Articles by jinkies

It really should be a naughty euphamism. So you know, let your mind wander…

Thanks to @JeffQuestad I got to read all about McCain’s vaguely disturbing predilection for ABBA. I’m not that disturbed about his enjoyment of Neil Diamon because, when push comes to shove, which one of us wouldn’t say they loved Neil Diamond? I have very fond junior high memories of our show choir singing “America.”

Which of course got me thinking, if I were going to list my ten favorite songs, what would they be? This could also have something to do with the fact that I just bought New Kids On Block “Greatest Hits” and would have chosen at least two of those songs had you asked me this question in 1990. And a Guns ‘N Roses song or two, I’m sure. Lest you think I’m a total freak.

Therefore, my top 10 songs of right-damn-now-which-are-available-at-the-iTunes-music-store-for-you-to-sample but in no particular order:

• Jellyfish’s “Brighter Day”
• Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around Comes Around”
• Mos Def’s “Hip Hop”
• Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”
• The White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army”
• No Doubt’s “Sunday Morning”
• Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon”
• Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”
• Ani Difranco’s “Untouchable Face”
• Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova’s “When Your Mind’s Made Up”

I’m a moderately skilled cyclist. I’m fairly likely to remain upright on my bike in most situations. I’m comfortable riding in traffic, near cars (and doors that may open at any moment) and taking the lane when it’s required.

I’m not good at crossing railroad tracks, it seems. I took a different route out of work toward the light rail. In hindsight, this was a bad idea. It required crossing the tracks on 7th street, and then crossing them again to actually travel down 7th street. See the map (zoom in to just about street level):


View Larger Map

I was traveling west on Jackson, making a left on 7th to head south. Note the railroad tracks. I know they’re there. I cross them all the time. The surface is terrible, but I usually just bunny hop over the tracks. I didn’t bunny hop quite far enough today… Caught my front wheel just in the angled track rut area, went skidding down on my left side, and hit the ground hard. Hard enough to actually send my lip balm shooting out of my fully closed messenger bag where it came to rest about six feet away.

Is it sad that my first two thoughts were:

1. Shit, there goes my rear derailleur.
2. Thank god I didn’t fall on my knife side!

I have beautifully forming bruises in a crescent shape around my left knee, a bruise blossoming on my left hip, elbow, and shoulder. Ugh. Not much broken skin though–just some abrasions on my knee and elbow. I guess that’s the advantage to commuting in my regular clothes and not spandex. I would’ve shredded my knee (I was wearing long shorts) and probably ripped the shoulder of my jersey (I was wearing a sturdy cotton t-shirt) if I were commuting in full kit.

Though this is always one of the dangers of cycling on the road, stuff like this always takes me by surprise. I’m going to hurt tomorrow!

Taking a break from cross-eyed order entry at work.

1. My uncle once: bought me the coolest Lego set available in my childhood–the castle.

2. Never in my life: will I do something I know I will one day regret.

3. When I was five: I got a little brother.

4. High school was: where I cultivated my finely honed nerdiness combined with a fierce need to compete.

5. I will never forget: all of the helping verbs (is are was were be being am have had has do does did may might must can could shall should will would).

6. Once I met: Bryan, I knew I was set.

7. There’s this boy I know: and he’s an asshole boy trapped in an incompetent, homophobic man’s body. I hope he gets shitcanned.

8. Once, at a bar: I dropped a full pint of beer, told my pal the bartender I was probably done drinking, then ordered another one.

9. By noon, I’m usually: ready for lunch.

10. Last night: I cooked a feast for Bryan and our houseguests.

11. If only I had: another bike.

12. Next time I go to church: I will probably not be at the one I grew up in.

13. What worries me most: is putting together money for a down payment on a house. But I’m still not that worried because I don’t worry much.

14. When I turn my head left I see: two printers and three post-it notes stuck to the wall.

15. When I turn my head right I see: Garrett’s desk.

16. You know I’m lying when: I tell you I’m lying.

17. What I miss most about the Eighties is: being a kid and having no responsibilities.

18. If I were a character in Shakespeare I’d be: one of the characters who appears in the first act, has one or two lines, then doesn’t appear again.

19. By this time next year: I will be preparing to go to EuroBike.

20. A better name for me would be: Darland Sasacha.

21. I have a hard time understanding: how stupid people got to be that way.

22. If I ever go back to school, I’ll: be in grad school, pissing away money to get another degree in a subject I love but won’t use.

23. You know I like you if: I actually listen when you talk to me.

24. If I ever won an award, the first person I would thank would be: Bryan, because he probably was the reason I tried in the first place.

25. Take my advice, never: take my advice.

26. My ideal breakfast is: coffee and something made at home. Served around noon.

27. A song I love but do not have is: a song I haven’t heard yet. I’m buried in music and I have a compulsion to own it if I like it.

28. If you visit my hometown, I suggest you: think of things to do that don’t require being in my hometown..

29. Why won’t people: actually think before they speak?

30. If you spend a night at my house: you should be someone who doesn’t mind 87 pounds of neurotic labrador retriever mix.

31. I’d stop my wedding for: nothing. And I didn’t.

32. The world could do without: 90% of the population.

33. I’d rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: eat raisins.

34. My favourite blonde(s) is/are: Bryan! Bottled blonde counts, eh?

35. Paper clips are more useful than: not having paper clips.

36. If I do anything well it’s: sleeping. I should be in the Olympics.

37. I can’t help but: I might try.

38. I usually cry: on the 12th of Never. I can’t remember the last time I cried.

39. My advice to my child/nephew/niece: only idiots say “don’t sweat the small stuff.” Ultimately only the small stuff makes a difference.

40. And by the way: I’m having a good day.

I think today I had what some people would call “Saturday.” I slept in (until 10:15 OMG) and then made myself some breakfast, a pot of coffee, and hung out (lost at least 30 minutes in Facebook, damn you Reece). I showered at 2pm. I cleaned the house a bit…vacuumed, did dishes, contemplated laundry for at least half a minute. Then after a random meeting with our landlord, Bryan and I went and ran errands. Hit up Target, went to the bank, got coffee for him and Jamba Juice for me, then bought a few house essentials at Crate & Barrel. (We’re still spending there on our wedding gift cards.) Today’s haul was a new dish rack, a colander, salad spinner, and a cast iron skillet.

Apparently this is what people do when they have weekends. People who are not my parents, because they are in Reno for the weekend. They travel. I stay home and do little things. Tomorrow I might get to go on a bike ride with my friends. Monday my friend Jess and her new man arrive for a week’s visit.

Thanks, new!job. I appreciate this “Saturday” thing.

I do love reading some of the blog comment spam I get. While thousands of them are just links and more links, some of it is just “flattering” text, generally as a test to see I’m spammable. My favorite this week is:

Your site is a refreshing change from the majority of sites I have visited. When I first started visiting web sites I was excited by the potential of the internet as a resource and was very disappointed initially. You have restored my enthusiasm and I thank you for your efforts to share your insights and help the world become a better place.

I’m glad that I’m a refreshing change. Oh, and I want to know how people are searching for a specific four-word phrase (which I’m not putting here, lest someone search again) having to do with porn and arriving here. Must be all that porn I post… I thank Akismet for catching 206,914 spam comments/trackbacks/pingbacks since I last reinstalled it.

Apparently some of my writing is being emailed around? HA! I’m glad I could entertain. Am I providing insight? Humor? Inspiration?

In any case, I’ll use this time to bring your attention to the late Katie Reider, whose music and life should inspire you. For $1 you can own some of her music and give to a good cause.

Tonight I saw The X-Files: I Want To Believe. I’m not going to spoil it. I am going to see it again next week with a friend whose friendship was, in the early days, built on the show and will probably have more to say after that. I liked it. I really did. It wasn’t spectacular like The Dark Knight, but it was quiet and atmospheric and even a wee bit thought-provoking. Gillian Anderson writ large is still breathtaking (though I often temporarily fixate on the cuteness that is her uneven blinking) and as in most of my favorite episodes of the show, she is the frosting keeping the gingerbread house upright. I might also add that in my world–the one where the show ended with “Je Souhaite”–this movie drops in quite nicely.

I’ve learned over the years that having low expectations of Chris Carter is best. I think I had pretty high expectations of the flick despite my best intentions. Not bad, CC. Not too bad.

Gillian Anderson is just adorkable. I sometimes forget this, but with all the press around the new X-Files movie, she’s everywhere. I’m enough of a dork that her televised appearances are on my Google calendar. Really.

Last night she was on Leno. I was not home, and I didn’t TiVo. Nevermind that, though, because that’s why we have YouTube. I do love that I watch her live like this and I’m always on the verge of fear of what’s going to pop out of her mouth. She skirts a bit toward the British accent in there, which I also think is adorable…but I have so much adoration for her anyhow, that I’m a terrible barometer.

Read this article from Salon which does a pretty good job of explaining my love of Scully (and by extension, Gillian herself). Though I’d take Scully over Gillian if I got to choose. But if I didn’t get to choose, I’d take either. I’m not stupid.

Even though Sarah gave me a partially used container of sugar and a bike frame (which I forgot to take) instead of the X-Files prop she has, I have to wave to her here. I was glad to get your (by proxy) text from Barstow. Drive safely and I hope the cats can poop in the box while the car is moving. We miss you already! Git yerserlf a job now!

Firstly, if you lag even more than me, you must stop what you are doing and you must go see The Dark Knight. It was awesome. Spectacular. Having just watched Heath Ledger chew the screen, spit it out, and make me beg for more, I implore you to put yourself through the experience as well. Goddamn that was good stuff.

In other news:

• Fuck bike theives!
• Joss Whedon is brilliant! And no, that’s not a link to Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog.
• Then there’s my Friday night which I’m so looking forward to.

Thus I am not re-installing the small gate in the backyard. I could change the bulb on the porch light, but instead, I’m blogging off my brunch Chavela (chilled glass with salted rim, filled with Beer, shot of Tequila, splash of Tomato Juice, squirt of Lime Juice, and a touch of Tapatio) from Bill’s Cafe. Yummy. I could’ve used more salt, but it was the perfect amount of Tapatio. Maybe I could make it with Cholula if I make it at home…

My new job! It allows me to have weekends and I pretty much just work the same schedule every day. It’s an amazing little invention called a “fixed schedule.” After six years of retail, it’s actually a minor miracle that I still remember what a weekend even is! What I’m doing right now is working at Phil Wood & Co. doing a little bit of everything. Though I have a fancy title (VP of Global Operations), I cut my day with answering phones, weird tech questions, product assembly, organization, graphic design, technical writing, merchandising, new product research, and shipping and receiving. I love it!

My short attention span is perfect for this job, as is my love of cycling, my nerdiness about cycling, and the fact that I can dork out reading Bicycle Retailer and updates on the Tour de France and consider it actual work-relevant research. I’ve been there for about a month now, and I’m really finding my feet. I think it’s a great place to work and we’re producing great products that are designed and manufactured right here in San Jose.

A lot of the things I’m doing at work aren’t bloggable (much like the last job), but it makes me enormously happy just to be doing them. I’d spent the last year or so at REI, not really wanting to be there. It had its perks, but huge annoyances were turning into impossible working conditions and the really good health insurance wasn’t going to help me if work was making me sick. Wanting to stay in the industry of outdoor gear left me with few options, though there are actually more options than one might think. I did put a few applications out there and even interviewed for a retail store manager position (they couldn’t offer me compelling money or benefits in the end) for a well-known brand within the industry. This job just fell into my lap, really, but proves once again that if you have the skills, are passionate about the work (or the industry), then you can get something you will like. Build those working relationships. It’s all about who you know.

The lesson here for me was to understand that my happiness at work was ultimately the most important thing. Being unhappy at work led me to being unhappy at home, and it made me grumpy with Bryan, which is about the last thing I want to do. It took me a while, but I figured out what I wanted, the conditions I wanted to work under, and the amount of sacrifices I was willing to make in order to get the work I wanted. This move cost me a little bit, however I ultimately commute less, spend more time at home and with friends, and am happy. I’m allowed to be a more committed wife and friend. I can make family events. Today I went to a last-minute brunch.

Find balance in your life. It’s something I used to hear a lot about when I was at REI. I found it by leaving REI.

I seem to have fixed a lot of the things that were driving me batty about this particular theme. With very little work, I might add. I still feel like I need an image in the upper left, but don’t have anything that strikes me as “the one” for use in that size.

Less annoyed with the layout, still unsure. That’s the state of the union.

What has kept me away?

• New job. Very good stuff, trying to get my life into a rhythm. This includes writing, but more on the getting-paid-for-it side. It makes blogging seem like a chore.
• New schedule allows me to actually hang out with Bryan. So I do.
• Wordpress kept updating and my old theme needed to be updated with it. This was a chore. So I have GREATLY simplified my life and gone with something else (Sandbox/Blackbox) that will take less maintenance. I just have to figure out the gallery issue.
• Too many things to blog about have built up!

When I do start writing again, covered topics will include (and likely in this order):

1. My new job.
2. My new life.
3. Seeing both The Swell Season and The Police in concert.
4. House-hunting.
5. Chandler getting sick (and then well) without coffee.

ETA: I should add here that the theme, while I do like it, has a few issues (like not agreeing with my use of unordered lists). It will probably change to another that I’ve found which will require me to edit a few photos. I used an inordinate amount of Photoshop this week, so I will need a 24 hour break from the work.

Though more will come on the topic soon, I’d like to announce that today was my final day at my old job. Quitting was a long time coming (mostly) and I’m so excited to be starting my new venture. Whew!

I have a lot of t-shirts because I love them. I’m going to get to wear them more these days, which is always exciting. They’d stopped fitting in my drawer because I’d gotten to the point where I had a lot of them. (Damn you Threadless and your cool shirts!) I discovered a new way of organizing the drawer itself, offering more space for shirts and a way to display my shirt nerdistry. (Did you know that there is a National Association of Professional Organizers? There is.)

It’s horizontal stacking! Genius!

(Every time Brandy says that, I about die.)

While Bryan and I were in New York my headphones broke. It was tragic. They still technically worked, but there was a piece that had come loose inside. The result was a horrible rattling noise every time I moved my head. Kinda defeats the purpose of wearing headphones. The death of these headphones was possibly even more mentally catastrophic than the soon-to-be death of my iPod. I’d purchased the rattling headphones in Japan on a day when I probably listened to thirty different pair of headphones while trying to purchase a pair for myself and for Bryan.

I ended up with some Japan-only Sony folding headphones. I’m that person who can’t use earbuds. Can’t at all get them to stay in my ear because my ear shape is the opposite shape of whatever earbud model is out there. They just plop right out of my ears. (When I wear my bluetooth headset I look extra dumb because it sticks out at a weird angle and only stays up because of the behind-ear wire thing it came with.) I loved those damn Sony headphones. Though I only spent $30-ish on them, I agonized over their purchase, trying to balance good sound with excellent portability. By the time they’d died, I’d had them for over five years.

In my search for new headphones, I stumbled upon Turntable Lab, which was a short ride away from our NYC hotel. Sadly, I discovered them about two hours after they’d closed with us leaving the next morning. I was initally excited because they sold Audio-Technica headphones, which I’d purchased for Bryan many moons ago. I’d loved them, but once back in the States, wasn’t able to find them anywhere I could go listen to them again. I didn’t get any ATs (I’d want to listen to them and pick a bad ass pair which I still may do), but I did go for mid-price blingtasticness in the WESC Aoki Signature Premium headphones in yellow. My pal CP asked the other day if I was having fun living in the 80s when I rolled up to Kristen’s grad wearing them and rocking out. I was enjoying all the decades, thankyouverymuch.

All this writing because I love them. I use them when I commute on CalTrain and tonight I rocked out to a new playlist on the new iPod while doing dishes and taking out trash and recycling. Oh, and I love the new Madonna/Justin Timberlake song, “4 Minutes.” I do. Mock if you like, but I’m also going to see New Kids On The Block in concert in October. FUCK YEAH.

Playing house in not like playing doctor. Unless you’re talking about the show, House, in which case it all gets quite confusing.

Bryan and I are on the house hunt these days. Mostly it involves me finding listings that are interesting, sending them to him, and then we talk endlessly about them. Today it involved actually driving out to see a particular place–going so far as to have the realtor come out and let us in to see it. Apparently I’m suddenly an adult. We’re now talking about neighborhoods and walking distance to shopping, our lack of caring about school districts, and how many renters vs. owners live in neighborhoods.

