My song

Brian made a post asking if you had to pick a theme song for yourself, what would it be? Of course you generally can't sum up your whole life with one song. I think most people would have "phases" and no one song would sum up that particular phase.
Right now my song is the theme from Star Wars...that could change tomorrow, but for now I think I'm feeling like saving the galaxy...or something like that.

Problem with so...

Have you ever been having a conversation with a person who kind of trails off all of their sentences with the word "so..."?

I'm leaving at noon so...

My printer hasn't been working since they replace the new hard drive, so...


So, what??
Finish your goddamned sentence! You're leaving at noon so...get my ass down there and fix your computer? Is that what you wanted to say? Printer hasn't worked since the new harddrive was installed so...what, you want your old busted harddrive back?

This drives me crazy. It's not just at work that I encounter people who can't finish their sentences, it's everywhere. Are people so afraid of pissing other people off that they can't even finish what they want to say? JUST SAY IT!

Gmail again...

So I decided to try out my Gmail invititation. I go through the process of signing up and try to enter in my first name as my email address. That one is taken (always is...) so it automatically suggests some...and what did it suggest?

janellester

Umm, yeah, I think I'll pass on that one...

Foetus?

Those British people and their funny spelling...
Julie Leung pointed out an article on the BBC website about a new kind of ultrasound technology that allows the baby to be viewed in 3D instead of 2D as is the current method. Doctors have been able to get some fascinating images with this new technology.

Blah

Just play this for a few hours and you might feel like I do...(maybe...)

Speaking of Engrish...

A shirt every 7 or 8 year old should have...somehow I don't think I'll be buying my daughter one of these...

Engrish?

Do you ever wonder if you sound like you're speaking in tongues to other people?
Here's a case where I did...

Some guy calls me with a printer problem...
me: click Start, then Settings, then Printers and tell me what you have.
guy: umm...err...say that one more time in English?

?? wtf dude, I just said it in English... I didn't even stutter...

me: click Start...
guy: Start? what's that?
me: click the Start button in the lower left hand...
guy: OH...ok I'm with the program now

I had serious doubts about that...

Adult Contemporary???

For the record...

This is the listing of the Billboard Top 20 "Adult Contemporary" singles.

Note that NONE of these songs or artists show up on this radio station's music list...

I rest my case...

Jus f'in YUCK

I've always said the bugs in Florida are twice the normal size of any bug anywhere else. Here's a prime example...

a song

The Scientist.


damn you Coldplay...

WTF?

Via EvilScienceChick...this is disturbing. Dude, get a life...

Where's George?

This site is cool. Got a dollar bill from Albertson's and it had "See where I have been" and the website addy on it. This particular bill has been to Iowa and now it's here. Kinda cool in a geeky kind of way, but I guess that's me...

The vacation that was nothing

As you might have guessed, I didn't post today. I'm taking a vacation of sorts...not from blogging obviously, but from work. I feel so out of the whole blogging loop...like there's a party going on and I'm stuck at home with the flu or something.
< sigh>


p.s. Penfolds Rawson's Retreat merlot is verrrrry good...

Getting a beatdown

From Sloth I got this interesting link...

I'm sad to say that I have done the thing listed under June 14...

Found!

Have you ever written a note and then found it years later only to wonder what the hell it meant?

Here I thought I was the only one who did that...

Some of these are really kind of fascinating. If you have ever seen a counselor, they tell you to write down things you are feeling so that you can go back and reflect on how you felt at that moment and try to figure out why. I think a lot of these might qualify under that category...like, for instance, the one that says "page me later"...

5am

5am is barely light
I see no colors outside
All is black and white

The light wakes me up
At 5am I'm groggy
What's wrong with this day?

In my half sleep, half awake state this morning, I looked outside and it really didn't look like there were any colors. Everything appeared to me in shades of black, white, and gray. I thought I was dreaming. I remember looking at the clock and it was 5:00. I went back to sleep, but I was in that weird inbetween place where you're not awake but you're not really asleep. I actually had sort of lucid dream where I made an entry into my blog that was a haiku. The haiku was pictures though. The pictures symbolized the words.
Very strange...

Church signs

This is just one example of the fun you can have with this page...

Also of note (not to mention hours of fun...)is this page where you can put lots of words in W's mouth.

Or if you are just feeling TOO good about yourself, go here...

