted to talk about something else scary about the internet. I already told L&M this. It is about my RSS feed. So, as you know, the other day I made an RSS feed. I originally put in 3 test entries but then I noticed that the time was all weird (and still is sort of, but only because it's in PST because that's where the server is - before it was saying May 15, 2009). So after I fixed the time I deleted 2 or 3 entries from my database. Completely deleted them - no record of them exists anymore. Or so I thought...I entered the feed into a few different readers over the past few days and the deleted entries are still there!!! How is this possible?! I'm mystified...Part of me wonders if somehow my computer cached it, but my computer at work didn't cache anything, and it showed all of them. All I can think of is that maybe there is some omnipotent RSS spider that immediately obtains all updates from all feeds everywhere. But that's impossible...even Google takes 6 months to crawl everything. So anyway, the internet is scary.

P.S. S, did that sound as technical as my other entry about viruses? :)

AVC Comment

There is an AVC comment that has been bothering me all day about how my skin in my picture looks like a Simpson. This is because I mentioned that I had a Simpson and said I couldn't get the skin light enough (aka paper white) and right now it just matches my hair. I do admit that my skin looks yellow in the picture, but is it not obvious it's the lighting? Or does it really look like my skin color? It seems to me that it would be ridiculous to think my skin was that yellow. Below is a link to the picture in question.

 

http://www.avclub.com/accounts/easytoplease,3140/

 

Sincerely,

A person who has thought way too much about this today.

 

P.S. I just realized that I should simply Photoshop the skin on the Simpson. It's not as if it would be in any way difficult. Paint bucket, done. Meanwhile, I should really Photoshop the other picture too. Because on AVC it looks pretty weird all tiny. I should just put another one on there because apparently it's weird to have your actual photo. I think I will use the newly paint-bucketed Simpson.

Starting off well!

Greg James (maker of the Coldplay video I posted the other day) replied to me on Twitter, after I wrote a nauseatingly brown-nosy note. He tries to reply to everyone though, which is probably mostly manageable at this point. He wrote this birthday song for another DJ and played it on the radio and it was great. Anyway, made my day! http://twitter.com/gregjames

 

Seriously though, he does some great stuff. What an untapped and unknown resource.

Why can't everything just work?

My garbage disposal just broke. I have no idea what to do with it now. It turned on earlier today but didn't do anything, and now it just doesn't turn on. And I didn't take in my car because I'm too nervous. I have to do it tomorrow. I think I'm just nervous because of this one guy that's always there who intimidates me. And last time he gave me half off and I don't think I thanked him at all because I was really really flustered, so I worry he has a grudge against me, if he even remembers me for some odd reason. Ugh. I was going to get groceries today and work on some computer stuff and instead I took a nap and watched AVC liveblog the oscars. It was funny. But now I don't have food. Also I had a bad dream during my nap. Really I could still work on computer stuff. I think I will. Later.

The end of Feline Favorites

As some of you know, I got Feline Favorites (cat food) for Daniel recently. I like to call it cat crack. I noticed it made his breath smell bad. Well, this morning he threw up from it. I managed to catch it in time, thank god, because he was about to throw up on my bed. I ran him into the kitchen so it all went in there. So no more Feline Favorites for Daniel. I was just trying to comfort him because he threw up, but he went insane. Usually when he gets too much attention he gets overstimulated, which is what happened this time. He started biting me and purring like he is a semi (which he is still doing). What a weirdo. Well, I am going to take my car in now I guess. I really don't want to. I'm nervous and don't want to pay any more.

Ridiculous

http://mezzoblue.com/archives/2009/01/27/sprite_optim/

I need to start reading web design blogs again. I find them fascinating.

Coldplay "Parody"

This is a British DJ called Greg that I like doing a Coldplay video. I laughed until I cried at it.

RSS

Hey everyone, update your RSS readers to include my RSS feed for my Coldplay website! It's so awesome and includes so much information, your mind will explode.

 

http://www.easytoplease.net/rss.php

 

I'm actually pretty happy I did it so quickly. It only took about half an hour to set up for some reason.

UGH!

>:-(

My car

I took my car in this weekend and it had quite a few problems. I was concerned because the brakes were acting up last week, and I wanted to find out about the headlights once and for all.

Right axle seal was broken

Antifreeze was low

transmission pan cracked

The muffler strap was off

Both strut mounts loose

2 engine mounts loose

Fuel injectors not clean

I decided to do the antifreeze, transmission pan, and axle seal. It was about $500. Ouch. Well, the headlight problem turned out to be fog within the lens, where I can't get to it (like Brighton's window at Mifflin). I have to get new headlight assemblies, which are like $65 I think. Or, my dad said there should be a vent, and that it could be clogged, so I'll probably look at that myself. Funnily enough, the brakes were perfectly fine.

My best friend in Mexico, Lucelia, just told me she's getting married this summer. That was a shock. Also I found out my aunt is getting remarried this summer. Anyway, my friend wants me to go there for the wedding. I'm conflicted about what to do because a) going by myself would be nerve-wracking, b) it's at the exact same time as Brighton's Guatemala trip and there's no way I can do both, and c) I can't do either because I have no money. I'm surprised I'm not freaking more about the car payment. I think I was prepared enough for it that I am just ignoring it.