It’s occured to me recently (i.e. since I’ve turned the ripe old age of 30) that I’m suddenly grown up. Suddenly! OMG just now! First it was at Radena’s birthday dinner where I’m sitting in a nice restaurant with two friends I’ve known for a dozen years and all of our significant others. We’re drinking a nice bottle of wine, chatting about cars and jobs and property taxes if you move out of state but have two residences…when BAM! Grown up. I guess I should’ve seen it coming.

I’m baking cookies because I don’t feel good. No, Bryan doesn’t think it makes sense either. I’m enjoying the baking recently, but have chosen the cookie bar over the drop cookies. I’m too lazy to form cookie-shaped cookies. I admit this.

I’ve been feeling vaguely sick for a few days now. I’m not sure if I’m picking up this crap thing that has been going around at work, or if I’m just feeling the effects of working seven days in a row and then doing three straight days of graduation celebration. That’s a lot of sangria, beer, and watching other people graduate.

In addition, there is something on tv right now called “The Movie Preview Awards” which is “[c]elebrating the best in movie trailers, featuring nominees and awards in 16 categories.” What? There are awards for movie trailers? This is apparently the ninth year of these awards. Sinbad is hosting. I had to change the channel in order to keep the cable box from exploding. Whoa.

Congrats to my friends who graduated this weekend. I love you guys and had a great time watching you walk across the stage, pose for photos, and hanging out during the not-graduation times. Thanks for coming to the beach with me, eating breakfast with me, and being awesome friends.

Now I need a nap. Helping other people graduate is exhausting!

Brass and kreece: You guys are awesome! I’m so proud of you! =)

My first camping trip of the year happened quite early. (Beach trip was awesome too…photos soon forthcoming.) We went to a great wooded campsite in Napa where I got to try out my awesome hammock sleep system. It gets two thumbs way up for comfort and ease of use.

Click through the photo to see the gallery:

And the rest!
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Here are more of ‘em:

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Before you die. Because seeing movies after you die is more complicated than just using Netflix. I’ll work on it for my own afterlife…but for now, see ‘em pre-deathification. This list is really 1001 movies, so it’s going to be behind a “more” tag. I’ve made the ones I’ve seen bold and stuff that is (already) in my Netflix cue is italicized.

Spoiler alert?! I’ve seen 249 of the movies, which is not quite 25%. It’s true that I’ve never seen The Shawshank Redemption. Or Meet The Parents. I have seen a lot of the random ones because I was a film student. I think I own about 10% of them. I was going to mark those too, but it was a lot of work. I have to ease back into this blogging thing!

(Broken into many posts because of a bug.)

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Here again is the obligatory post indicating that I have not shuffled off this mortal coil and am instead much too lazy to blog.

Exciting things are coming! Photography! Stories! Lists! Links! The New Kids On The Block reunion tour (fuck the haters)! There are literally dozens of lines of text already pre-written inside my head. Hopefully some of them will make it up here…

It will have been 375 days since “Crossroads II” aired when I am finally (partially) satisfied. Tomorrow it is finally frakking time for season four of Battlestar Galactica. The season I was worried would never be finished due to the writer’s strike. The season that will reveal more about the (non-basketball) Final Four and finally reveal The Final Cylon. The season that will take our flawed heroes to Earth. The season that shows us which Earth they reach.

OH MY GOD IT’S FINALLY TIME!

I have to say, I am completely inept when it comes to building things. I’m quite skilled at assembly, let’s be clear. However creating something from scratch that can actually accomplish something? Anything? No way. Any idea I’ve ever had for anything mechanical has been preemptively pwnd by this:

Yellow Drum Machine is evidence that people are able to create awesome things. People who are not me are creating awesome-osity. From the robot creator:

This is a robot I just made.

It was very hard to film, as the camera came in the way for any natural behavior. Anyway, here is what it … all » usually does:

* Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it * Finds something “worth playing on” (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto) * Snakes into place * Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a “good sound” * Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample

Why? Well.. I was sitting thinking what I should do for my next robot, what it should do.. Listening to music.. making a rhythm with some robot-parts.. Thought; “Hey, I will make a robot that drives around and plays on stuff”

Want more musical yellow robots?

My iPod is dead. Dead dead. I was listening to music and jamming along in our shipping and receiving area to Mother Mother. I went to change the music because the album was repeating and I was thinking, “I want to listen to some Spoon.” I walked over to the iPod, moved back through the menus, selected Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and got ready to rock out.

Rock did not happen. Clicking happened. Hard drive spinning, clicking, spinning. The song said that it was playing but then suddenly I went from track 1 to track 5. No noise. Sad iPod image came up on the screen. I rebooted the iPod and got the exclaimation mark with folder icon. Rebooted again and again, getting both icons in random patterns. When I got home, I tried to restore the iPod via iTunes but all I got was an error. Three times.

I have this mental block against filling an 80GB iPod via USB. I don’t think I have much of a choice at this point. Bryan said I could use his iPod because he never uses it. However, because he never uses it, he can’t find it. Crap. I will be without tunes on my commute tomorrow. At least Sarah is driving me in the morning. I’ll only ride in silence on my way home.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Pants. But really, these are good.

I’m always on the lookout for stuff I can wear for both bike commuting and which will then transition well to my casual workplace. I have a pair of Patagonia capris I like (they’re called the Sender Capri, I think) and I really love my REI Slickrock 3/4 pant. However that really means that I’m just wearing two pairs of pants pretty much every day? Boring and impractical.

Thanks to my enjoyment of Fixed Gear Gallery, I happened to click on some of their ad sponsors in the right column of their page. There I stumbled upon Chicago Wig. Their knickers were awesome looking, the correct inseam length for my lack of height, and definitely the right price. (I’m not sure why most cycling knickers hover in the $130 range, but they do.) I read their positive review and decided to pull the trigger.

On Monday I placed my order while on a break at work. I ordered a pair in green and a pair in black. On Monday night they emailed me and told me that they were out of black in my size and would I mind grey? I didn’t respond until almost midnight on Monday. Thursday afternoon I opened my mailbox to find that they’d already arrived! Thank you for your awesome service, Chicago Wig!

They’re the perfect length, durable, and with awesome pockets. You’ll also find a sweet “WIG” logo patch on the leg. I’ve gotten compliments on them from many people and have sent them to the site to check them out. I’m in-between sizes, I now realize. The smalls are kind of small, but the medium would be huge and they make my ass kind of disappear. Despite reinforcing my position in the world as the assless wonder, I love these things.

1. You have 50 dollars in your pocket. What do you do with it?
Save it. Nothing I want to splurge on costs that little.

2. Your ultimate OTP? (fandom or real life)
Mulder and Scully. Or Buffy and Faith.

3. Have you ever seen someone die?
A rabbit, not a person.

4. Are you confused as to what lies ahead of you?
Only because I’m pretty sure that the Magic 8 Ball at work was lying to me yesterday.

5. Where do you see yourself in five years?
Riding a true single-speed. Or, uh, something. Not getting my 10 year pin, I hope.

6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone else?
Both. One without the other isn’t much good. Just much pain and since I’ve been there, I say pants.

7. If the person you like does not accept you, would you continue to wait for them to change their feelings?
This does not work. Why are their feelings more important than mine anyhow?

8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
Sleep with them anyway. It’s always worked for me in the past.

9. Is there anything that has made you unhappy recently?
My bike is going “kuh-KUN-ka.”

10. What do you want most in life?
Right now? For Stanford to win a national championship.

11. Which of the 7 Deadly Sins do you think you relate to the most & why?
Gluttony. Me want MORE! Though perhaps I should try some more lust…

12. Who would you most like to roundhouse kick in the face?
Ooooh, now this is easy. And OH MY GOD that roundhouse kick would be so satisfying. You know who it is.

12. What’s one of the best memories of your life?
Something random: I went to a giant fair or carnival or something with Rachel when we were about nine or ten. We went on all kinds of rides, including bumper boats. Every time you bumped someone, you got a tiny electrical shock. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t safe, but we thought it was really funny.

13. Who is currently the most important person to you?
Bryan

14. What kind of person do you think you are?
Crusty, but generally pretty ok.

15. Do you believe there is nothing higher than human kind?
Seriously? Where does this question come from? Dogs have got it good. They are clearly superior to human kind.

16. Which fictional character could you most see yourself marrying?
Martin Blank. Or Scully.

17. Would you give your all in a relationship?
I do try.

18. Do you have a motto? If yes which one?
“I’m just sayin’.” That’s what I seem to be repeating a lot these days.

19. What type of friends do you like?
The good ones. Who will laugh at me, with me, for me, and then give me a hug.

20. Do you have an all time favorite song?
My favorite song right now is “The Underdog” by Spoon. All time? I don’t know.

Much to my joy, I’m going to have an excellent spring/summer concert season even if I only get to see the two shows we currently have tickets for.

Coming up first is The Swell Season (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) on April 26 at The Paramount. It was great seeing them win the Oscar for Best Song and I’m super stoaked to see them perform live.

In July, Bryan and I are heading out to see The Police and Elvis Costello & The Imposters. Wooo!

In addition to have a top 5 lifetime sandwich today (thanks Gina at La Villa), I also got to have a little treat. A bottle of Dublin Dr Pepper which uses cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Yum!

This photo deserves an entry to itself. From WonderCon:

[via]

I’m so excited it’s wrong. My friend Jess is coming down from the Seattle area so we can go to the opening night showing together. After we have an all-day marathon of our favorite episodes and Fight the Future. If Bryan is going to leave me, July 25 might be the date. ;)

I mowed the lawn yesterday.

Normally this statement doesn’t really deserve to stand alone except that I can’t tell you the last time I used a lawn mower of any kind. It was probably more than fifteen years ago. My parents didn’t really have a lawn in the front or back, our house in Stockton didn’t have enough grass to mow, my apartment in Japan didn’t have any yard at all, and all of our rentals thus far have come with a gardener if there was a yard.

Because of the amounts of rain we’ve been receiving, our lawn has grown green and lush (yay winter!) and from the street our house was beginning to look abandoned. This house did come with a lawn mower stashed in the corner of the garage. However (and this is a gigante “howerver”) it is a manual push mower. When I got home from work yesterday around 3pm, I thought I’d just mow the lawn “real quick.” Not so much. It took me a bit to figure out how this mower worked (see above inexperience mowing lawns in general) and one of the parts that is supposed to be on it is clearly missing.

The experience of mowing took almost an hour. Our front lawn is not that big. It’s small, really. It seems that I don’t weigh enough nor do I have enough effective leverage to really push a mower through eight inch high grass and weeds. It felt much like my experiences trying to drive stick. Lots of stopping and starting and never getting any good momentum. It took an hour-ish but now our house looks moderately presentable from the street.

I now have a lawn that looks more like a lawn and less like a jungle, a good understanding of the ancient art of push mowers, and a sore lower back.

An article regarding Abraco, the closet coffee place I loved in the East Village.

I got a freshly roasted (less than 48 hours old) bag of \m/etal at Barefoot tonight. I can’t wait for a French press pot of this stuff tomorrow morning.

Bryan and I are terrible tourists. Really bad. I saw more of “tourist” New York in 48 hours (by myself and with a friend for the second day) than I’ve seen with Bryan, and we’ve spent nearly a month total time in New York together. We’d much rather visit with friends, lounge around, and eat. Thus I present to you a comprehensive guide to just about everything we ate in both Austin and New York. (And I do mean comprehensive. Grab a cuppa, we’ll be here a while.)

Read the rest of this entry »

It took an extra click because our travel skills seem like they need a little extra oomph these days. Bryan and I had our initial flight to Austin delayed by five hours. Then we got to the airport to fly from Austin to New York via Chicago but had our flight from Chicago to NYC canceled. We re-routed to NYC via Dallas, and all those flights didn’t work the way they were supposed to. To leave New York, we were busting ass to get out of the hotel to have lunch with our friend Peter and then Bryan got a phone call that our entire flight had been canceled and they’d re-booked us for the next day. GAH. Today’s flights actually went without incident and we got home on time. Freakishly exactly on time.

Photos from New York tomorrow, as well as a breakdown of the important stuff: all the food we ate.

Bryan and I both got haircuts today! Oh thank god. Bryan’s hair was getting a little big (I’d show you the frightening perspective photo I took of him two days ago, but you don’t deserve that) and mine was getting too long and too heavy. Now we look like relatively well-groomed people who are ready to go out in public.

Here is the whole reason we’re here in Texas. Bryan’s grandfather turns 90 this week, so there was a grand old party in Waco on Saturday to celebrate. This is Bryan with his hair, his grandmother and grandfather at the shindig.

There’s also the draw of our grand-nephew, Daylon Cade, who has managed to reach 18 months before we got to chase him around.

Bryan and I are in Texas through Tuesday. We spent today in Waco. No, realy. Say it with a flat tone of voice. If I weren’t incredibly tired, I would post photos of Bryan’s grandfather’s 90th birthday party. Tomorrow. Vacation runs through a week from Monday.

Since I seem to be on a video kick (that will be a pun in a moment), check out this parkour meets soccer video. Goddamn.

It’s 2:30 am. Here’s a smattering of videos that I’ve been hooked on recently. (And I’m not late to the party on the Fucking Matt Damon thing, I swear. YouTube says I added it to my favorites January 31, 2008, 09:53 PM)

I don’t actually like KT Tunstall’s original music. Or rather I’m very annoyed by her radio hits because they get forced upon me at work. However her recent cover of “Walk Like an Egyptian” (The Bangles, like, duh) is pretty sweet. Gotta love sampling yourself live to create your backing tracks.

There’s a REI employee who made a fucking awesome video and put it up on YouTube. Let her show you how you know you’ve worked at REI too long. I’m hoping no sea-worthy kayaks were harmed in the making of the video. (Thanks Sarah for the linkage!)

I went on a YouTube spree of odd Red Hot Chili Peppers videos, live performances, etc. the other night. My favorite find was probably this John Frusciante cover of The Bee Gees “How Deep Is Your Love” during a RHCP concert. Hit those high notes, boy!

Do you know what the Wilhem Scream is? You’re going to hear it in everything now, and some of your favorite movies will never be the same after you watch this compilation of screams.

And of course, Sarah Silverman is fucking Matt Damon.

If you want to see everything I’ve been watching, you can see my YouTube faves and watch a lot of live music. But this is only if you’re really bored at work and can use your speakers.

A video to give you something to do that’s not watching the Super Bowl. I don’t know much about DJ Scriv, but I find this video mix to be enormously fun.

The latest by Improv Everywhere. They have 207 people frozen in place in Grand Central Station for five minutes. [via]

I’m minutes away from the end of my twenties…

Thanks to a few people at work (Anthony and Bill) for my desk when I got to work this morning (at 6am).

There’s nothing like industrial saran wrap and packing peanuts to make an early morning seem better. Then about 20 minutes later, while standing in a 50 foot FedEx trailer unloading boxes, I was attacked by an army of employees with Silly String. It was a very exciting morning, all before 6:30.

[via] Instapaper is a great little tool for marking websites to read later. Why? Because it’s not del.icio.us? I’m using it to mark non-news I want to read later, that I doubt is interesting to many other people (like a Wired article on bike wheels or stuff I want to share at work) and which doesn’t require me giving out my email info and which I can access at any computer. (Much like how I use Bloglines as a feed aggregator instead of a desktop client.) I sit at a computer for many snippets of my day, it just isn’t always mine. Now I’m not emailing myself links back and forth between my work and home computers. Whee!

Oh. My. GAWD.

I just got the best email from Rachel! New Kids On The Block are getting back together! It’s a comeback! These guys were my first concert. I sat in the fifth row at Oakland with nine friends for this show (with Dino opening), then I saw them outdoors in Oakland too.

I loved Jon the most. While most of my friends loved Joey, I preferred Jon for his quiet and mysterious nature. Seriously, I think as an adoring public, there was the least amount of information about Jon floating around. I guess he could be whatever I wanted him to be…

In illness news, I’m still sick. Still feeling horrible, I stayed home from work today. Not that I was doing much good there, but I spent the last three hours at work last night sneezing and blowing my nose. I’m not quite sure why after eight days of being sick, I still feel this bad.