Useless Taxi

< rant>
I needed a cab this morning.
I opened the phone book and looked at the offerings for cab companies. 1st Choice Taxi seemed good enough so I dialed their number. A woman answers...
bitch: "1st Choice Taxi"
me: "hi I'd like to see if I can get a cab to pick up?"
bitch: "I can't help you." < click>

Huh? Did she just hang up on me? It's a cab company. They are in the phone book under "TAXI" ffs. Maybe she misunderstood me? I will try again...

bitch: "1st Choice Taxi"
me: "hi, sorry, did you just say you couldn't help me? I need a cab please"
< click>

Did she hang up AGAIN?? Ok, wtf is her problem? I'll try again, maybe she can't hear me...

bitch: "1st Choice Taxi"
me: "hi, I need a cab please"
bitch: "really?"
< click>

So if you happen to need a fuckin taxi in this god-forsaken town, don't fucking call 1st Choice Taxi. They should change their name to Last Choice Taxi...as in they should be the last people you would ever want to call if you really need a cab to get somewhere. Their slogan should be "when you absolutely can't find another cab, we still can't help you".
Fuckers...

< /rant>

Triumph

I really wish I could manage to stay up late enough to watch Conan O'Brien. Looking at the Triumph clips had me in tears.
I liked the weatherman one hehe

ow, my sides hurt...

93 degrees!

It's hot. It's sticky. It's miserable...and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. If there is one thing I miss from living in Florida, it's air conditioning. I miss it being so cold inside vs. outside that your glasses fog up when you go in. I miss having to wear a sweater at work even though it was 95 in the shade outside. I miss using blankets to cover up with at night because the air was blowing on me. I miss being able to come in the house from the heat and feel the blast of cold air...now my best hope is a cold shower.
And today is only the first day of summer...

Heat Lightning

occurs when lightning is too far away for you to hear. This usually occurs in the warmer months of the year, hence the name heat lightning...
I used to always see heat lightning in the south. I took a video of some last summer when I was there. I had never seen it here in Washington until last night. It was kind of cool to see...all that was missing was the buzz of the cicadas in the trees...
Here's a pic I took with my phone. It's not very good, but you get an idea. I had pulled over to the side of the road and was looking out over the water near. You can faintly see lights on the other side of the water, the streak is the lightning. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get the flash that lit up the sky.

Hello My Name Is...

Scott is an entrepenureal fellow who goes around with a nametag on all of the time...every day...wherever he goes. Apparently he's been doing this for 3 and a half years.

A fun thing to do on this site (after you have read all of the informative articles and things about how to not be a reclusive hermit) is to play all of these "Audio Abstracts" at once and you can hear a thousand Scott's talking all at once...

ok, yeah i'm bored...

RIP Diane

Yesterday when I got home from work my daughter said "How come Diane is swimming that way?"
I looked and Diane was kind of upside-down in between some of the plants in the tank...yep she's dead. My daughter did the scoop and flush and we said a little prayer as she went swirling around the bowl.
Diane was a good fish. She was an independent fish, having killed off two of the male partners I had brought in for her, and she knew what she wanted. She was easily the largest fish in the tank and she didn't let anyone push her around. Cosmo, Pinky, and the Jackson 5 minus 1 all knew where they stood and they kept their distance from Diane. She was also a smart fish. She knew that when the top of the aquarium was open, there was a good chance that the food was coming so she would kind of hover near the surface keeping a look out. She was also very athletic. She did laps around the tank to keep in shape. She was often seen splashing around the top of the water as she did this.
I don't know how she died. I think the water in my tank is probably not of the best quality so that may have something to do with it. I took all of the plants and rocks out today in order to clean them before I put them back in. I have heard that putting them in the dishwasher with no soap cleans all of the nasty off of the plants...so that's exactly what I did. I think Diane would have wanted it that way...

Vaya con dios Diane...

What DON'T I have to do today?

I am dead tired. I have been catching a few zzz's here and there throughout the day and the only thing it has done is made me...even more tired. I am pretty sure I fell asleep on the phone a few times today while I was waiting for someone to bring me off of hold or for their PC to reboot or something.
Less awake,more sleep...that's what i need...but that's not what I am going to get any time soon. I have about a gajillion things to do today including a softball game, major house cleaning, packing up my daughter to send her off to Florida for a summer of mosquito bites, sunburns, and lots and lots of A/C, and put new sheets on my bed (ummm...yeah).
I am such a procrastinator. I've known all week I've had to do all of this crap, but nooo couldn't do it then could I.
I want to know when scientists will make a pill that give you sleep without actually sleeping. I'm not talking No-Doz or any of that shit, I mean making your brain and your body think that you have slept just by taking a pill. There must be some kind of enzyme or hormone that would do this.