Today on the radio I heard a story about the merger between LiveNation and Ticketmaster. It was horrible. The people said that it's the biggest music news story in the past ten years. The stuff they're thinking about doing is horrible. For instance, they want to change the buying process into an auction type thing. That means that people who bid the most will get the best tickets up front. To me that's just going to invite ridiculous bidding like on ebay, where certain people can pay an exorbitant amount. I can see this turning into a terrible situation for smaller shows as well, where people who can pay more will get the limited amount of tickets, while us poories can't. Basically, they're turning the system into Stubhub, where no ticket is under $500. The government is investigating it though, so I don't know what will ultimately happen.

I was in Rochester fixing my mom's computer which was taken down by a virus. She thought it was the one that prompted those Windows security updates a few weeks ago, but it wasn't. It was actually 2 viruses, 7 trojans, 2 malware things, 4 "Suspicious objects", a few bad registry entries that apparently were just that, hundreds of tracking cookies, and some more things I can't remember. The two viruses attacked internet explorer. I tried going into IE once and it freaked out. It popped up about 600 windows trying to get to different websites. Now I'm wondering if that's where all those cookies came from. I'm not sure about all the trojans yet. I plan to look them up later. The malware was something that added weird files and tried to access them at startup. I don't know what they did though. One of the things compromised the antivirus that was there. It looked like it was completing a scan but it wasn't doing anything. I just reinstalled the same one and it worked. Anyway I had to do some things in the admin account, like edit some things in the registry and parts of the computer setup, but the admin account was corrupt. Great. So I created a new one in DOS and went into it in safe mode. Before something could happen to the account I ran a virus scan and an adware scan. I ran both scans twice and the second time it was still finding stuff so my dad suggested turning off auto restore. Did that and removed a ton of programs. Then I tried to defrag but that didn't work anymore. I thought I would try to find the files for that somewhere but I didn't have time. I hope it works ok now. I didn't have time to check all the accounts but I bet some of them are unusable. I just told my mom to use my new account and create new ones if she can't get in. So that was that. It was kind of interesting.

Issues

I talked to Joel today and he told me The Rest Of The Story - I guess it did start with him but he said it got out of hand really fast. He feels terrible too. He was like "I think I'm going to have an aneurysm." Anyway, I'm watching a movie now, if the DVD works. I've had to get 2 netflix replacements. This DVD looks really scratchy, but we'll see.

Amer. Idol

I cannot contain my excitement over how utterly gorgeous I find Adam Lambert. Why is that, I wonder? I know many of you out there will strongly disagree with me. I think partially it's that he reminds me of Ryan Adams, my boyfriend. Really though, it's just that I love that kind of guy, especially when they are singers. ADORABLE. Hopefully he doesn't get really annoying.

Really tired of this

Here's some boring work stories.

 

Last Friday and Monday I helped my coworkers Joel and Steve with some stuff. I helped Steve write a script to copy files, which I was really proud of, and helped Joel to set up some stuff. I spent too much time helping them, which is my own fault. I kind of knew it would be an issue, but I can't say no to people who ask me for help Case in point: something I will point out later.

 

So yesterday my boss talked to me a little bit and said I helped them too much on Friday and Monday. I completely agree and I felt really bad. She said it wasn't my fault, because they shouldn't have asked in the first place, but I still feel terrible. She said she talked to Joel and asked him not to ask me for help. Sound familiar? This has happened to me approximately 67 times before. I need to learn to say no. This exact thing is what caused the whole disaster last summer. Most of that was my old boss, but still - the root issue is the same.

 

All that happened in the morning and we were all fine. Then suddenly in the afternoon my boss asked me and the other girl that works with us to have a meeting. What she said was this. Joel must have gotten mad and gone to his boss. His boss sent an email to a whole bunch of managers that are way higher up than all of us on the ol' corporate ladder, saying my boss said irresponsible things and action needed to be taken against her. There are definitely two sides of this story, but that's exactly what happened as it appears to us. Joel's manager didn't even talk to mine at all, yet she sent this threatening email. My manager was upset. I felt HORRIBLE!!!

 

Along with all of that, she was saying in the meeting that my old boss "complained" about me working with Joel and Steve too much. What the HELL does she care????? Honestly? There is no reason she should have any comment about my job. She is not my manager!!! Sorry that you can't write scripts to copy files. Christ. I'll do it on my own time then.

 

You know, what really bothers me is that what I did was a nice thing. I completed something for Steve and I helped Joel. I was still up to date on my own work as well. (My manager was worried about that though). Every time I try to do something like that it backfires. Like my manager says (I really need to give her a name but I don't want to use her real name because it's uncommon) "What happened to being nice? I don't think so it helps out at all." (I love how she talks :) ) I just feel terrible because somehow my perceived generosity turned completely around and got her in trouble. What a mess.