That is clearly a lie. But apparently “I don’t read” is a popular response to one’s favorite books on Facebook. (While I may have succumbed to MySpace, I cannot cross over into even more life-sucking time on Facebook.) Check out the interesting data collected by Virgil in regards to what books smart people read. Ok, no. It’s what books people with high SAT scores on Facebook read. I’m fascinated. If you haven’t already seen it, I present to you: Books that make you dumb.

I don’t know Virgil, but I like him. What’s not to like? Geek, cute, interested in books. FTW!

I suppose it’s interesting to note that my favorite books aren’t on the list. Hmmm. I’m off the scale, one way or another. I wish I remembered my exact SAT score. I do know that I scored more than 100 points higher on the non-math side…

For the record, some of my favorite books are:

• A Song Of Ice and Fire (series) by George R.R. Martin
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
• Declare by Tim Powers

In completely un-related news, did y’all see Cloverfield? I’ve heard that I’d like it, but that since Blair Witch’s camera movement made me nauseous, I might not make it through a theater showing of this flick. If you did see it and you liked the music, you can grab Rob’s party mix from Cloverfield.

He does. Pees on command too. He’s been quite sweet, laying on the floor next to me while I cough on the couch.

Here’s what I’ve gleaned from the couch today:

• Ron Moore can write things other than great Battlestar: Galactica scripts. Read some smart, insightful stuff about the strike.
• What isn’t as smart or insightful? Our president’s art interpretation. Apparently Bush’s favorite painting doesn’t quite depict what he thought.
• I’m going to a swanky dinner at Masa’s for my birthday. Here’s what those Michelin stars really mean in a restaurant review.
• Watching old episodes of The X-Files both makes me happy that I have the DVDs and sad when I see season 9 on tv and realize how bad it got in the end. Thank god I was in Japan and didn’t get to watch the debacle live every week.

I just recently posted about the brilliance of Netflix and the fact that they recommend movies for me in (apparently) the same way my friends recommend movies. But this one? I will enjoy an Eddie Izzard concert film becuase I liked a British Holy Grail farce, an Italian neo-realist film, and a samurai movie?

(Nearly) everything is working again. Links shouldn’t be dead, gallery still works, images ought to display correctly. Credit where credit is due:

• CSSEdit made getting it back to “somewhat unoffensive looking” an easier task.
• Tarski is still the best, most extensible theme out there. It helps that it’s pretty right out of the box.
• MacHeist for putting together the software bundle that allowed me to get CSSEdit and Cha-Ching essentially buy one get ten free. There are only 22 more hours to get this bundle, and 25% of your purchase price goes to charity. (And you’ll now get three more apps that I did when I bought on Monday!)
• Mucinex is seriously the best decongestant out there.
• Transmit has been my steady-on FTP client of choice for, uh, five or six years now.

The header image is a photo I took while in San Francisco on November 24.

No, really. Watching the Australian Open is something I’ve always enjoyed, but watching it in HD? Holy shit. I think I watched five hours of tennis last night and I’m an hour in today. I like tennis, but generally not this much. Sports in HD will be my downfall…

During a trip to Japan in 1994, I was shopping in a giant record store in Tokyo called The Wave. While I was there, I bought a CD because I liked the cover.

Sometimes I’m just that shallow. Turns out that the CD was even better sounding than it was good looking and my happy aural relationship with The Frames began. Finding some of their music in the States has been difficult prior to a few years ago, but I purchased Burn the Maps last year and grooved along happily.

About two weeks ago the universe conspired to bring The Frames and their frontman, Glen Hansard, back into my life. I’d noticed that the top choice on my Netflix home page was Once. I didn’t look beyond the pop-up description and kind of ignored it. Then I received an email from my friend Jess. Usually we send novella-length emails back and forth, but this was a short burst from her…basically saying “I saw this movie, I loved it, and you will too.” Guess what movie it was. (Jess and I also happened to be reading the exact same book at the same time too. Whoa.)

I rented it. I loved it. Watched it three times. Bought the DVD and the soundtrack. I am officially hooked. (For those keeping score at home, please note that though the DVD and CD use the same photo for the cover, Glen and Mar have been Photoshopped together to be holding hands on the DVD. Hmmm.)

So thanks to Jess and Netflix I have a new movie I love, which I can pimp out to my friends.

Bryan and I are sick. This is the first time in more than six years that we’ve been sick together. Usually one of us is healthy enough to take care of the other for the first few days of the hacking. Now we’re both sick and it’s stupid.

The last two months have been…busy. Which just translates into “too lazy to blog.” In addition to the illness, I’ve got three days off this week so I’ll be working behind the scenes here trying to get a good theme up and running (including making the gallery work again–which might mean just dropping the dollars for a SmugMug account) and getting a few enhancements up.

What have I been up to?

• Sandy organizes my life.
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been making what was otherwise a dreary writer’s strike better.
• Watched a lot of movies recently. Highlights include Death Proof and the semi-related documentary Double Dare, Brief Encounter, and Samurai Fiction.

I don’t want to get too much into the WGA strike, but will say that I support the writers and believe that they’re getting shafted by the AMPTP. I believe that the AMPTP needs to step up and appreciate the people who, along with the unsung heroes behind the scenes, are creating tons and tons of revenue for the studios. I am a firm believer that the shows that I have loved are a direct result of writers that I love.

With that, please read a bit about what the writers have to say. If you want to listen instead of read (the writers will enjoy your ironic stance), please check out the Speechless campaign.

If you’re feeling really generous, donate to Pencils2MediaMoguls. What could be better? My favorite shows and my favorite pencils. (I have and love a box of Palominos.) I will be donating in the name of Battlestar: Galactica and Mutant Enemy.

I don’t really like the new theme. I will probably eventually go back to the old theme. This one breaks too many things I spent so much time creating, my tiny little brain hurts.

Today, we went out on what was supposed to be a manager’s play day. We were hiking, but then we got the call that we could go out and help with birds that were affected by the recent Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco bay. Of course we re-focused our energy to go work for the bird people.

It felt much like being at work…we schlepped boxes from point A to B, then to C when it was appropriate. We also did dishes, washed floors, and did bird laundry. Some of the laundry instructions were…curious.

All in all, it was a good day of helping them clean out their facility after all the work they did helping to put clean and rehabbed birds back out into the environment.

Visit the Buy n Large, an elaborate promo site for Pixar’s new film, Wall*E.

Here is an unfortunate equation:

Our dog, Chandler Bing. (Or Ms. Chanandler Bong!)

Read the rest of this entry »

I went up to The City (aka San Francisco) on Saturday with my friend Brandy. It was a relaxing day where we started with a cuppa at Barefoot (with a cameo by Biscuit and his lady). While all of our day was fun (walking around Fort Point, trying not to go broke at Amoeba, and eating amazing Thai food), the highlight saddest part of my day was the misplaced apostrophes all over the city. I mean really. Doesn’t anyone proof read anymore? Or at least have a friend who got a B or better in high school English?

The sign read: Hair cut’s.

Kill me now.

I am clumsy. It’s true. While I pride myself on being fairly athletic and able to do many varied sport-like tasks (cycling, snowboarding, basketball, lacrosse, BBQing, drinking beer), I cannot be trusted with my own body to do things like walking or slowly rolling from point A to point B. It has become apparent in the last few years that I am much better off moving fast than I am at slow to moderate rates of speed.

On Monday, while taking my bike off the rack on top of my car, I managed to do it exactly wrong and I had the bike come tipping toward me. I caught it and kept it from falling (whew!), but managed to catch it just so and I crushed my right thumb, right on the knuckle where thumb meets palm. Ow. I have a nice bruise there.

Yesterday I rode my bike a lot (yay!) and after riding to and from work, then to Sarah’s house to teach her how to use her new ‘puter, I was rolling slowly away from her apartment when I realized quite late that I had a flat tire. In this case, “quite late” means “as I was falling.” I was trying to make a narrow 90 degree right-hand turn during this realization. Normally this is not difficult, but when your front tire is flat and you try to both accelerate slightly and put more weight forward (while on damp concrete) the bike will (gasp!) give way. As I’m feeling the bike slide out from under me and am crashing to the concrete, I think three things:

1. Oh shit.
2. My computer!
3. Oh shit, my computer!

Luckily my laptop was fine. (And thank you Sarah, for changing my flat with your Master Tech skills.) I did manage to smoosh the rest of my right hand up nicely. I’ve got a quarter-sized bruise on the top of my right hand, just between the tendons of the ring and pinky fingers. Let me tell you that fate and my hand are clearly trying to express something to me. I can’t tell if it’s “go faster” or “stop” so I’m just going to keep going. My bike commute today was without incident, so hopefully I won’t collect my third right hand injury until tomorrow.

File these under the Insult To Injury catagory: There was a guy standing in the street watching me as I skidded to a stop on my hip and hand. He kept asking me if I was OK. I replied that my pride was irreparably damaged, but I was otherwise fine. Also, I noticed today that I have cracked the right hood of my shifters. Bah. I shall disguise it tomorrow with black electrical tape.

ETA: I should also point out that over the weekend I put no less than three holes in my right hand. Two from assembling the new dresser (a giant splinter and a cut) and some mysterious cut between my index and middle knuckle that appeared Sunday-ish.

Something happened. I’m sort of trying to fix it, but am not really interested in doing too much work. Maybe I’ll update and create a new variation on the Tarski theme I’ve been using. Give me a few days to get un-lazy.

Also, NEW COMPUTER! :D

To those who wait. A new, awesome ad for Guinness.

See it here.

While you’re at it, you can watch an amazing Rube Goldberg machine on this site and ooh and ahh a lot.

This is just for Lorilee, who is home recovering and apparently relies on me to entertain her. And by that, it apparently means that the me in her head helps her laugh at a 1977 JC Penny catalog. So I present a cavalcade of (learning!) links before bedtime!

• Free Rice! Click the correct definition and someone will donate rice to hungry people on your behalf. Nice.
• Poems about spelling. I swear it’s more interesting than you think.
• 5ives and lists galore!
• 30 Diseases Sorted According to Whether or Not You Can Eat the Victims. No, really.
• GorillaMask.net which is very NSFW. (Ok, there is NO learning here, but even I can’t all be education and smarty pants all the time.)
• The Fridge for your personal poetry needs.
• Weirdconverter for all your weights and measures.

Best. Halloween. News. EVER.

Joss Whedon is coming back to television. Putting together a new hour-long drama starring Eliza Dushku and also involving Tim Minear.

The series…is about “Echo (Eliza Dushku), a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the ‘Dollhouse’, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.”

You know the feeling when you kind of dislike someone, but you can’t quite place it? And then you find out a movie or set of movies that they love and then suddenly it all becomes clear? That happened for me this week. Someone mentioned offhand a movie that they really loved. One that if I’d found out that Bryan liked it even a moderate amount, I might not have married him. (I am not being facetious in the slightest.)

I’m not saying that my taste in movies is the end-all be-all. After all, I’m currently watching Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in HD because I can. And Angelina is fighting baddies on a bungie cord while in white pajamas. Clearly I’m not a bastion of taste, but I feel better about my own hunches knowing that clue A and clue B together make a lot of sense.

Battlestar: Galactica will not start season four until April. GAH.

ETA I needed to add something positive. Listen to Spoon live in concert.

I must profess that I’m not too busy to blog. I’m too lazy to blog. Bryan and I just moved, and unpacking three boxes a day (after packing them all up) has been draining my will to live. That and an angry UTI, a small oral surgery to remove a mucocele, a new boss, travel to the east coast, and crap in general…well I’ve been wanting to do things that aren’t blogging.

So, uh…

Wearing: my favorite Carhartts and my new Penny Arcade Tetris shirt from Alex

Hair: sort of recently cut and in a messy ponytail

Makeup: no

Ate today: In order of appearance–antibiotic pill, orange juice, Pillsbury crescent rolls, coffee (Barefoot and french press), lots of water, Barqs rootbeer, an avacado and cheese sammich, Mrs. Vickie’s Jalapeno chips, cranberry juice, some yogurt and dill papadum snacks from Trader Joes, antibiotic pill, blood pressure pill

Last thing said: “I’m not feeding you yet” to the dog

Last phone call: Promising Sarah that I would bring my bike to work tomorrow

In your bag: wallet, not-wallet, sunglasses, giant lip balm, Awakening Hands, keys to home, keys to work, lighter, bottle opener, manager schedule for November, lots of receipts

Last watched on TV: the Sox pwning the Rockies in HD

Plans for tomorrow: go to the Patagonia outlet with Amanda and Luna, work, prove to Linda that steel is real

Last thing bought: a dresser and nightstand from Scandinavian Designs

Listening to: Life is on, but I’m not really watching it.

Last showered: around 3 this afternoon

Looking forward to: going to the Stanford home opener

Worst part of the day: today? The zit under my nose is awful.

Best part of the day: Chandler coming into the house smelling like sunshine and happy dog

Favorite person of the day: Bryan

Thinking about: buying a bunch of DVDs

Current annoyance: have I mentioned my zit yet?

Current obsession: Heroes

Random TMI: I’m tired of the goddamn UTI

Feeling: excited to spend the morning with Amanda for her birthday and Luna because she laughs when I hold her and that’s cute =)

Threadless is having their $10 shirt sale! Ostensibly it’s for back to school, but for those of you not in school, a $10 tee is nothing to scoff at. I bought two this morning!

Salon asks a great question: When did summer become the time for new television?

This summer I’ve watched more original programming than ever before. Granted lots of it is for the fall and is not considered summer fare. Not that I’m really complaining. My season pass list on the TiVo is sadly quiet, but I’ve managed to add quite a few new shows over the summer. I can’t wait until I have insurmountable conflicts in my recorder.

First the shows I’m not sure that I like:

• Bionic Woman (NBC, premieres September 26, 9pm): The number one thing it has going for it is Katee Sackhoff, whose altar I continue to worship upon. She’s a bad ass baddy and has all the best lines. And the best chemistry. One day her character (the bad bionic woman) and the main character (the good bionic woman) are going to make out. I may watch this just for that moment. But the pilot lacked momentum and the deaf sister has been dropped (it was Egg, er, Anne from Arrested Development) and I just wanted to like it but I can’t quite do it. I’ll give it a few episodes to get me interested, and then I’ll just fast forward to the Katee parts.
• Chuck (NBC, premieres September 24): Adam Baldwin is awesome. To be fair, I’m 99% sure that I like this show. The premise is fresh, the acting is snappy, and it’s genuinely funny. I’m just not sure where it’s going. It’s a sitcom that seems to have a definite shelf-life.

What do I like?

• Californication (Showtime, premieres August 13): Thank you Showtime, for bringing my baby back. David Duchovny is back on television, both literally and figuratively rocking with his cock out. Or at least his bare ass. I’ve got a good solid hour in with Showtime on Mondays, watching this back-to-back with Weeds. I appreciate anyone who can bring the phrase “cadaverous lay” into our cultural lexicon.
• Mad Men (AMC, it’s already on Thursdays at 10pm): I think there is something about actors from shows I love coming back to tv and doing awesome things. Vincent Karthiser is back with a kick ass suit and a dirty sneer. Rawr. The show is snappy and fresh despite being set in an era when smoking was cool and women were instruments of men.
• The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX, premieres fall-ish): Lena Headey is hot. So is Summer Glau. The show begins with a bang and keeps banging it out until the end. I liked it right away, believe that it’s going to get better, and can’t wait to see it on the big little screen in the fall. Not to jinx it, but I can’t imagine even the total douchebags at FOX cancelling this immediately. Though I’ve been known to be wrong.

We’ve got one Angel alumni. Two Firefly alum. Two X-Files alum (David Nutter directed the pilot of SCC). One Battlestar: Galactica soon-to-be alum. It’s alumni season!

(I’m sorry there aren’t more links…I started to link, but got tired of it. I’m re-watching Californication and need to go.)

I was reminded that I could password-protect entries here. Shoot me an email if you want the sekret code. They’ll all be the same.

I don’t know Harry Potter or his friends, but I do know that Bryan has been playing this video non-stop for several days now, and I can’t decide which character I love more. Currently I lean toward Voldemort… Rachel, this is especially for you!