While they are at it, they could come up with something like that "special cake" in the 3rd Matrix movie... haha

Best line of the day

Printer breaks in the ED. Doctor, in all of his wisdom, tries to fix the printer by tearing it apart looking for the reason why it won't work. Hardware tech goes to the ED to fix the broken printer.
Doctor tells him "I have a printer and computer at home. I know what I'm doing."
Hardware tech says, as he's fixing the printer, "I have some Band-Aids and scissors at home, but that doesn't make me a doctor."
and walks away...

he's a quick wit that one...

Sorting yourself out

Take this test that I picked up from Accordian Guy (who picked it up from some other guy). I scored a 48 (that's out of 100!). If this was a school exam I would have failed.

Most people who are "using" the program increase their scores between 2 and 6 points per month...You want to take this program on with the intention of getting a 100.

I like the premise of something like this, but really who is anyone else to tell me how functional/dysfunctional my life is? I think I can figure that out all on my own. Or at least my therapist can tell me...

Don't forget your hat

Commercials are funny. Very rarely do they ever make you want to buy something anymore, they are just there to get your attention.
Take, for instance, the Quiznos ads featuring singing rodents that were playing a few months back. I wonder what genius in the marketing department decided that watching gerbils wearing hats and singing a jingle would make you want to go out and buy a sandwich? Interestingly enough, check out the same rodents singing praises to the moon, spoons, cheese, and other useful items.
Another one is the new eBay commercial. It's some dope singing the praises of eBay to the tune of "That's Amore". If I hear that damn commercial, the tune stays in my head for hours...and that's NOT a good thing. I mean, I like eBay, but talk about wanting scream after that runs through your head a few hundred times...
Does anyone else love the "roaming gnome" commercials for Travelocity?

If you ever are at work, or bored, or just want to do some mindless reading, the Ad Report Card is time well wasted.

Blogging Darwinism

Evil Science Chick has an interesting point on the evolution of blogging. I think that is exactly how I started one. I found myself wanting to write more and more. At first I didn't care who read it, I guess to some extent I still don't, but that doesn't explain why I look at my stats every day....heh.

Thanks also to Evil Science Chick for the Terror Level alert...hehe

Getting to Know You...

Via Jay McCarthy, this blog has a blogger's version of those "know your friends" emails you get from everyone you know...

1. which political party do you typically agree with? Libertarian

2. which political party do you typically vote for? Democrat

3. list the last five presidents that you voted for? Gore, Clinton, Clinton (wasn't old enough before then..)

4. which party do you think is smarter about the economy? Libertarian

5. which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs? Libertarian

6. do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out? we should bring some home but I also think they should have shorter deployments.

7. who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11? the terrorists who crashed planes into buildings.

8. do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in iraq? let's see...been there over a year and still haven't found them...Bush even jokes about it now.

9. yes or no, should the u.s. legalize marijuana? doesn't affect me...i say take the "don't ask, don't tell" approach.

10. do you think the republicans stole the last presidential election? I was a resident of Florida in the last election...hmmm, his brother is the state's governor...sounds fishy to me.

11. do you think bill clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with monica lewinski? no he should have been impeached for committing purgery...last time i checked, getting a blow job wasn't against the law.

12. do you think hillary clinton would make a good president? i might vote for her...maybe...

13. name a current democrat who would make a great president: i was going to vote for howard dean before he dropped out...then john edwards...

14. name a current republican who would make a great president: john mccain

15. do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion? yes

16. what religion are you? I consider myself spiritual, not religious.

17. have you read the Bible all the way through? nope

18. what's your favorite book? ughhh i don't have one...i really should read more.

19. who is your favorite band? at the moment, it's Coldplay. I have many favorites.

20. who do you think you'll vote for president in the next election? Kerry because I have the ABB mentality...again...

21. what website did you see this on first? Jay McCarthy

and later, there was more...everyone should know me well enough now...

