I have way too much time on my hands

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

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

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

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

So basically I am a nerd.

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

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

Things are looking slightly up

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

My weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Advice needed

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

My apartment is now housing two

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

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

A highlight of today

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

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



That's right. A signed Talk DVD.

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

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

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

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

Later.

Bugs

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

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

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

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



-----

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

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

-----

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remembered another thing

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

What a strange string of events.

 

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

New developments at work

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

 

Well, work stuff.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Nice Friday morning.

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

Ideas

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

How I feel today

Mean co-worker

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

 

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

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

 

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

AUGH!!!

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

 

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

 

NOT HAVING A GREAT DAY TODAY!!!

 

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

 

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

Headache

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

 

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

I feel horrible!!!

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

Finished

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

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

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

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

Whew

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

 

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

Interesting

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

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

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

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

Sunday

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