What do I like right now? Mad Men. Check it out, because it’s worth every minute.

I love my friends. Really, I do.

But I went to ride my bike today, and had to deal with the fact that they’d let the air out of both my tires last week when they were over. I checked out my shifting (just in case) and got everything all set up to go. I went out for a ride, headed out to my aunt’s place to drop something off at her house. I got about a block away from home and noticed at my left bar plug was sticking out a little bit. I hit it a few times to try and force it back in, to no avail. I figured I’d keep riding because it’s not critical to have that bar plug seated, but I’d noticed that when I hit the plug to try and force it back in, there was a noticible “plink” when I made contact. I waggled the bars a bit (that was fun!) and got more “plink”ing. I pulled over completely and pulled the plug out to re-seat it and try again. Oh look, what’s inside my handlebars?

A FUCKING PENNY.

Oh you two are hi-larious. And my bike now auto-shifts in half the gears in the small ring. Feh.

bbq with friends at our house with hotdogs and hamburgers and wine and cake with music and poker and friends and laughter with a tinge of sadness and a wresting match I say goodbye for the first time and the last time and sit here having had enough to drink that typing this has taken an extraordinarily long time and has, for the first time in a long time, involved spell check

(The subject is my tribute to Kristen, who departs for the east coast too soon, and whose twinkletoes will be missed.)

xkcd is funny because it’s true. I’ve blogged about my reading quirks before, but have been compelled by Harry Potter mania and The New York Times to write more on the subject.

NYT has written up a dandy little article on the fact that Harry Potter seems to have very little effect on the reading habits of youth in the long term. (I’d like to point out at this point that no, I still have not read word one of the HP series and I still don’t intend to until I have run out of other things to read. This is not a HP bashing entry, just an interesting leap into a subject that interests me.) The crux of the article is this:

…federal statistics show that the percentage of youngsters who read for fun continues to drop significantly as children get older, at almost exactly the same rate as before Harry Potter came along.

A few things are interesting to me here. It’s a shame that the idea of reading for pleasure doesn’t seem to “stick” after these kids are done reading about Harry Potter and his friends. I’d much rather have an obese youth who are well-read than an obese youth who can dominate their virtual opponents playing World of Warcraft. Not that I have kids, but I imagine that I’d want to continue to encourage reading in my hypothetical child beyond the initial foray into fiction. There are all kinds of fiction out there and I can still get excited talking about my childhood book companions: Nancy Drew, Encyclopedia Brown, the Hardy Boys, the characters of Roald Dahl and Madeleine L’Engle, and about thirty of the Oz books. I can’t blame Harry Potter for not getting kids to read. If parents would continue to encourage reading beyond the Potter series, I think kids would take to reading.

As a kid, I had to “earn” television watching time. I measured and recorded the time I spent reading or doing homework, and that time translated into allowed television time. I probably ended up spending more time reading. Because I’m a huge, gigantic, happy nerd.

My reading list right now is a stack of books sitting next to my bed:

• Falling Angel, William Hjortsberg
• A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell
• A Changed Man, Francine Prose
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
• Inventing English: A Portable History of the Language, Seth Lerer
• Thunderstruck, Erik Larson
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, Roger Crowley
• James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, Julie Phillips

The last four titles are first editions, covered in plastic and treated better than some children, I’m sure. I managed to bring a first edition copy of Tim Powers’s Three Days to Never home from Seattle in pristine condition. That was a good book. I’m currently reading about the plague. Between those two I read a book about salt. I’m sure that when I next go to the bookstore, I’ll lose my shirt over the next round of books I choose.

So parents of the world who choose to let their children learn to be indifferent about reading: WTF? I don’t think it’s at all that youth these days are not interested in reading. I think their parents are not interested in reading, and are therefore not giving their kids a passion for the written word (beyond Potter). LET THEM READ BOOKS!

Check out the new promo for the Battlestar: Galactica mid-hiatus movie, “Razor,” airing on SciFi in November. I can’t wait!

I’m currently watching A Life Less Ordinary on TV, which always makes me smile. One day I’m sure I’ll own it on DVD, but I always neglect to buy it. Holly Hunter makes me laugh with just about every line she says.

Bryan and I went and saw Ratatouille on Thursday. Two thumbs up from both of us! It has moved up in my ranks of favorite Pixar movies. It currently sits third after Toy Story and Toy Story 2. I loved the story, the themes, and let me just say that the animation was nothing short of spectacular. If you haven’t already seen it, make sure you get there in time to see the animated short before the feature. Lifted is truly a gem and made me laugh out loud several times. Plus it features a cameo by sosumi, which is a fun little nod for those of us who knew what was up.

Next on the list is, of course, Transformers.

Keithe Olbermann hits one out of the park.

I wrote an artice for iPodObserver today. Not too many flamey responses, though people are awfully concerned about me driving and talking on the phone at the same time, which also apparently has something to do with my gender. Don’t know what to make of that.

But of course Bryan already has his iPhone, so I live semi-vicariously through him.

I’d also like to point out that President George W. Bush is a fucking imbecile who has no concept of either justice or the American judicial system. “Scooter” Libby needs a commuted sentence like I need to be shot in the face while hunting. Dear Mr. President: FOAD. TIA.

ETA: Happy Fourth of July, indeed.

Seven Things I Love Right Now

1. Elizabeth: The Golden Age looks faaaaabulous. Cate Blanchett is awesome. Clive Owen is awesome. Awesomeness!
2. HBO’s Flight of the Conchords is absolutely hysterical! Best 30 minutes on tv right now.
3. Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC hates Paris Hilton as much as I do.
4. Keith Frank & The Soileau Zydeco Band
5. The soon-to-be-pulled-again video of Jennifer Holliday and Jennifer Hudson doing a duet of “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” because Holliday rules.
6. The 7-11 near my work has been transformed into a Kwik-e-Mart to promote The Simpsons Movie.
7. Bryan and my friends, who have propped me up during an annoying June. My friends rule.

Life has mostly been going in a direction that I can’t blog about. You know, I could tell you but I’d have to kill myself. Or something.

I spent a week in Seattle for a work-related thing. Which was fine, but it was actually a good trip because I got to see my friend Larry for the first time in over a year. I also spent a few days with Jess, Tom, and Henry. I went and partied with my pal Charlene in Santa Cruz the other night, which was a blast. Lots of non-work things going on, including my sweet tan. :D

I’m going to come back to blogging eventually…maybe.

The Anniversary Sale at work takes a lot out of me, hence a distinct lack of posting. I’ve had a few things taking up my time in addition to work. My bike is finished, and is now hawt.

Here it is, from the side.
See the full-frontal image.

In addition, two sets of friends got married this weekend. Amanda and Tommy got hitched in New York. Geoff and Kylie made it a little more local, and got married just down the road.

I’ve been trying a new technique of color-correcting my photos, which I gleaned from a great tutorial.

Seven Things That Are Keeping Me From My New Bike

1. The rear wheel splines are too big. Stupid set-up for 10-speed cassette.
2. My tires aren’t here, though I could buy cheap ones.
3. The front derailleur needs a shim.
4. I couldn’t stand to be at work on my day off any longer.
5. And I was hungry and Sarah’s chicken was turning to rubber.
6. The bike is at work while I am at home.
7. Fate. Fate keeps me from my new bike.

It’s almost a bike. It’s like half a bike. But golly is it pretty.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

A little bike porn to tide us all over before my gruppo gets here.

In unrelated news:

Seven Things I’d Rather Do Tomorrow That Aren’t Work

1. Ride my bicycle. Which isn’t built.
2. BBQ with friends.
3. Sit around and work on updating the Tarski theme
4. Buy a headset for my bike. (Which I might do anyway before work.)
5. Clean the guest bedroom and hang some art.
6. Laugh at Japanese people who thought that sheep were poodles.
7. Figure out a way to finance the owning of the entire Criterion Collection.

Seven Things I Really Want Right Now But Can’t Afford

1. Crank Bros. Quattro SL pedals in pink.
2. Denon AVR-1907
3. any R.E.Load custom bag
4. a new 15″ MacBook Pro
5. this girly LeSportSac Tokidoki Bella Bag
6. Converse Chuck Taylors in brown pinstripes
7. a Fat Tire cycling jersey

Seven Songs I’ve Been Singing For No Reason At All

1. “Chasing Cars,” Snow Patrol
2. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” Rolling Stones
3. theme from Sanford and Son
4. “All Along The Watchtower,” the BSG version
5. “Secret Lovers,” Atlantic Starr
6. “Fat Bottomed Girls,” Queen
7. Angel theme song

Other Music’s Digital Music Store has opened. With a bang, I might add. The most important part? “All of the tracks here are sold as premium-quality 320kbps DRM-free mp3s.”

I’ve been a huge fan of them for years, purchasing CDs from them online as well as visiting their physical store twice while in New York. Much like Bleep, I’ll be watching Other Music for new releases and will spend my money there many moons before I spend at the iTunes Music Store.

Most expensive trip to Belmont ever.

I had a flat/near blowout on the rear driver’s side tire today. I was on the highway. Yes, I can change my own tire, but it requires (literally) my entire body weight bouncing on the short-armed bolt-turner. (Yes, that’s the technical name, I assure you.) Seriously, how do normal people turn the bolts? It took all of my weight, and if I didn’t have a rack on top of my car, I wouldn’t have had anything to hold on to while I was jumping up and down on the arm of the wrench.

Anyhow, I got it all changed, drove to Shalon’s house, and then we went on a quest to have my tire repaired. A few things I learned:

• Costco will not fix a tire unless you bought it there.
• The guys at Wheel Works are nice, but sell me expensive yet completely appropriate tyres.
• Chevy’s happy hour starts at 4pm, and they are right down the street from Wheel Works on El Camino.

In other spendy news, my bike is complete, save for a headset.

Our friend Dan, who photographed our wedding, is awesome. And not just in that “what a kick ass friend” kind of way. Though he’s that too. He’s also a fabulous photographer.

Check these out. The last one is my favorite, by far.

So long snowboards, hello bicycles…

My boards are officially zipped up and put away for the summer. It’s sad, really, but that’s the way the weather goes. We’re quite into the spring here, with weather consistently in the low 70s, the cyclists are out in full force. I’ve been peer pressuiring myself into a road bike (or a 10-speed, as Bryan insists on calling it) ever since Sarah stole bought her Serotta and built it with love/borrowed parts, I’ve been wanting a bike of my own. Her Fierte rides like butter, it does.

After looking around a bit, I’ve decided that a steel frame is definitely the way to go. I can’t imagine the day I’d be so into road cycling that I’d really appreciate either a carbon or titanium frame, so I might as well get the vibration-eating joy of a steel frame. Thus, the SOMA Smoothie ES. There are a few purchasing things I need to work out, so it may not be the final final final decision on a frame, but should it not be a SOMA, it’ll probably be a Surly. Now I just need to put parts together for this. I’m hoping to also get a bike that love partially builds, nabbing used parts from NotNeighbor!Dave. It’ll save me a few bucks and allow me to get a better wheelset and/or fork. For the two of you who care: because of my frame size, it’s recommended I get a fork with a 45mm rake, which is more difficult to come by and means I probably can’t get that Ritchey carbon fork we’d been looking at.

Because I’m just that much of a nerd, I’ve begun a spreadsheet for the bike build, tracking how much I’ll be spending, what parts I still need (I’m on my way…I have pedals and a saddle), and sizing everything just to keep track of it.

How much beer will it take to get Sarah and Jon to build it for me? That’s the real cost question here…

Sometimes playing after work turns into “holy crap, how did I get so drunk?” Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you. Kristen, Sarah, and I started with margaritas at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company. We got to sit outside by the firepits, eat good food, and have three margaritas each. Mmmm. Now at least Sarah has a better idea of what good tequila is. I now have a better idea of what a big mouth Kristen has.

Next we went and made a commotion at both Borders and Barnes and Noble. What Sarah wanted was this Moleskine, but it wasn’t around. That didn’t stop Kristen from signing my chest with a random pen from a display, me carrying her around the notebook section piggy-back style (flashbacks to Molly Magees), and much running and yelling in the parking lot. We hit up Ausiello’s as a last stop, where Kristen and I went inside for beer and shuffleboard and Sarah sat in my car writing her paper. Then more beer, wasting Sarah’s expensive notebook paper, and Sarah drove us home in my car. She even then finished her paper before 3am…all was not lost.

Laundry is my nemesis. I’ve got so much of it to do…I haven’t really done any since before we left for Canada. I’m down to the socks and underwear I don’t like and I’m running out of work-appropriate shirts.

I do need to say here that Sarah sucks, and I don’t deserve to be a six, I should be a four.

Since winter never seemed to fully appear, I’ve decided to cut my losses and think summer! Tuesday I was out enjoying the weather, celebrating my friend Vinny with work friends by going on a road ride with about 30 other REI employees. Doing the road ride on my mountain bike was probably not the best choice, but I managed.

Wednesday I got out to the beach for the first time this year. La Selva was just as empty as usual, and Kristen and I went out, each with our own bottle of Two Buck Chuck. Lots of sun, lots of laughter, a lot of shit talking, and then Sarah came out to join us after work.

Click for incriminating photographic evidence:

This morning some friends and I went to a new-ish local venue, Sky High Sports, which is a warehouse full of trampolines. Yeah, you read that correctly. I’d been to this place before, back when it was an indoor go-kart track. Trust me when I say that trampolines are probably more fun, more dangerous, a better workout, and much cheaper than any go-kart experience could hope to be.

We went on a Friday morning, thinking we’d be the only people there. Instead there were four birthday parties for kids going on. Doesn’t anyone go to school any more? Sheesh. We were quite amused that we would be bounding to and fro, crushing children right and left. (Turns out that approximately 30% of the kids weighed more than I did, so I shouldn’t have worried.) Nine dollars buys an hour of adventure. Holy crap. Have you ever spent an hour on a trampoline? Ten minutes? We paid for 11:30-12:30, but went in at 11:20. At 11:45, we were all pretty ready to die with 45 minutes of paid time remaining. The guys were absolute maniacs, though I’m sure us gals would be more effective if we had more body weight to throw around. Sarah did a flip into the foam pit (breaking the law!) and about 30 minutes later she almost killed a little girl who ran in front of her. That was our morning in a nutshell.

We jumped into the skanky foam pit (not really interested in that again) as well as playing trampoline dodge ball. However, once all the “adults” in our group were out, it was less exciting to whack little kids with the balls. I ended up letting kids hit me so I could tag out and we could get back in line to abuse each other in the next game. All in all, it was amazingly fun. Too bad I’ve broken myself. We’ll see how well I walk tomorrow.

Retro comic book panels whose use of the English language has not kept up with the evolution of the language itself. Hilarity ensues.

Top 15 Unintentionally Funny Comic Book Panels

Other failed yet probably more creative subject lines for this post were:

• Achtung! Der Cows!
• Sunny Is Not Like A Cow
• Paul Is Awesome, Not Dead
• Honeymoon, Eh
• Portland Airport Is Not Better Than Home

Please view our photos. Text to come soon!

I might have to end it. Break it off. What has been a long relationship may soon be over. I’m not sure how much more I can take. This abuse has got to stop.

Dear Stanford Women’s Basketball,

I’ve loved you for years. Since I was a kid. My heroes have been Stanford players. I have autographed Jennifer Azzi shoes, and they’re one of the first things I would rescue if the house was burning down. I went to exhibition games, regular games, post-season games. Sweet Jesus, I rooted for Stanford when Stanford played my alma mater in Stockton.

Stanford is like the abusive relationship I can’t quite get out of. Every time I fall in love again, every time my dear Stanford promises she won’t punch me in the face again, they punch me in the face again. I would stay up when I was in junior high, watching a tiny Sony Watchman under the blankets in my bedroom long after I was supposed to have been in bed. Know why? Because every so often, our local PBS station would air a retrospective on the 1990 championship team, and when it was on, I would soak up every moment. (If someone can find it for me, I’d be eternally in debt.)

Oh! Then there was 1992! Another national championship! But then…rebuilding. Soon there was Kate Starbird, Jamila Wideman, Kristin Folkl, and Vanessa Nygaard. Tara Vanderveer went off to coach the ‘96 Olympic team. Oh, by 1997. It’s going to be a grand year! The gang is back together! The winning will only go on! But an overtime loss to Old Dominion? It was like taking a backhand to the face over and over again by someone wearing knight’s gauntlets. (Don’t believe me? Even Ann Killion weighs in on the pain.) I remember wanting to throw up after that game.

