College Years

I was just rearranging my room, which is a big task for me, and I located those notes that Emily, Sarah, and I wrote to each other to be opened in a year (on 2/9/02). Here is what my best qualities are/were, according to S.

a "wiz" at computers

amazing at memorizing lyrics to songs

a good e-mailer

good @ filling out surveys

good @ playing the ukulele

good at making your voice sound like annoying instruments

always on time

soft hands

a very witty writer

soft hair

the perfect height

has a good sense of smell.

My favorite part of Emily's letter (despite the fact that she wrote Happy Halloween and it was February)  is when she mentioned the "You Better!" that was on their computer as the warning noise. I'm laughing a lot remembering that. "You better!...click on this." God, that's funny. And when the computer started up, it said "Name this continent! ASIA."

Do you guys remember when I volunteered at the Daily Cardinal for a semester? How interesting to think about. I hardly remember it, except that it was when I first started dating Kyle and when I first got into Bright Eyes. There was one day when we must have just started dating because I was really happy about that, and I was walking to Vilas and listening to this one song and it was snowing. Every time I hear that song I think of that moment. That was kind of a cool job, if not really mundane. I guess it's not the worst job ever, though. I think what I did was upload that day's stories and photos to the website. I had to do something in Quark, but I think it was just getting the text from the pages. I didn't actually edit anything.

I also saved two of the lecture hall bingo(e)s from the Daily Cardinal. I always thought they were hilarious and they still are, to me. Here are some of them. Feel free to add some if you think of any. :D

Student falling asleep

TA doesn't show up

Obvious member of a frat

Obvious member of a sorority

Football player attends class

Cell phone rings

Prof. can't work mic

Clock moves backward

Girl leaves way too early

Prof can't work power point

Bored looking hipster

Student writing on desk

Guy attending for first time

Girls won't stop talking

Prof gets chalk on him/herself

Girl picks hair off sweater

Entire issue of Onion read

Guy listening to headphones

Prof runs out of handout

4 UW shirts in a row

Weekend plans overheard

I want to try to think of some myself.

Girl who can't breathe through her nose

Awkwardly long, horrible silence (after a teacher asks a question)

Students pack up backpacks 10 minutes early

All the aisle seats are taken first

Someone kicks your chair repeatedly

Girl flips her hair onto your desk

Someone smells really bad

You have to cough really badly during a test

You have to pass a paper to someone sitting 100 feet away

Someone has a really bad muffin top

Guy wearing shorts in January

You have to walk from Memorial Library to Engineering and you only have 10 minutes! Go!!!

Idiots!

I was driving up Cleveland today and experience the worst run of traffic in a while. Actually it wasn't just that road. Several times today people just walked across the road wherever they were, not even looking. Ok, that's fine in a crosswalk. But these weren't. I think that pedestrians generally forget what it's like to be a driver. It happens to me occasionally too, I'll admit.

 

I submit that people forget what it's like being a driver the second they turn off their car. This follows from the 2 near-doorings that I was a part of on Cleveland. Not one but two people drove to the side and just got out of the car (door open wide). Without looking. One was right after a busy and chaotic intersection so that was really close. It's like, I think most people just notice themselves, when they don't realize that it might be hard to see them. I'm aware when I'm trying to cross a street, but the cars aren't necessarily, especially if it's dark.

 

Another issue. Changing lanes in an intersection. Don't do it. Weaving in and out of lanes to avoid people turning left. Turning in front of me really quickly, causing me to brake suddenly, when there is nobody behind me. Not using turn signals. Tailgating. All these things cause ire.

 

Turn signal omission is something that drives me up the wall. I HATE it. Rage from incidents of turn signal non-usage stay with me for a while afterwards. It's one thing in a parking lot or something, but in regular driving it's just idiotic. It causes me to sit there like a moron waiting when I don't need to, or it just makes the other person look like a lazy jerk. Ahhh, nonchalantly wandering over to this lane now. Now I'm just gonna go over here. Ugh.

 

The KARE 11 newscasters were just having a really dumb conversation. It sounded like they were trying to stall. Anyway...I think I'm getting a cold. :( My sinuses have the pre-sickness ache.