1. Do you try to look hot when you go to the grocery store just in case someone recognizes you from your blog? Well, since there isn't a photo of me on my blog, I don't know how they would...maybe from my stunning personality. =)

2. Are the photos you post Photoshopped or otherwise altered? see above...generally I don't Photoshop pictures of myself...

3. Do you like it when creeps or dorks email you? No, not especially...on the other hand, it is cool that people read...

4. Do you lie in your blog? why lie? I don't, but of course there are things I just don't say here...I just don't know you well enough yet. =)

5. Are you passive-aggressive in your blog? um....i'm not telling you...

6. Do you ever threaten to quit writing so people will tell you not to stop? no when i said i would stop posting for a while...i stopped posting for a while...

7. Are you in therapy? If not, should you be? If so, is it helping? that's none of your damn business and I thank you for staying out of my personal affairs < /ace ventura >

8. Do you delete mean comments? Do you fake nice ones? nope

9. Have you ever rubbed one out while reading a blog? How about after? well Belle sometimes posts some interesting stuff... (this made me laugh..)

10. If your readers knew you in person, would they like you more or like you less? they would fall at my feet and worship me....ok not really...um sure yeah I'm likeable.

11. Do you have a job? yes i do

12. If someone offered you a decent salary to blog full-time without restrictions, would you do it? for sure. what could be better than that? then I could write off my need for a wireless router and a laptop as a "business expense".

13. Which blogger do you want to meet in real life? hmm...i'll get back to you on that...

14. How many bloggers have you made out with? oooo trick question

15. Do you usually act like you have more money or less money than you really have? I have no money...I don't need to hide that from anyone.

16. Does your family read your blog? yep and it even made my mom laugh.

17. How old is your blog? 7 months old. I'm teaching it to roll over and play dead.

18. Do you get more than 1000 pageviews per day? Do you care? No I don't care. I don't think the point of blogging is to see how many page views you get.

19. Do you have another secret blog in which you write about being depressed, slutty, or a liar? yeah it's called real life...=) (not that i know of...maybe i have schizophrenia?)

20. Have you ever given another blogger money for his/her writing? i gave a dollar to OddTodd once. He doesn't have a blog though...

21. Do you report the money you earn from your blog on your taxes? < looks around > what money??

22. Is blogging narcissistic? i suppose it is a tad narcissistic to make a web site spouting your opinions and views on things assuming people care...

23. Do you feel guilty when you don't post for a long time? not especially. i do kind of miss it though...

24. Do you like John Mayer? i want to run through the halls of my high school. i want to scream at the top of my lungs, "i just found out there's no such thing as the real world. it's just a lie you've got to rise above" that's good stuff if you ask me...

25. Do you have enemies? yes i think there is a girl in Florida who still hates me.

26. Are you lonely? occasionally

27. Why bother? why ask why?

Gmail?

I don't get it. Why is everyone talking about these invite things? What's the big fuss and why do I need ANOTHER email account??

Wound up tighter than...

a spring?
BOINGNNGNNNGNNNGGGG...

I have an enormous amount of energy today and I can barely contain myself. I feel anxious, jittery, restless....hmmm what does this mean?

Time to get up and move...

it's me...

back from self-imposed "vacation. testing the waters...just dipping a toe in at this point.
We'll see what happens...

How much time do we really have?

One never really knows ...
A co-worker of mine passed away very suddenly this morning. I had just talked to her yesterday. She said hi. I said hi. We were passing in the hall. She always said hello even if she was in the middle of conversation. She once gave me a little card with a 'get a free coffee' coupon inside of it for getting a project done for her ahead of schedule. Yesterday I saw her and now she's dead. She was only 55. She had a family. No one got a chance to say goodbye to her. She was preparing for a normal work day, had a massive heart attack and was rushed to the ER where she was pronounced dead. Gone! End of story! Just like that...
When something like this happens to someone you know, it makes you realize how silly and stupid the little things you worry about every day are. It makes silly arguements seem even more asinine. It's odd how things keep moving when something like this happens. It makes you realize how insignificant your life really is in the grand scheme of things. I mean, what's the point of all of the stuff we do in our lives? (I know, age-old question, right?)
I know this feeling of goodwill that I have right now will fade with time, but for now I want to be good and kind to people, because you just never know when their number (or yours for that matter) will be up.

A momentary interlude...

I've taken a short hiatus...call it a "vacation" if you will. Think of this next post as a "postcard"...


Having fun. Wish you were here.