Gah. Then was 1998. Two torn ACLs. The clips that ESPN won’t stop showing. Harvard beating Stanford at Maples Pavilion. The first 16 seed to ever defeat a number one. Watching this one at my parent’s house, I’ve never been so glad to not attend a home game.

It kept going. The suffering.

In 2004, the Cardinal lost the regional final by two points to Tennessee. …

In 2005, Michigan State topped the Cardinal by seven points. Then in 2006, there was a three-point loss to LSU and the controversial charge call near the end against Wiggins.

Oh, yeah, and there’s more. How about the three-point loss to Colorado in the 2002 Sweet 16? The two-point loss to Maine in the first round in 1999? That was a down season for Stanford, which was only seeded No. 7…but Maine was No. 10. (via ESPN and Mechelle Voepel)

Now? Losing at home to Florida State, a team which has never even made the Sweet 16 before? After a career-making performance by Brooke Smith against Idaho State, what we saw was a complete collapse. I’m pretty sure Stanford may hate me personally. They want me to be unhappy.

So I may need a new team. I’m sure I won’t, and I’ll suffer through next year too, because I can’t make a clean break, but I’m sure feeling like I want to. Stanford…I want to love you. Just let me!

[I will blog about the honeymoon in Canada tomorrow.]

I am never taking Shalon to Sports Authority ever again. Ever. While it seemed like a good idea for the two of us to go out and have lunch and then go aimlessly shopping, it was not. Don’t do it. I decided that we’d go to Sports Authority so I could buy a balance board (ended up buying this one online instead). We wandered around a little, then ended up in the team sports area. Somewhere back there was a bin full of gear for frisbee golf. Please note that in no way are these frisbees really meant to be caught. They’re SOLID and vicious. I hear my name and I turn around. One of them is winging toward me. Unlike George Michael Bluth, I don’t duck when things are thrown at me, I attempt to catch them. Mistake number one. The frisbee hit me where my middle finger joins the palm of my hand.

This is a tender spot. The bruise started to form immediately. At least she had the courtesy to say “aww” before she started laughing. It’s actually worse than the photo might indicate, but I’m not in the mood to take another photo.

So this was my Valentine’s gift from Shalon. If this is what kind of “romantic” gift one gets for having The Third Kind of love, then I’m not so sure I want it anymore. Luckily it wasn’t my only gift. Bryan gave me awesome stuff last night, and I bought myself a Gap PRODUCT Redâ„¢ Hamme(red) shirt.

My dad was convinced I had whooping cough because I’ve been sick for about two weeks now. People at work then decided that it might be whooping cough or SARS or avian flu or whatever else. I woke up this morning at 4am feeling like the left side of my face had imploded. The verdict is clear–sinus infection! Now I’ve got antibiotics and nasal spray (which, ironically, smells awful) and will hopefully be better in a few days. If only the cough would go away.

I just turned 88. Or was it 29? Can’t ever remember.

Thanks to all my well-wishers. Especially my brother, who reminded me that next year I’ll be “really old.” A heap of MySpace messages, many phone calls (apologies to Amanda who doesn’t like my new voice mail messgage) including Savannah singing to me and Lorilee promising to take me to Indian food when she’s back (so holding you to that, lady), cupcakes from Brandy which were super tasty and filled with sarcasm, and an offer of a “homemade gift” from Shalon (but I don’t want her stool sample).

My friends are awesome.

They also all want/expect me to go out and get hammered. I guess that is my M.O. during this time of year (and every time of year), but I did work tonight. Closed the store and everything. Got to have drinks afterwards with a few pals, but it was very chill.

To our waitress at the bar: You suck. We asked you to apply the cash toward our bill then split the rest. Not pocket $16.75 as your tip on a $62.79 bill after you lagged bringing out drinks and water (twice!), didn’t bring the menu that Deb asked for which you offered us even though the kitchen was closed, and bitched at us for not wanting crap that you said was possibly-mint floating in our water. You deserved every penny of your $1.75 tip. And please note that it was only $1.75 because you didn’t give back the quarters to begin with. Please slam your shin into every chair you walk past. kthxbye.

Ok, everything here on the blog should be mostly fixed. Thanks to Alex, who has done the dilligent nit-picking that I require every time I upgrade or change things. Doing the upgrade has reminded me that I don’t redesign my blog on a whim because it drives me crazy. Many thanks to the lovely folks at Tarski who have made the upgrade as easy as possible. I got a weird bug with my gallery plug-in, but it was extraneous to the site itself so rather than try and fix it, I just killed it completely.

When all else fails, nuke!

Still need to add headers and titles back to the asides, but that’s quick and I’ll get to it this week. Please let me know if anything else is broken!

How excited am I? I have a Saturday off and some of the girls and I are going to San Francisco. We’re going to thede Young Museum and the MOMA, then off to dinner at LuLu’s for dinner. Wahoo!

Upgrading Wordpress to 2.1 today. I’m a little muddle-headed, so it’s taking slightly longer than I might hope. In addition, I’m upgrading my theme basis, Tarski, so I apologize that the sidebar is temporarily broken.

That’s the name of this cold that keeps going around. (Kudos to Veronica AKA Virginia Gilderator for naming it.) This is the third time I’ve had it, and I think it’s just cycling through our store. I’m especially excited because Wes had his cough for about a month, and is just now starting to get rid of it.

Despite being sick, I have had a good last week. Snowfest happened at Kirkwood, and Kristen and Jenine put together a killer event. About 270 REI employees showed up over two days, and while conditions weren’t ideal, the good times and shenannigans were top notch.

I’m sorry about the mediocre image stitch, but I’m not feeling great and it’s the best I can do.

I’ve recently taken some flak from Kristen, who berates me and uses profanity to express disappointment that I haven’t updated here for two weeks. This from the girl who saw me more than Bryan did a week ago, apparently she can’t get enough of me. I’m just that good, I guess.

The reality is this: I would rather be buried under a three-ton mountain of raisins than deal with this kind of inventory again. Retarded finless goldfish indeed. Rather than rant about the process and the issues, I’ll stick with the easy stuff. My cronies and I (hi Kristen and Allison) kicked out the jams. (Yup, said it again. This makes five times, I think.) I’m now a firm believer that the three of us together, given the right amount of time, can accomplish anything while still getting in a powder day at Kirkwood in the middle. Despite working a 22 hour shift to get it all done, we’re solid with inventory for the year. However in July, you can expect to find the three of us at Big Sur (at least mentally) while others helm this particular ship.

In the days following inventory I learned that I’m kind of an asshole when I’m really drunk. This is in addition to learning the following when I bring Shalon, Rachel, Susan, and Corrine to an open bar: I can carry 4 drinks through a packed bar crowd and be recognized later for my skills, if I start my night with sake and then drink tequila and rum I will lose part of the night, I may not eat the food you order me, I will persevere in trying to pay the cab driver even after Shalon has done so and yelled at me, I won’t let my friends walk down Mission alone at 12:30am no matter how wasted I am, I can’t text message on Shalon’s phone and use real words at the same time, there will apparently be a need to recreate moments from my bachlorette party, and most of all, no matter how much Shalon wants my jacket, she won’t think to steal it while I’m more drunk than I’ve been in years. Whew. That’s a lot of learning for one night.

I also learned that Bryan is a saint. Best. Husband. Ever.

In any case, I should be back more regularly, including a possible back-end update on the site itself. A new design has been kicking around in the back of my head. Stay tuned for photos of Snowfest, exciting work and personal life announcements (no, really), and more detail about the 3 minutes of my life not wasted on MySpace. Nyah.

Oh you crazy year, 2006.

This was a year full of so much drama, so many changes, and after making it through November (and March and May and August) and all the way to the wedding without actually having my head explode and pop off, I think it’s perfectly legit to celebrate the mere fact that 2006 is over. So w00t fucking w00t for closing the book on 2006 and beginning anew on 2007.

What happened? I had a crazy three-day birthday celebration, crunched the front of my car, went on a 4300 mile road trip through the western states, got engaged, interviewed for and received a promotion, demoed bikes on the wettest day EVER, had interviewing/hiring drama at work, got a few crazy sunburns, walked into a fence, dunked my camera in the ocean, did some camping, got bocce ball fever, opened a new store, built a cardboard office, saw an orthodontist, got good at handling HR issues, broke a coffee grinder, learned the real meaning of fatigue, bought a wedding dress, worked on the fastest completed IDP ever, became a psychic swami, joined MySpace, had my bachlorette party, saw Shalon throw up, won the Anderson Award, went to Vegas and didn’t elope, was a personal/professional reference once and almost twice, learned about The Third Kind, got married, lost a friend, worked a holiday retail season with a very short-staffed management team, bought a TV, and made it all the way to yesterday.

And then yesterday I: cooked beef short ribs, drank a lot, had friends over for dinner and shit talking, learned that I’m Shalon’s first call if she goes to jail, wanted to make ice cream but was unprepared, took 181 pictures with Sarah’s camera, was thankful for every day with Bryan in 2006, got Shalon to find her inner pimp again, laughed a lot with Allison, and went to bed around 4am.

It’s no wonder I’m fucking tired.

While I did not play basketball for three hours yesterday, I did get my slob ass to the gym for the first time since Thanksgiving. (C’mon, I was a little busy for the rest of the month!) It was pointed out that December is not over, so I could still make it to the gym within the month.

I like going on Friday nights since it’s usually uncrowded. However, often the freaks are at the gym on nights like this. No sweaty old men hitting on Amanda last night, but there were two women who were severely overdressed for working out. Two older Asian women walked in together around 9:30pm. My favorite one was wearing jeans, a blouse (probably some sort of polyester), and kind of dressy brown leather shoes with a slight heel. Her friend was wearing a beanie, a down vest, an ill-fitting pink sleeveless number, and black slacks. I watched them do about 10 minutes on elliptical trainers, a lot of walking around looking at places to do ab workouts, and then they conquered the rowing machines for a few minutes. It was fascinating.

I realize that I am, based on my job and entire life, quite overqualified to at least dress for the gym. At least. I wore a new Icebreaker top, ancient Addidas track pants, Vasque Blur shoes with new Berry Superfeet, and my badly-in-need-of-new-batteries Polar F6. God, I’m a nerd.

I wish I could have taken a photo next to them. Or working out with them. Regardless, it was quite entertaining. I’d go to the gym every day if I knew they were going to be there.

We pulled the trigger on a new tv. It’s really about time, and the new one weighs in at about 20% of the old one. For now we’ll be using the bigness for DVDs and generally watching standard broadcast TV. Switching from DirecTV and TiVo is a hard choice, and if the rumors are true, they’re getting back together and making a DirecTV-compatable HD TiVo by Q3 2007.

Bryan thinks it’s making me more domestic. I think it means that we registered for all this cool shit, actually got it, and can really start putting our house together. For example, we now have sheets for the bed in the guest room that are younger than me. Wow. I’ve been cooking too, but this is more a factor of being home a bit more (three days off in a row). My laundry madness continues unabated. I enjoy it, I just wish our fantastic washer and dryer weren’t languishing in the garage.

Things today were from outside the house. I was watching a friend’s cat, Dr. Peepers, so I checked in on him one more time today, then had my oil changed and changed my windshield wipers. After last night’s dark and wet drive to Fremont, I decided that new wiper blades were really in order. I’m sure the world isn’t that smeary looking when I have good wiper blades on the car. Next will be new tires. It’s very exciting, but I don’t think it’s necessary until the road trip to Seattle comes up in June. If I even get to drive.

Time to see what the hubby wants for dinner. Haha. I think it’s Christmas leftovers, despite me still not being that hungry after last night’s huge dinner.

It seems like all I do is apologize for not blogging. Really, I’ll stop saying “sorry” and just start doing more. The holiday season in retail should really not be mixed with the wedding season. I’m just saying.

This is not going to be a rant about work, or even mild complaining. Just a quick note to say that I’m thankful for all the people in my life and that it’s been a hard holiday season, but I’m still plowing along.

A special note here in memory of my friend and former co-worker, Vinny DiStefano, who took his own life on December 14. We shared a desk and a department for two years and he made work more fun and interesting than most people out there. Even if I did a lot of his work for him. =) Vinny, you’ll be missed.

This was the first picture I ever took with my camera (the original image is called IMG_0001) and it still makes me smile. Cheers Vinny, wherever you are.

Check out a selection of photos from Dan’s cameras which will explain more about the day. There are a few of the rehearsal, a few “behind the scenes,” and the rest from the reception. The only advantage to being sick is that I can work on stuff like this.

Except not really. However, if you weren’t there, or you missed part of the festivities, you can see a few photos here in the gallery. More pics will come soon once Bryan and I figure out which ones we like.

Preparing for a wedding is slightly less fun than ritual suicide. So not much time for blogging, but plenty of time for a meme.

2 Things

Two Names You Go By:
1. Dar
2. Darland Sasacha

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. Doc Martens
2. my Threadless Scrabble shirt

Two Things You Would Want in a Relationship:
1. Bryan
2. the wedding to be over

Two of Your Favorite Hobbies:
1. drinking
2. hanging out with my friends

Two things You Want Really Badly At The Moment:
1. for the wedding to be done
2. a nap

Two pets you have :
1. Chandler
2. a giant dust bunny

Two things you did last night:
1. was really annoyed
2. drove through the McDonald’s drive through with Shalon (I was on the phone)

Two things you ate today:
1. Aloo Gobi
2. coffee

Two Things You’re doing tomorrow?
1. wedding crap
2. rehearsal dinner

Two Favorite Holidays:
1. birthday
2. Tuesday

Two favorite non-Alcoholic beverages:
1. coffee
2. coffee

Two Things You Can’t Live Without:
1. the internet
2. Bryan and my friends

Today Bryan and I went down to the Santa Clara Clerk-Recorder’s Office to get our marriage license. It was an easy process, whereupon the nice lady there gave Bryan and I a pamphlet on fun stuff like domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, genetic birth defects, etc. We were at the second window and to our left there was a young-ish couple also getting their marriage license and setting up a civil ceremony. On the marriage license application, they ask you to write down your occupation. The guy next to us wrote “street pharmacist” on his application. Seriously. The woman at his window couldn’t believe it. (Which is why I heard it, since she read it out loud to him to confirm it.)

Now this guy had a blue tear drop tattoo and was definitely not the most clean-cut of characters, but really? On a county application? On permanant record with the county that you’re a “street pharmacist?” Sweet jebus. He says, “Fine. Put “street drugs” on that.” What? WHAT?

Bryan and I were in Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. The day afterwards, we went out to Red Rocks. Here’s our traditional self-portrait to join our collection.

Haven’t been blogging, but real life, work, and wedding planning have been a bit on my mind.

Where have I been? Blogging has taken the back seat over the last week or so to more pressing issues like being drunk beyond belief. I’ve been trying to sort through photos. Partly because I want to put up a gallery from my bachlorette party and partly because I want to know how the evening went. As Shalon said, it’s like the blind leading the blind drunk.

I want to thank my girls, all of them, for taking me out and about (Sunnyvale?!) and making sure I had an excellent time (so I heard).

Other than that, my exciting news includes me being my store’s Anderson Award winner. I’ll have to find a blurb on our intraweb that says what it means, but in a nutshell, it means that people in my store think I embody the spirit of our business and what we do. It’s a great honor, and I was both awestruck and hungover when it was presented to me.

Thanks for getting out and voting. Whew.

Sometimes a police blotter offers the funniest shit ever. Read the second, longer paragraph.

Congrats to Melissa and Pete, who got engaged on Halloween!

The Intellimouse that I’ve been using as my mouse for the last year or so has died. At first I thought it was me…my clicks weren’t always registering. Then it became that only one in four clicks was in the right place at the right time. I was managing to highlight text willy nilly and couldn’t click links consistently. It was maddening. Bryan was experiencing the same issues with his Unintellimouse, so apparently their life span is finite and predictable. We bought the mice at the same time, and experienced the failure at the same time. BAH.