 

No way. I just saw a guy talking about the economy and his nametag said "Mr. Crapo". No way!! Is it just me or does Henry Paulson look and act like a wrestler?

Oh yeah

My dad told us today that he got laid off. Luckily (or not) he got 30 days notice. It really sucks for a bunch of reasons. Anyway my family is in crisis mode. Within the span of a week or two around Halloween, almost everyone in my immediate family had a giant catastrophe. I won't go into it now, but man. I keep thinking "When it rains, it pours". I actually kind of wonder how we're all basically functioning normally. That's all for now. The kitten just made a funny face at me.

Review this record, warden

Every time I see this clip, I laugh hysterically. Check out around 35 seconds in. You won't be sorry.

Coldplay

I get to see Coldplay tomorrow! (With Laura). It's been a while I think. I don't remember what the last show was. It can't have been the one in Milwaukee? 3 years ago or something? No way. Now I'm curious. I just looked at my website and it was - 03/19/06. It's been a while...........since I could hold my head up high. NO! Get out of my head, Staind. And while you're at it, spell your name correctly.

We have good seats, so I will take my camera and attempt to get good pictures.

Today I met a girl named Jamie who used to work at my work. That was weird. She worked in a different area, though. She said she wants to be a web developer so she's going to start taking classes. I was so excited for her! She has Meniere's (sp?) so she can't hear very well, but she is really nice. And really pretty too.

Bye! Good (Bonus points if you know to what that is a reference)

Obama song

Hi. I spent some time tonight putting these clips together so everyone could hear this. I listen to this BBC show called The Chris Moyles Show and the other day he came up with this Barack Obama song. It will really get into your head. I have been singing it for a week.

I guess there really isn't much behind the clips. These are the people on the show: Chris, Dave, Dominic, Carrie, Rachel, and Aled. Mostly Chris and Dave talk and the rest pipe in. Dave is my favorite.

The funniest clip is the first one from 11-10 because they started coming up with other names to put with the song. I was listening to that Mon. morning and laughing my ass off. A funny part, to me, is the fact that I never know the celebrities they talk about. Every day I learn about a new person.

Anyway I highly recommend these clips, and if you only feel like listening to one or two, do the first one from 11.6 and the first one from 11/10.

11/6 - 1 (4:25)

11/6 - 2 (1:18)

11/6 - 3 (2:18)

11/6 - 4 (3:20)

11/7 - 1 (5:11)

11/10 - 1 (7:06)

11/10 - 2 (3:10)

11/11 - 1 (1:45)

11/11 - 2 (3:37)

All of them in a zip file

And that is my campaign to get everyone to know the song. :)

P.S. Emily, in one of those clips is Zane Lowe, who is a Kiwi!

Another bout of uncontrollable laughter

http://emilynotinkorea.blogspot.com/2008/11/vote-difference-between-franken-and.html

 

Here's a post on Emily's blog that is funny. I was making some laugh-choking sounds a minute ago at work and of course it's silent in here right now. The things that get me are the 0 in 08, Franken's face, and those two guys that are small and in the middle (Who are those guys? Should I know?). Also I really love the name Claymation "Big Teeth" Horseface. Personally, I call him Glued-on Teeth "Construction Paper Blush" Annoying Accent, but either are fine. Good job, Emily. I shared it with a coworker, who enjoyed it.

 

 

Odd

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Fire alarm

The fire alarm in the hallway is going off. I wonder if it's a bad thing that I don't really heed the warning. I am hearing running footsteps upstairs. I peeked around and didn't see anything so I guess I'll just stay in here. I don't know. Augh! The emergency doors just shut. I'm going to look around again. Ah it just went off, and there are some sirens. That freaked Daniel out. And me...I was calmly watching MST3K.

The Franken thing is now a margin of 238 votes because they found some kind of typo. What kind of typo would result in Franken getting 300 votes? They specifically said they were all Franken votes. 

Christ those sirens are loud, and someone is constantly reopening the emergency doors. Are 28 fire trucks here or something? I guess it was fast enough.

I heard some funny stuff on the radio today that I want to share when I get a chance. Back to the movie. But seriously...it sounds like every emergency vehicle in the state is driving into the apartment complex right now.