 

I am not happy with Joel at the mo. I guess it's possible it had nothing to do with him, but based on what she said, it did. It's one thing to do that to people who fight right back, like my old boss, but my new one didn't do anything and she was kind of hurt by it, though took it a lot better than I would have.

 

Anyway immediately after that, somebody asked me for help and I said no! Then I blocked them on IM. ;) Good for me!!! Every day I increase my assertiveness. Well, off to the grocery store for more Feline Favorites (aka Cat Crack) and good old Lost tonight. Don't forget, Emily.

Married to Iceland

I was going to make some joke about the documentary "Married to the Eiffel Tower" but I just don't have it in me. Oh well. That documentary gave me something to think about for the next year. I just watched the whole thing tonight. 

The guy that I got set up with the other day is 35 (I found him on facebook). I guess that's older than I expected, not that I care that much. There is absolutely no way that I could date anyone at the moment anyway. So I don't really know...I guess I'll try it and just hope that it doesn't result in any awkward situations.

Speaking of facebook, my teacher wrote me a message saying happy birthday. :) Her birthday is in a few days as well. Now I have to sit down for an hour to figure out a message back. Kidding, it won't take that long. Only 55 minutes.

I really need to get myself back on track this week. The past couple weeks have been ridiculous as far as my schedule goes. I almost feel like I was on a continuous cycle the whole time and just slept for a couple hours here and there. I came home tonight and immediately dropped on the bed for a few hours. Tomorrow is my last day of treatment so hopefully I will get back on a regular work schedule.

I don't have anything else to say. I hope you enjoyed my blog entry.

Coldplay

One of the things I like most about Coldplay is the fact that their lyrics make no sense. I think that that allows people to internalize the songs at a level that other bands can't really achieve. Take my most recent favorite song, for example. It's called "Now My Feet Won't Touch The Ground". For one thing, it reminds me of their oldest songs. (A lot of the songs on their new EP remind me of really old songs of theirs). Here are the lyrics of the song, which is really short.

Let me go, boys, let me go
Push my boat from the highest cliff to the sea below
Rocks are waiting, boys, rocks await
Swoop down from the sky and catch me like a bird of prey

Now my feet won't touch the ground

Now my head won't stop
You wait a lifetime to be found
Now my feet won't touch the ground

That doesn't really make sense, but I already personalized it completely and I feel really attached to it. That's really interesting. That happens a lot with their songs. I also really like this one because it's not a love song, which would really bother me. I really love this EP, partially for that reason and partially because I just really like all the songs. There's an instrumental song on it that sounds just like Chopin. Chopin onions. (Ha)

I am so exhausted. I have been working a ton this week and I feel like I have gotten nowhere. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's just that what I'm working on is time-consuming. I had great intentions of doing laundry tonight, but instead I came home and fell asleep. Great job, self. Now everything is left for tomorrow, when I HAVE to do it. I hope they don't ask me to do the code push, because that would probably take me all night since I haven't done one to production before.

You all will be happy to know I've been practicing assertiveness and I did a couple things today to further that goal. And it went fine. Well, off to sort laundry for tomorrow.

P.S. I just realized I forgot to talk about Katy Perry and Chelsea Handler. It was fine.

Interesting site

I was just looking around facebook, and on my teacher's page I saw this site: http://www.karlmennogkrabbamein.is/ - which means "Men and cancer". I was like, "Ok, this looks like it could be informational, even though I don't really think I could use it." 

Well, thank god I didn't look at it at work. You guys should go look at it, but not at work or school, and you'll see why. Haha!

Anyway if you click on the button under the guy, it just shows how to examine yourself for possible cancerous symptoms, if you're a guy. The one that was a little much was Blöðruháls. I don't even know what that means. The dictionary doesn't make sense. Anyway you can probably see what it's trying to explain. Then the guy says if you have any of the symptoms on the right, go to the doctor. The other ones are lungs, digestion, testicles, and skin, and then general symptoms.

One of the more interesting sites I've seen in my time, I guess.

Bills

I was studying my bills today and went into monetary (I didn't misspell momentary) shock because of all the bills for my recent trips to the hospital. Christ Almighty. There's one that could pay for a pretty nice computer - that I assume is for the emergency visit. There are a few others that are slightly lower. I don't think I'll be able to pay those off soon. Plus I have bills for visits to the actual doctor and my actual therapist. Thank fucking god I have insurance. The bill for what I assume was the emergency visit was over $2,000. Insurance cut it down considerably, but it's obviously not something I'm really enjoying having to pay. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have insurance. For one thing, I don't think they would have "intaked" (intook? intaken?) me if I didn't have insurance. They went over that part pretty carefully. Anyway I plan to discharge tomorrow.

I read one of Chelsea Handler's books yesterday and today (My Horizontal Life). It took maybe 3 or 4 hours - it's pretty short. I liked it a lot. I'll probably go through and try to find funny parts at some point. I'm on to her newer one now. The best part about her books is that they're written exactly how she talks. I love it. I wish I was exactly like her. I'm becoming a little obsessed.