Bryan replaced his with the Logitech MX Revolution, which he very much likes. I have trouble with Logitech mice. They don’t fit my hand. After a little advice from my friend Brad, I went with the Kensington Expert Wireless Trackball. It arrived today (thanks free trial of Amazon Prime!) and I’ve been playing with it and I really am enjoying it. It’s really accurate, and I like the button programming capabilities and the built-in wrist rest. I’m not sure how I feel about the GIANT wireless dongle (it looks like the old hockey puck mouse on the Bondi iMac), but I do like the lack of cord so I can move my laptop off my lap without having to gather up the mouse. Thus far my only minor complaint is that the scroll-ring is a little choppy feeling because it’s not on bearings and not mechanical in the least. To say it “grinds” is probably a little harsh, but it’s not baby-butt smooth.

Oh yes, I’m all about the historical record. Sweet Jebus. The last few days have been…educational. And interesting and dramatic and laugh-tastic. I met Elmer Fudd at a Halloween party. But he wasn’t dressed as Elmer Fudd. I have a screenplay all about my experience at the party ready in my mind. Wes describes it as Night of the Living Dead meets When Harry Met Sally on Titanic. You’d see it, right? Hell yeah!

This blog entry is dedicated to Shalon. Nyah.

Stop having it, my friends. STOP! While I’ve decided that I can heal people with the power of my mind (my mind, man), I’m going to be doing a lot of healing it seems. So rather than me exhaust my brain (which has been broken by certain gossip about certain people…which Sarah didn’t tell me), I request that you all take a deep breath, and chill out. Ahhhhhh.

There’s a new kid on the block. New kid on the blog? Six Apart publicly introduces the world to Vox, a quasi-blog-cum-file-sharing service. With a dash of social networking, a smidge of digg, and a cleaner more comprehensive interface than just about anyone, Vox is pretty slick.

Despite having more spaces online where I reside than is probably healthy, plus a looming foray into MySpace on the horizon…I now have a Vox blog just for shits and giggles.

Looking for sweet looking blog hosting with lots of space for photo and video uploads? Plus what I believe to be the easiest “this is what I’m reading” search engine ever, try out Vox. I’m suitably impressed.

Update: I think I’ll be using it to provide a daily photo. Stuff that doesn’t work in a gallery. So behold, a photo a day.

Erica is moving to Santa Barbara on Thursday. Boo! But also yay! It’s been so much fun having her here and hanging out, and we were able to go out and have a final night out last night. My evening started at 4pm at Ausiello’s with Shalon. You know you’re in for a good time when you start at the bar an hour before happy hour! We had a good assistant manager’s summit, then went out to dish the dirt (mostly on each other) and generally be ridiculous. I went from there to head out with Savannah and Erica, where we ended up at the bar, as usual. It was a long, goofy night, and so much fun. Miss you, Erica!

See the photographic madness!

That’s what we call it at work. So when a friend of mine from work decides to set goals that have nothing very little to do with work, I help her create a color-coded IDP with actionable items. And I offer a reward for successful completion aside from the…uh, joy of completion. I will join.

Sometime today Akismet caught the 5000th spam comment on my blog. Here’s to (thus far) 5019 comments snagged, no false-positives, and just a handful of comments even making it to moderation.

A friend posed an interesting question to me the other night. While long and complicated in the initial expression, it boiled down to a big, fat “why?” Having imbibed a few adult beverages, my brilliant response was essentially “because.” Our second-grade argument thus concluded, we moved on. She thinks she hurt my feelings. No ma’m. I have clarity on some things, though I may simultaneously be of two minds on the subject. It’s not just right, it’s good. It has, and will continue to be, incredibly good for me. Have no guilt and lay down your Catholic burdens. Real friends ask the difficult questions. Thank you. My friends love me. My friends are rad.

Anyone have any suggestions on where Bryan and I should go on our delayed honeymoon? I may be home doing nothing on Saturday night, but at least I’m making plans! Kidding! I’m not making plans. I’m soliciting plans.

One of the guys at work is suggesting that we go to the El Yunque Rainforest in Puerto Rico. It seems like a great idea, but we’ll be taking nearly 3 weeks (19 or 20 days is the plan) and I’m not sure we want to spend all that time in just one place. I’d like to be able to fill my passport before it expires, which means I have about two more years to fill the remaining four pages.

Suggestions or comments? We’re essentially gone from February 27 to March 19. (Planned this far in advance so my boss can go trek in Nepal and we don’t overlap by too many days.) It’s generally the off season for most tourism depending on the area, so it’s a good opportunity for us to see a lot of stuff with fewer people around. We’ve already been the following (international) places together: Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia. We’ll definitely take some cues from Rach and Dazza’s trip, but would love to hear about places you suggest.

An awesome, awesome loser! I figured out what was causing the idiocy between Adium and iTunes. All my fault. Bah. But now I can listen to Justin Timberlake in secret and no one on my buddy list will know! Oooh, and I make Lorilee sleepless, so maybe I am super awesome fantastico…

Today I had a summit on employment law in California. It was just as exciting as it sounds. I did actually learn a few things, and lost a game so that I have to email some info to our HR rep. Nothing that exciting. I car pooled with Amanda up to the city, and it is always so satisfying getting to drive in the car pool lane while everyone else sits around in traffic.

After the work thing, I had my now-usual mojito!Thursday at Nola, while actually having both mojitos and Sangria. None of the pictures can possibly tell you how ridiculous it got. Ridiculous doesn’t come across on camera very well. The night culminated with cleaning Lorilee’s purse out and reading her receipts out loud.

View the photos!

I can’t wait for work to “calm down.” It’s all relative, really, but we’re going to get an additional manager soon, which means a few extra minutes each day to work on the things I’ve been neglecting. I was the opening manager four days in a row, which meant that I was in the store for two hours before we open. Damn, but I’m productive at that time. I was able to get so much stuff done, including finally working out the logistics of purchasing a washer/dryer for our store. Also, we have toilet paper spindles in the employee bathroom. This is not exciting to anyone but me, but Kristen did put up a mobile built of non-functioning spindles above my desk. (Please understand that I was sent four different kinds of spindles, none of which fit. This from the company that provided the toilet paper dispensers and the spindles.)

These days, I’m trying to fit 10 hours of work into 8 hour days. I don’t like working overtime, but managed to rack up more than 5 hours of OT in the last few weeks. That’s way more than my limit. However, after yesterday, I’m feeling like I’m making progress. Hooray for doing something more than reacting. I much prefer being proactive.

In amazing news, I had the best experience at the DMV today. I will wait a moment for you to take that in. Need another? Go ahead…

My license expired on my birthday, which was eight and a half months ago. I went in five days before that and renewed my license in person. I took the vision test, took a new photo, and updated my address. Months and months of waiting, and after being sent 2 temporary papers, still no permanant license. I got around to calling the DMV again, and then the guy on the phone told me that I just needed to go in and take the vision test again. A wha? My license already says “corrective lenses.” I need to take another test so it can say “really corrective lenses?” I made an appointment (because I refuse to go to the DMV without one) and showed up a few minutes early. (Please note that the only appointment available was at 2pm, which ruins my whole day off.) By 2pm, they called my number, and I got this woman who was on a mission to get me a real license. She was on a rampage to fix this for me, and actually made it work for me in under 10 minutes. Props to her, whoever she is.

So this is what happens when Sarah, Kristen, and I have too much free mental time. We got off work at 4:30 on Friday, and planned to stay for a bit to create a cardboard office for Wes (our lovely boss). We’d been planning this for about a week, getting one of our shippers to save us really big cardboard boxes. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t make great measurements. Sarah literally scribbled a bunch of numbers down on the back of a business card, and we went down to the warehouse with a box cutter, our own personal knives (yay Benchmade!), some red painters tape, a pencil, a yardstick, and a 20-foot tape measure. Our motto, shamelessly stolen from The Onion, was “Measure once, cut immediately” and it seemed to work just fine for us. It went up remarkably quickly, and worked amazingly well. Wes came back from four days out of the store to this vision.

Check out the gallery!

I have no words. None. Ok, maybe a few. Battlestar Galactica is amazing. The season 3 premiere was “guh?” after “wha?” after “zomg!” Coherent thoughts later…if possible at all.

I’ve been half-heartedly searching for a good solution for displaying my photographs. Not having a camera definitely put a damper on the seach as not having a camera meant not having any new and awesome (or at least mildly interesting) photos to share with you all. But now that Sir Snappy is back, I actually looked into a good gallery solution and found one!

The Popup Image Gallery WordPress Plugin is just what I was looking for. It took me a while to figure out all the bells and whistles behind the plug-in, but it was definitely worth it. After some learning from the kind folks in the Tarski support forums, I’ve got it up and running to my satisfaction. Now all I need to do is take some photos worth posting. Next target? Mojito Thursdays at Nola!

While my part of California isn’t known for rapidly changing foliage in the fall, there is a certain quality about the air that changes. Starting this morning, the skies outside have had a particular grey quality, while the air feels different. Is it a smell? Does the atmosphere weigh more now that we’re into a different season? I’m not sure what the difference is, but it’s here and it’s palpable. It reminds me of something I can’t quite place, and experiences half-remembered…it’s basketball practice and rain and warm coats and sitting on Amanda’s air conditioning unit and drinking coffee outside. I love this time of year.

Bryan and I went to the pet store today to get the dog more food. While I was loitering around waiting for Bryan to take the food out to the car, I found a fun new toy for Chandler. He’s not really sure what to do with it, but it’s funny to watch him walk around with it. I couldn’t get a good photo of the walking around, but here’s some of the cute.

Support the cause. If you don’t know about DRM, you should. It affects all of us.

My new camera is much more royal than my last one, thus he shall be called Sir Snappy. Also, if I treat him more like royalty, I might be less likely to send him for a swim in the ocean. In celebration of having a camera again, I post the last moments of Little Snappy…

You get to see the young whale that Tommy and I found while on a beach hike, plus you get to see how I like to camp…with lots of beer and elaborate cooking. That night for dinner, they made carne asada, and breakfast was elaborate and tasty, involving espresso and cold air.

Shopping for a dress with me is apparently less painful than Radena shopping for a bridesmaid dress for her sister’s wedding. But I have a dress! I’m really just not that picky and at the same time, I found a dress that I like. So yay! (This entry will look better when it’s not pirate-y.) I’d post a photo of the dress, but I’m not showing Bryan. Not for any silly reason like it’s a representation of my (ha!) virginity etc., but because I want him to be surprised! As if me in a dress wasn’t surprising enough…

Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day. Me blog be changed for this day, mateys.

Sooo…today I went wedding dress shopping. Hoo boy. Amanda accompanied me out, and went to two different places. Boy were they different. Both required a “reservation” to have someone dress me. (As an aside, I’d love it if someone would dress me all the time. Really. People putting a bra on me?! Sweet!)

Shop #1 was very full-service. I got asked what kind of wedding I was having, where, when, and what kind of dress I was interested in. I described my ideal dress as something classic, and not puffy. Very much not puffy. Also not with bling or decorations. I decided that I didn’t want people to be able to see any bling on my dress from a distance. Initially I threw out 50 feet as my Bling Visibility Limit. Amanda had to be a smart ass and say that I really meant 12 feet. This became the measurement by which we judged dresses. “No no, that’s definitely visible from 12.9 feet. That’s a no. Next!” The two gals helping me were great, and made me feel very comfortable doing something that I hate. They chose all the dresses for me (except the one Amanda chose) and I think that they did a great job. I really liked one, though the price tag was a little high…the gal there is hiding it for me for the time being.

Shop #2 was not very full-service. The receptionist there was the perkiest girl I’ve met in ages. She was about a slice of cake away from being completely insane. The girl who helped me there was very bossy. And chewed gum the whole time. She didn’t really have any interest in choosing dresses for me, nor did she think my choices were good. I mean really, I understand if you think my choices are lame you are free to think that, but pretend you are ok with it. She didn’t seem to care if I thought something was too poofy, which is the number one thing to avoid. However…I really liked one of the dresses there. The price is right too, I’m just a little concerned that it’s too white. Amanda says is makes me look taller and like I’m a size 2. Well hot damn.

So Dress 2 is generally excellent, buuuuut it’s much whiter than I really want and I have trouble giving money to a store whose service I don’t really like. But Dress 1 is nearly three times the price once alterations are done. :/ One more stop tomorrow…

[ETA: Amanda also put several different tiaras on my head. Tiaras. On my head. Dude.]

Not enough time to read the literature classics you skipped in high school? Try Daily Lit. They’ll email you a section of a book (all of their titles are in public domain) each day until you’re done. Sweet.

• I love Weeds. And I also love Battlestar Galactica and my new Arrested Development season 3 DVDs.
• I love Indian food, and am so damn glad the place near my house opened up again, better than ever. Plus I’ve managed to establish “regular” status there just as I have at the bar.
• Sarah got her ass kicked at foosball today in the break room. I forget…was the final total score about 20-7? Hmmmm.
• When will it start to snow?
• I already got a new camera. Because you can’t mourn electronics forever.
• Work is always an adventure. I’m not sure why the part Ryan searched for was behind the bar code printer, but that’s where I found it.
• I am moderately annoyed at myself for how much I enjoyed The Notebook, which I just got from Netflix. Every time I see Rachel McAdams, I enjoy her stuff. I’m not annoyed enough to be the morons on Netflix who piss and moan that Nick Cassavetes is a hack compared to his father. His dad was awesome, but Nick seems to be a solid director.
• Wedding planning. Guh.

This post was brought to you by the Not Posting About Today’s Date Group.

Canon has shipped my camera back to me, unfixed. Apparently there was nothing that could be done, and after a few weeks in the Canon facility, Little Snappy was declared All Crapped Out. Le sigh. Apparently this is a dumbass tax that I’m supposed to pay for all the dumb things I’ve done consequence-free.

I hate iTunes and it hates me. It’s fucking with Adium and my status messages. What’s interesting is that when I use “iTunes sucks” etc. as my away message in Adium, I get three pings regarding my hatred. I just wish Audion had not been retired.

In lieu of buying a whole new computer, I upgraded my hard drive to a bigger and better drive. I previously had a 40 GB 5400 rpm drive, but am now the proud owner of a zippy 100 GB 7200 rpm drive. Rather than do a complete new install, I decided (thanks Alex) to create a bootable copy of my old drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. It worked perfectly, and about 35 minutes after Bryan installed the hard drive in the laptop, I had a bootable copy of my old drive ready to roll. Much better than the hours of work it would have taken just to reinstall the OS, do system upgrades to 10.4.6, reinstall iLife, Photoshop CS2, and Office, not to mention everything else that fills my drive.

I must say that the new drive is much quieter than the old one, and while I haven’t had a chance to open a lot of giant files on it, the quicker speed of the drive also impacts the responsiveness of the computer. The 7200 rpm drive combined with 1 GB RAM makes this old machine feel almost new. Almost.

In addition, for the first time since 1999, all my music fits on my internal hard drive! I can actually port my entire music library around, as it doesn’t even all fit on my iPod. 19 GB of empty space left after importing the whole thing. If only I could get iTunes to stop mucking around with Adium, my life would be complete.

What is a dedicated television viewer to do? The meme has been done by The Man himself, so I had to participate. via.

So here’s what happened: Slither director (and Jenna “Pam from The Office” Fischer husband) James Gunn wrote a list of his 25 favorite TV characters ever. (Yes, Pam was on it.) Now, Gunn is on the radar of Joss Whedon fans because he cast good old Nathan Fillion (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly and Serenity) in Slither. So naturally, they took note of the list… and were shocked to find Captain Mal scandalously omitted.

This kicked up some dust on Whedonesque, and eventually resulted in Joss himself lightheartedly weighing in with a rival list.

My own criteria is that I will not choose two characters from any one show and while they’re numbered here, they’re in no particular order. Please note that this list has taken me days to put together, and I’m sure I’ll change my mind a few seconds after I post. But what are blogs and memes if not an arbitrary task designed to capture a moment of your life? Ooooh, deep.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s kind of annoying that all my work friends have MySpace. I refuse to break my myhymen (Lorilee, is that even how I spell it?!), but I feel compelled to leave thinly veiled insults and full-boob hugs as comments for my friends, which I can’t do without breaking my myhymen. OMG. The brain power it just took to think that thought could power the MySpace servers for nearly a nanosecond.