Senate

In case some of you guys didn't hear, our Senate race (the Al Franken one) was insane. Right now I guess it's finished, but the final vote is a separation of about 500 votes (1,211,643 to 1,211,167). Isn't that ridiculous? I kind of have a difficult time believing that that actually happened. That really sucks for the person that lost (Al Franken). Especially since Norm Coleman has glue-on teeth and construction paper blush. Sorry, I don't like him. On NPR this morning they were talking about the independent party candidate and how he affected this race. He got about 15% of the vote. I sometimes wonder how those votes would go, because I don't think they'd necessarily go to the DFL person. But, I think that in this case they would have (I don't remember though, it might have been equal). I sort of thought about voting for Barkley, the independent candidate, but since I have been educated in the democratic process, and how it's two parties and will be for a long time, I decided that it would do more harm than good, especially in a Senate race which doesn't have the electoral thing (and especially because polls had them so close). It seems like this happens again and again and again in elections. "Hey, let's check out what a third party can do!" It would be fine if it didn't totally skew everything. I am not against the idea of a third party, but people need to put things in perspective and notice situations where it's just not going to happen, which is almost every time (I don't know what happened with Ventura). I realize I might sound like a complete idiot right now, especially to people with a political science degree such as Emily. However, this third party thing really bothers me. It's like, ok, you're trying to make a point and change the country or whatever. Can't you focus your efforts on something else, such as the gay marriage ban or feeding small children or something? The amount of money that's going into these campaigns could do a lot of good somewhere else. Whatever...I guess I'm anti-change when it comes to this.

 

Anyway, does it not just feel so much happier today? In 2000 and 2004 it was like the black death had descended on us all. I get that it's just the things I choose to read and watch, but still. I think in general people are pretty pleased. The fact that he's the first black president really makes people feel good. On AVC people from other countries were going "good job" all day and everything. :)

 

Did anyone watch the Stewart/Colbert thing? My favorite part was when they announced South Carolina and Colbert was on there with 0% of the votes. :)

Voting

I went into work this morning and the power was out, so I decided to leave to vote. I walked in and saw a KARE 11 camera there. I forgot about it until I finished my ballot and turned around whilst wiping my brow because it was hot in there. Directly behind me was the camera, filming. I almost ran into it. I was like, wonderful, now my ugly mug is going to be stock voting footage on KARE 11. I had to walk in front of it AGAIN to leave. Anyway, now I'm at home because the power is still out at work. I should have told someone to call me when it goes back on. Oh well.

Spider Pig

Do you guys remember the Spider Pig song from the Simpsons movie? Well I was just watching a MST3K episode where they sang the same thing, except it was Spider Skank. Same tune and everything. I was confused because MST3K has been off the air for over 10 years. So I thought that probably they were both referencing a third party. Does anyone know what it is? I can't find it online anywhere. I guess it's possible that the Simpsons could have been referencing the MST3K thing, but I doubt it. It would be difficult to reference that show, I think.

My mom just announced that some guy is moving in with her. He's from New York and they met online. I guess he's moving in on Wednesday. My sisters and I are in denial and semi-rage right now. I cannot believe she is doing this. Apparently he quit his job and is just dropping everything. First of all, my mom doesn't have a good track record with relationships since she got divorced. All of the guys she met are creepy. And she never seems to like them. She's always saying how creepy they are, except for this one guy who ended up stalking her. Secondly, this is dangerous on many levels - financial, physical, mental, etc. My primary fear is that my sister is going to have to live in the same house as this random guy now. Who knows what he'll do? I can't believe my mom is putting my sister in this position. My other sister and I told her not to go over there anymore, and maybe Mom would get the point then. I doubt it'll be that easy, but whatever. All of my mom's boyfriends live in really far away locales. I wonder if she does this on purpose so she can go there. She "dated" this one guy from Australia and went there. She "dated" this guy from Florida and basically adopted his foster kids or something. That was weird. She brought them to my uncle's wedding and they were in the family photos with my sisters and I. I had never met them before. Most people were P-ed off at that. P.S. Both of those guys and all the others were deemed "creepy" by my mom. The more I am thinking about this, the more worried I am. That isn't a sentence, but hopefully you know what I mean. My sister is upset. She stayed home from school today because of it. I don't blame her. Anyway that's the story for today - my mom has crossed a line.

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.