A brief mention of The Thing Known As MySpace tonight at Beer-Thirty was all it took. I looked for someone “new,” and found out that I’m mentioned in their “general interest” category. Me! She who only looks at MySpace to realize how happy she is running her own blog. Shalon, why must you taunt me so?! Goddamn. Now who’s the Devil?

In conclusion (as though it matters): I will not be breaking my myhymen any time soon. I just request that I be talked about often, and possibly featured as a special guest star in someone’s high school musical version of their MySpace comments area.

At Blogging Pro, David asks if personal blogs are too personal. I’m not sure if this one is. Actually, it’s probably fairly personal, but in a superficial kind of way. Does that make any sense? I blog about things I might bring up in casual conversation with people I know moderately well. Nothing extraordinary will end up here, and nothing which will put the people I write about in an awkward position.

This goes double for blogging about work. I don’t offer detail beyond what I’d tell anyone else. Work stuff is work stuff. Most of what I write about is stuff that you might see while I’m working, so it’s not even vaguely spilling the beans on anything which might be a no-no. Even so, I’m quite carefull in blogging about work. No sense in getting fired for blogging about work.

I started blogging while I was in Japan. It just seemed more efficient to rant in a web-based arena rather than send my rants out to my mailing list. (Want to read one of the emails? Read one here.) I started a website, which is actually how Bryan and I met. (I registered in the forums, he read my website, and the rest is history.) From the website, I graduated to the LiveJournal. This site is now just over 3 years old.

Farecast is a service in beta, but it’s still the coolest way to look up flight info online. Unlike services like Expedia or Orbitz, Farecast will give you a prediction on whether the flight cost will be rising or falling in order to ensure you’re getting the best rate, even looking forward to tomorrow and the next day. Now with 55 cities served (including the 3 airports closest to me) and an RSS feed for your flight searches, Farecast is hot shit in a world of cold poo.

About two months ago, I suggested to Bryan that we cancel Cinemax (Skin-e-max) and get Showtime instead. I think it’s been a good change, since the amount of original programming we get to watch is better. I wrote before that I was very much enjoying Huff. Now I’m totally loving on Weeds. Have you seen it? Clever, funny, and fantastico! If you have seen it, you’ll enjoy the Elvis Costello version of the theme song.

I am refraining from committing retail therapy upon myself, though there are several new products out that I really want.

• Timbuk2’s Slant Bag is new and super sweet. Gimmie in brown!
• Keen London Boots are awesome. I want them and I can’t get them through work. There is much sadness.
• A new laptop hard drive, which will bump me from a 40GB drive to a 100GB drive. Since I won’t be getting a new Powerbook any time soon, this is an acceptable alternative. And I am doing this soon.

In good news, I heard back from Canon, and they’re going to fix Little Snappy (as the camera is now named, it seems) for $107. Considering that’s about 30% the cost of a new camera, I think I’m doing pretty well, as far as not having to buy a new camera to fix my camera-dropping issue.

I went on a work-sponsored camping trip Tuesday and Wednesday. We went to Loon Lake, which is in El Dorado National Forest. Group Site 1 is a 50 person site, but we managed to cram about 100 employees from many different stores into the site. I had a grand time with my friends who were there, and accomplished my goal for those two days: sit around, drink, hang out with friends, read a book. Woo!

Bryan and I have finally gotten back on the horse, and are busting through an episode of Battlestar Galactica each night. Three more and we’re done with season 1, and Bryan has ordered season 2.0, and then we’ll snatch up season 2.5 when it comes out in September.

Sarah’s motto at work has always been, “Sarah first, safety second.” Shit motto, She Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken. Today at work, Sarah was drilling something (actually safety-related, ironically enough) when the drill bit broke and went through her thumb. Yes, all the way through. Her thumb is now like a pinhole camera.
ETA: View a photo of the thumb!

Thanks, Akismet. You’ve caught more than 4000 spam comments on my blog thus far, and no false-positives yet. A few random ones got through to moderation, but I forgive you.

Yesterday I began getting spam comments (caught, of course) containing Mark Wahlberg quotes. It seems that the latest iteration of this bot has been crawing Marky Mark interviews to try and get past spam filters. Huh.

In lieu of being a normal couple, Bryan and I are going to work the geek thing to the full extent. This is what happens when geeks get married. I sense…disapproval from the one person I’ve told, but whatever. Our wedding, our rules. Keep up with us, there’s more on the way. Two weeks from now, I think. My next two days off will be for camping, not for geekery.

My Canon PowerShot SD450 died a sad death a few months back when I went to Big Sur with Amanda, Tommy, Savannah, and Sylvio. I sent it back to Canon this afternoon in hopes that they’ll fix it up. I realize it’ll probably cost me money, since dumping your camera in the ocean is generally filed under “dumbass” and not “warranty.” That being said, I may get lucky and they’ll decide that they can fix it for nothing more than what I paid to ship it.

I miss my camera. Come back soon, little snappy*!

[* The camera does not have a name. Really. I just thought that up.]

As I’ve said ad nauseum, opening a new store is craaaaazy. We’ve been open not quite a week yet, and if this last week has been any indication, we’re on a path to be enormously successful. With just a week of sales under our belt, we’re crushing our monthly sales goal…so I can’t complain. Though it seems like the work might have abated, it’s only just begun.

So I haven’t spent much time doing anything but work, and haven’t really seen my friends. Hell, I don’t even see Sarah unless we carpool, even if we’re at work together. I saw Amanda Tuesday night, for a miraculous night of rum and foosball at the bar. Except for seeing her for about an hour at our community night, I haven’t seen much of her at all. Today we set aside two days we’re going to take off together, so that we can do dress shopping. Aieeee!

Rach and Darren take off on their world tour today-ish. They’re literally going everywhere, and I’m enormously jealous. With a brief stop in our neck of the woods for the wedding, then off again. Bon voyage!

In addition to the above, I smell like dog pee. Yup. Dog pee. I’m now going to take a shower and then work very hard to not kill this particular dog (not ours) who peed on me, bit me, and then bit the fuuuuuck out of Bryan’s hand. Witness my enormous anger.

• Opening a new store is tough. Where are my vending machines? The extra cardboard recycling dumpster? The employee entrace phone? The traffic counter? Aiiieeee!
• Went to the bar tonight, and even though Amanda, Tommy, and I were convinced it was Monday, we had a good time. Miles was working! Yay! Also, I should add that I very much like vanilla rum and Diet Coke.
• I love my new clothes and belt from Mission Playground.
• I also love Sephora and may have spent a little bit there, but still didn’t get what I needed, which I’ll have to buy some time soon.
• Helping Tommy with computer stuff is fun! I am far too nerdy for my own good.
• After a week of bitching about the weather, I have to say that this last week has been faaaaaantastic.
• Thinking about wedding planning right now makes me want to take a nap. So I’ll work on it after grand opening.
• Rach and Dazza leave on their round-the-world adventure shortly. I’m so jealous I can’t even express!
• I’m sending my camera in for repair this week. Wish me luck!
• I’m tired. So very tired.

Wordpress has released 2.0.4, which you should go get right now. Fixes galore, and still the easiest upgrading on record.

You know, being the fire marshal must be a lot like being a diety. And the first commandment is: “Thou shalt not be inspected until thy cluster is fucketh.” My cluster is quickly becoming fucketh, so where is our damn inspection?

It’s bloody HOT. ForecastFox, my weather plug-in for Firefox tells me that it’s 101F out right now. One of the things I love about where we live is that the weather is relatively mild. However right now, “mild” is not one of the words I’d use to describe the last few days.

Complaining about the weather makes me seem like I’m 80 years old, but I may actually melt. However, I think tonight I’m going bowling, which isn’t always the most exciting thing to do, but the idea of an air-conditioned building is very exciting.

I think at this point that the combination of fatigue (mental and physical) and the fact that I now work in a different store has culminated in the fear that I will no longer recognize Amanda the next time I see her. Since the 4th of July, we’ve spent about 30 minutes together. Considering I used to see her about as much as I saw Bryan, this is a big deal. We’re working opposite schedules these days, and I’m so pooped in the evenings that I don’t want to do anything. My big activity tonight was to lay on a couch in our screened-in porch and do a crossword puzzle (NY Times Sunday, natch).

News Flash! Bryan and I have found a place for the wedding! We’ll be getting hitched at the Peachwood’s Steakhouse in Santa Cruz. It’s official…the check is in the mail. I realize that I’m getting married at a steakhouse. =P Before you judge, look at the photos. It’s really nice.

Opening a new store is craaaaaazy. Make wild gestures with your hands to show how crazy it is. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

The last week or so has been insane. I feel like I’m moving at a pace usually reserved for running in fear from axe murderers and running toward free chocolate. I’m about halfway through a Moleskine large ruled journal full of important things about the store opening. If I lost this notebook, I’d throw myself off our store roof. Really, if you don’t know the joys of Moleskine, you don’t know what you’re missing. Having this great notebook makes the chaos of opening a new store a little bit better. I know, I’m a giant nerd for being soothed by writing on my notebook’s buttery pages. Tomorrow the fire inspector comes to check out the building. Wish us luck! Also wish us luck with network installation, fixture install, banner install, shop preparation, frontline training, product prep, and general opening stuff. You know, since you were wishing anyway.

If you’re in the area, come one, come all, to the grand opening of REI Mountain View on August 4th at 10 am. Ride your bike!

Bryan, my intrepid financé, has finally started blogging. It’s taken a while now…and by “a while” I mean that I’ve both begun and discarded a LiveJournal, as well as come up on my third year of blogging here at jinkies.org since he first contemplated the whole blog idea. But while he’s rarely on time, he always has something to say!

Drop yourself over to GeekTells and see what Bryan has to say for himself. Leave it to him to begin with a giant essay. ;)

Are you familiar with lists of 5ives? If not, you can read up. If so, and you work at REI, then OMFG hysterical!

Ow. Ow ow ow ow.

In the last year or so, I’d started to notice that my front teeth were moving. I’ve always had a gap there, but it’s been getting bigger. In the interest of vanity (plus I was biting down in a horrible way which included a horrible noise once a day or so), I finally decided to ask for an orthodontic consult from my dentist. I ended up with a good orthodontist who really wanted to put me in braces. (But really, isn’t that what an orthodontist does?) I quickly vetoed that idea, and we settled upon a system called Red, White, and Blue.

It’s really a great solution. It doesn’t involve me getting braces (automatic winner) and it’s a really reasonable financial investment. My insurance even covers half.

This seems like I’m getting vain. I am. But the weird bite thing was starting to get to me. So look, I’m vain and practical.

Today I vacuumed the dog. He loved it. He’s awesome.

The Omnibus Blog Post shall now commence! (With points going to the person who identifies both the source and the speaker of the subject line, of course.)

Bryan and I have finally gotten back into watching Battlestar Galactica. I should probably be going to the gym instead of indulging in DVD watching, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles in my mouth in order to make my belly fatter.

Dinner was recently had at the Peachwood’s Grill which was FANTASTIC. Now I think we’re having the wedding there. Seriously. Tasty food, and it’s attached to a cute little hotel. Rach and Dazza almost got married there, which just goes to show that in many ways, Rach and I are living parallel lives. Many thanks to Rach (and now her mom) for letting me talk wedding NON-STOP. It’s not as though either of you are working these days… ;)

The ring is coming! The ring is coming! Bryan and I also managed to get my ring ordered and we’ll get to see some sort of mold/model before they actually cast my rings. Ooooh. Ahhhh. C’mon now, all together!

Our 4th of July bbq was quite successful. I’m told by Bryan’s Texas Knowledge that we didn’t actually bbq. Technically we “grilled,” since nothing we made had any bbq sauce on it at all. If you want to get all technical. I think more than 20 people showed up, and a rather good time was had by all. We also cleaned the house, which was a major feat unto itself.

Work is interesting. We have staff now, and really, it’s like herding cats. Three-legged cats with equilibrium problems. I also mustered a bargain with my boss: in exchange for working at 1pm instead of 9am while I attend the Patagonia outlet sale in Santa Cruz, I need to be on the look out for shirts for him.

I actually have more to say, but I’m out of apple juice and I should go to bed.

FlossMan earlier threatened to drink my face. I think I’m supposed to be scared.

Anyhow, I’m having a retro-geek moment, and thinking about my love for The X-Files. Which also ties into the fact that my external hard drive may have died again. I have terrible luck with these things. It ties in because at some point in the hazy distant past, I made a set of 100×100 XF-themed images, intending at some point to rotate them into my LiveJournal. (This waaaay pre-dated being able to have a bazillion user pics, so I was going to have to manually rotate them out.) Now I’m thinking that I might just want to use a similar idea in my current blog iteration, but it does seem over-graphic-y to do so. Meanwhile, I just marvel at the sheer choice available if I wanted.

While I technically worked Friday and Saturday, it was really just a camping trip for work, where I got to hang out with friends, kayak and mountain bikes, and eat. Not too shabby. I came home early on Sunday, insert boringstoryabouttakinganap here.

However, the important think to point out is that SAVANNAH AND SYLVIO GOT MARRIED! zomg. Amanda called me at 12:20 am on Friday, and I’d already been asleep for an hour. This is unusual for me, so she wasn’t really calling late for me. But I answered the phone groggily, thinking that maybe she and Tommy needed a ride or something. Instead, I’m told that Savannah and Sylvio went and got hitched that afternoon. Let’s just say that I would have expected a phone call saying Amanda and Tommy had adopted a porcupine and named it Baby Soft Cheeks before getting a call announcing these surprise nuptuals.

Congratulations go out to Sav and Sylvio! Love you guys!

As a complete aside to the rest of this post, I’ve updated my DVD collection to include my latest purchases, Syriana, Dave Chapelle’s Block Party, Delicatessen, Dazed and Confused: Critereon Collection, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and Napoleon Dynamite - Like, the Best Special Edition Ever! (since I gave up and just gave my other copy to Amanda, who has had possession of the DVD for about 3 months now).

Sarah hit me tonight, people. Just letting everyone know, since when I dropped her off, she barely made it to her front door on her own power. I had a fun night (really) as the designated driver for her. It was hysterical, actually. Oh, and Sarah? You were so drunk, you sent me the same text message twice after I dropped you off. I assume the second one was intended as a response to my mocking, but still. The same message. Twice. HAHA

Where have I been? I’m not even sure! It’s been a busy time for me recently, but mostly I’ve lost the drive to blog recently. I think it’s just that I’ve been tired. And lazy.

Last week I had a fabulous three day weekend. Saturday and Sunday I got to hang out with Bryan, and then on Monday I got to take my first camping trip in ages. AGES. I went down to Big Sur with Amanda, Tommy, Savannah, and Sylvio. Tommy got us some sweet camp sites at Andrew Molera State Park, which was lucky because it’s all on a first-come-first serve basis. We were doing glorious car camping, which is my favorite kind. Amanda cooked up some amazing meals, and we ate like kings and queens.

Tuesday I had to leave at 11am to get to work on time. But before I left, Tommy and I went on a little hike out to the ocean, where we saw a beached humpback whale. It was “fresh,” said the marine biologists who were out there (with chainsaws) examining it. On the way back, my camera took a dive. Now it no-workee. Feh. I need to get a card reader, as my card still works, even though the camera doesn’t. I’ve got great pictures of Tommy next to the whale.

This last week at work has been great too. Our new hires finally started, and we’ve been doing their new hire orientations for the last five days. It’s great to have peeps now, since we’ve been going a little crazy in the office all on our own. Crazy, plus we’ve played an inordinate amount of bocce ball.

Also, my new favorite show while everything else is on hiatus? Huff.

My DVD player has died a very slow death. About six months ago, the door stopped opening. You’d push the button, but nothing would happen. Repeat about 40 times, and then sometimes the door would grind open if you were wearing the right socks and had sacrificed the right number of goats to the god who governs home theater equipment motors. Let’s just say I was never wearing the right socks.

After a lot of consternation involving buying myself an Amazon gift certificate (don’t ask), I was able to have my beautiful new player shipped out to me. After quite a bit of research (because I’m like that), I’d decided on the Denon DVD-1920. Having now gotten it all set up, I have to say that I love it. How could I not? In simple terms, I enjoy that the door opens when I tell it to. In more complicated terms, I like that I can get upconversion for the TV that I will eventually buy, as I refuse to commit to HD DVD formats until the stupid format war is over. I’m pleased with the black level adjustments, and can see the difference that the Faroudja technology makes.

The sound processing is much improved over our last set-up as well. My test DVDs came out. I vibrated out of my seat during the fantasy plane crash in Fight Club. (noug, my rebuttal to your opinion of this fine flick is coming. It is percolating.) Thank you Denon and my SVS PB10-ISD. And of course, my lovely Axiom speakers.

Next up? I’m not sure, but it’ll look great!

Rachel asks a good question: where are the best beaches in the world? Yahoo! posits their own list. Clearly I need to go spend more time at beaches so I can contribute more discussion to this topic. I do know that I really love the beach, water temperature be damned. Cold is fine!

How much do I love Threadless? So damn much. Ten dollar shirts! Reprints! New stuff! My favorite? It’s already out of print, but Meat is Murder. Tasty, Tasty Murder. In fact, we’re going to start using “tasty, tasty murder” as a new catch phrase at work.

Updated to tarski 1.1.3 today. Everything went smoothly, and I finally added some friendliness to the asides as implemented. Color boxes, titles (on the bottom), and the Bryan-friendly “wtf” label to indicate that my aside isn’t some sort of botched advert for mental lapses.

I’m still not quite savvy with the constants.php stuffs. Every time I use it, something breaks. So for now, I’m just adding my code directly to the files needed. I’ve made relatively few changes, so I don’t spend too much time doing it. I started commenting the changes as well, to more easily pull them out when needed. I suppose that by the time we get to a 1.2 theme release I’ll have a better handle on what’s up with both the constants.php and widgets. For now, I’m keeping it simple.

So after years and years of not eating tomatoes (unless cooked into a sauce or disguised as salsa), I have decided that when the tomato is right, it’s fantastic. I’ve had one a day for the last three days, and they’ve been a wonderful addition to my meal. Apparently this anti-tomato stance isn’t genetic like my family thinks.

After a hard day (some might say frightening) of interviewing potential employee candidates, it’s only right to go out and get your drink on. I went out with what I thought was just going to be the girls (more on this in a moment) to Molly MaGees in downtown Mountain View. Lorilee and Allison drove out to meet up with the girl part of the interview crew: myself, Amanda, Shalon, Kristen, and Kristen. The Kristen-squared thing was definitely complicated, though at least they didn’t sit next to each other.

Some time into the evening, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. Being a dumbass, I answered it, and since this guy seemed to know who I was out with, I stupidly told him where we were. Then I realized I didn’t know who I had just told to crash our party. Kristen (which one? wouldn’t you like to know!) called back to ask who the hell it was. Apparently this guy Jeff, who I used to work with at the Fremont store, went INTO THE TRASH at the store and dug out my phone number and a map to downtown Mountain View which Lorilee had printed out for Allison and herself. Did I mention the trash part? Ugh. Now he has a crush on Amanda, which I find enormously funny.

There is a photo of me looking like the devil, but that’s not going here. Instead, you get the following:

You. The person from Houston who searched Yahoo! with the words “tell story about seller restaurant server serving a beer to a minor unintentionally” and got this site: WTF? Do you have an underage drinkers fetish? I apologize that I’ve been able to buy my own beer for many years now.

P.S. Now I’ll get to be the first result for that search, not the third…

That’s how you know we’re really rocking. Well, spinach and puppets. Tonight Bryan and I were in Santa Cruz seeing Beck with Jamie Lidell. It was an all-ages show, but curiously I was able to suppress the urge to kill myself and those around me due to the supreme RADNESS of the show.

Jamie Lidell only performed for about 35 minutes, but I imagine that the work he does takes an enormous amount of energy and concentration. You can hear his work on his website, but I would describe his live work as nothing short of bad ass. He’s up on stage with a mic, a keyboard, some sampling gear, and a Powerbook. He sings beautifully, beatboxes for himself, and samples all of it on top of a basic musical track that he’s pre-recorded. Rawk. [Watch video of him performing live. Click on the picture of the film canisters.]

Beck had puppets. Technically I suppose they were marionettes. The stage was set up so that Beck was front and center, with his band mates off to either side of the stage. Directly behind him was a small stage, with marionettes of each of the band members. They were dressed like the person they represented, and when Beck changed guitars, so did his little avatar. It was hawesome. There was also a large screen at the back of the stage, and it was essentially a concert film of the marionettes up there. You could watch the stage and see people performing, or you could watch the screen and see the not-people performing.

The show was a mix of super new stuff and old school Beck. Highlights included Beck on stage with a guitar and harmonica while the rest of the band sat down at a table to his left and slightly upstage. They had menus, and ordered salads and drinks. During the second song, while Beck was up singing, the guys at the table (including Lidell, who came out in a robe) starting using their silverware and the dishes and even the table itself as the percussion section for the song. It was so much fun! Later, after the band walked off for what seemed like the end of the show, the screen showed a whole mini-movie of the marionettes and their exciting day in Santa Cruz. It included a trip to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, two scrotum jokes, a marionette vomiting into a trash can, the interesting fact that more that half of all puppet injuries occur when a puppet is sandwiched between two women, and all the little guys singing “Don’t Cha” (Google tells me that it’s the Pussycat Dolls) backstage.

After the film, the puppets performed alone on stage to the album version of “Loser.” Yes, we all rocked out to a bunch of marionettes lip-synching to the album version of Beck’s most popular radio hit. It was that kind of night. The actual band came back out to perform “E-Pro” and then it was all over. Overall it was a short night. Beck did about 70 minutes, but it remains one of the best shows I’ve seen in ages. (Certainly better than Bauhaus back in October…meh.)

My friend Audrey (who I last saw for a very early morning breakfast in Boston) has temporarily moved from Burlington, Vermont to Oakland. She’ll be doing a rotation in the ER at the hospital there, and will be here for the month of June. We had a lovely dinner together in Oakland. I recommend Cactus Taqueria. Mmmmm.

I had appropriate email-based dramatic fighting with Sarah at work the other day over these photos. It kind of went the way our usual conversations go, where I ask for something, Sarah tells me to shut my face, I yell back, and then she gives in. No really, that’s how we relate. Sometimes there is bar snack throwage too, but that’s a specific time and place.

Here is some more “evidence” from the night of my going away party.

Yes, I’m doing my typical pointing. Alex is so proud. There’s another one of me pointing, but I think Sarah is putting it up at work, so I’ll hold back for the moment. I’ll admit that I don’t remember the two where Amanda and I are between Scott and Jon. Let’s leave it at that.

I went out last night for an all-girls night with Dena, Melis, and some of their other friends. I worked until 7:30, then met up with them in downtown Mountain View. I met up with the girls at Fiesta Del Mar TOO. I’d intended to take the train to work, and then get picked up, but decided that driving myself to work and then downtown would ensure that I didn’t drink too much because I’d have to turn around and drive home. Smart me!

We had a lot of margaritas. A lot. But after leaving the restaurant, I was on a strict water “diet,” and I was fine to drive a while later. It was good to go out with the girls. The more we change, the more we come together. And it’s good to know that no matter what, they’ll tell me when I’m being a moron, and set me straight with love and a good kick in the ass. With or without the margaritas. But of course everything is a little bit better with margaritas.

I’m gonna fuck it up again
I’m gonna do another detour
Unpave my path

And if you wanna make sense
What you looking at me for
I’m no good at math

And when I find my way back
The fact is I just may stay, or I may not

Ooooh. PMS. Grumpy-pants.

I think getting married is a fine idea. I’m pleased that Bryan and I are doing it. I am also not sure how I feel about actually doing the planning. I had a five minute phone conversation with my mom, just to plan a time for Bryan and I to go over there are talk wedding. In that short conversation, I was asked to figure out how many people were going, where the ceremony and reception would be, and how much we’re thinking about spending.

All that? Good lord. Also, there is a bit of consternation that we’ve chosen to get married on a Friday. Bah, I say. It leaves a whole weekend for relaxing and spending time with out of town friends. Rachel is already making me feel better about this, reminding me that I should just pick my battles and figure out what’s most important to me.

However, this morning was much more relaxing than those five minutes with my mom. (Oh, but I love you mom! I’m just in wedding denial.) Bryan and I had coffee with Amanda and Tommy, which turned into coffee and craigslist browsing, then a late-ish lunch and beers. “Let’s have coffee” turned into over four hours of hanging out. It was lovely. Definitely a great day off.

When it comes to food, I’m decisive. Rarely do I sit down and look at a menu and not know what I’m going to eat after a quick read. (I realize that this is made easier by the fact that I don’t eat meat so I’m only reading 20% of the menu.) Bryan likes to find one thing that he enjoys at a particular restaurant, and once he finds it, he generally sticks with it. If we’re going somewhere we’ve eaten before, I could order for Bryan without hesitation. I could also name all the things that he’s not going to order, because somehow in the last 4.5 years, I’ve learned that I need to catalogue the foods that he orders and then doesn’t enjoy lest he make the mistake of ordering them again. Thus we can go to an eating establishment and as we sit down I’ll give him a run-down of all the things he’s eaten there and shouldn’t order again. Like, “You don’t want the French dip, and this is the place where you thought the salad dressing tasted weird.”

I bring this up because on Sunday I realized that I apparently need to do this with Amanda as well. For all the time I spend with her, we don’t generally have an abundance of meals together. Usually she’ll have dinner with Savannah (or Tommy) and I’ll meet up with them afterwards. This past Sunday, I had dinner with Amanda and Savannah, and we went somewhere that we’ve gone several times together. I’ve ordered a few different things there, and have generally been happy with the food. Not that Amanda is a particular eater, but each time we’ve gone together, she’s been unhappy with her food, and then ends up eating whatever I’ve ordered. This time I had the asparagus risotto, last time it was calamari and prawns. And she always ends up saying, “You know, I really liked that citrus salad…” while she’s eating half my meal.

After we’d finished eating my meal on Sunday I told her she was required to stop complaining about her choices (i.e. just say “no” to the lasagna) and order the citrus salad and the calamari. Or if she’s with me, she tells me what she’s going to order, and then I pretend to get her that and order her whatever it is that I’ve decided upon. Either way, she couldn’t possibly be less satisfied than she already is after her meals.

Last night she went again with Tommy. I saw her afterwards just briefly for The Passing Of The Keys, and asked what she’d had for dinner. My girl has learned something. She had the citrus salad and the calamari.

I wore a skirt tonight! And of course, congrats to Dave and Jen, who got themselves married tonight! But really, the odds of them getting married again are roughly the same as me wearing a skirt again. I might have to wear it in front of Amanda, just to prove that I actually own a skirt, but that’s not an out-in-public kind of thing.

The process of putting together a new store is daunting, but the last two days of meetings have shown me that REI knows what it’s doing. I really feel like we’re getting the most support possible from people who have experienced this new store process before. I feel like the team we have right now is really coming together. There is a definite dynamic shift for me, just in the nature of my job and the promotion, but I feel like it has been a smooth transition (at least on my end).

What would I change? Well that’s between me and my team, really. Sorry, but there are things I can’t share. Haven’t you read those horror stories about people losing their jobs over blogging about work? Neither have I, but there is a time and a place. I do really miss the people I used to work with. There’s that easy familiarity that comes with working closely with people for a period of time. Not to mention that it’s definitely a different experience working with just six other people for the next few weeks. Until we hire a sales staff, it’s just the managers and our admin. That is very different, in and of itself. Then there’s the obvious…not getting to work every day with Amanda and Sarah. No one screams “Missy!” at me when I walk through the parking lot. Heck, we barely have a parking lot!

Change is afoot in many, many ways.

My final day at the Saratoga store was Monday-ish. It was really Sunday, but I did work about four hours on Monday just to tie up some loose ends, and then to run errands until the farewell fiesta began. I got to Rock Bottom around 5:30 pm and staked out a good outdoor area for our group. I was there until about 11ish, and managed to pace myself quite nicely. I really like their Brown Bear Brown Ale, and I had five or so, plus a shot of tequila with some of the guys from my department. Over about five hours of drinking, that’s a pretty mild night.

Amanda got there after work and we stuck around until the work crowd dwindled, then went to Khartoum with Sarah and Jon. There was more drinking, extreme foosball suckage (Amanda’s, not mine, I was not drunk enough to think I had anything to offer in the realm of hand-eye coordination), and then more drinking. Sarah may have instigated some bar snack throwage, but I’m sure she’ll say that Savannah started it six months ago so it’s really not her fault. Sarah and Jon took off at some point, and Amanda and I staggered (and I do mean staggered) back to her place to pass out and wake up with lovely hangovers the next morning.

Tuesday night I didn’t mean to go out drinking, but the best intentions blah blah tequilacakes. Amanda and I met up with Erica at La Pizzaria, ate some tasty food, and then went to Khartoum. It was another glorious night of free drinks, as I think every person in the bar that I knew paid for one drink for me. So I sort of unintentionally had two beers and three shots. D’oh. I mean, you know, oops. Amanda drove me home, but I woke up this morning sans hangover.

This morning Bryan and I went and talked engagement rings with a jeweler. We should get an estimate on the rings later this week. Whee! I’m getting my “dream” ring, with an alteration to set the stone into the ring. Here’s hoping platinum isn’t too expensive.

And then this evening, around 4pm, Amanda, Erica, and I went to the beach again. It was pretty windy, so we didn’t get into the water this time. Mostly we drank Pacifico and played cards. Erica taught me how to properly drop my shoulder in order to tackle someone. Where “someone” is Amanda. I did knock her down once, but then I ended up with my face in the sand, so I lost even though I’ve successfully knocked her down now. I’m about one for 803. My odds are increasing!

Amanda and I both work tomorrow, but don’t work together. To quote a great line: “This is weird. It’s weird. Very weird. Fuckin’ weird.” It’s the beginning of a whole new era for us. Tomorrow is Day 1 for me at Mountain View. w00t!

I’m writing music reviews again. That’s right, me. Check out iPod Observer for iPod news and music reviews from people more clever than I.
[ETA: Check one out.]

I’ve become obsessed with organization at work. With a million things to do each day and only eight hours to complete said million things, I’ve needed to become almost obsessively organized. Since I’m moving to a new office space next week, I’ve been collecting ways I can “start over” and become even more efficiently organized. Thus the five minute organizer system, which I’m going to try out.

For the first time in ages, Amanda and I had a day off together so we planned a trip to the beach. Glorious beach! The day was perfect for hanging out by the ocean. Erica came too, and they picked me up and away we went! We drove out to La Selva beach, which is beautiful. It’s Amanda’s favorite, and I can see why. There were only a few other people there (granted, it’s a Thursday) and we were able to relax uninterrupted.

We got a little sunburnt (my right side more than my left, alas), but it was well worth it. Check it out!

After rushing home, I went and had dinner with Dena and Melis at Thea Mediterranean in Santana Row. We haven’t gotten together in a while, so it was a leisurely two hour meal. I’ve now got a full bridal party! Woo! We then did a bit of window shopping (and real shopping), and ended up gabbing in front of a store which we all hate and I won’t name. Apparently we were standing there for so long, this guy noticed us as he walked by a few times, and made a comment that we’d been standing in that one place forever. We decided that was probably our cue to leave.

[I realize that this is an inane and inept description of my great day off. It's more of a narrative and less of an interesting read. I apologize. But I got photos up, and now I go to bed.]

I love Tuesdays because new CDs and DVDs are released. Here’s a list of today’s gluttony:

• Stadium Arcadium — Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Whatever People Say I Am Thats What I Am Not — Arctic Monkeys
• The Greatest — Cat Power
• Wolfmother — Wolfmother

Six Seven (I can’t count) months from today, Bryan and I are gonna get hitched. It’ll be on our five year anniversary (because Bryan is kind of a woman about it), which is a Friday. Who says we’re conventional? Now here comes the planning and the madness.

I’ll be leaning heavily on Rachie and her mom for the planning, as they managed to plan two weddings in one year, and are now far enough past it that they’re only remembering the fun of the planning. To answer the pressing question, YES I will wear a dress. While jeans and a dress shirt are a tempting combo, I shall bow to tradition and attempt a dress for the occasion. Plus, it’s kind of fun!

No way to describe the day we had at work. It was amazing. We smashed through our sales goals and our membership goals. We also sold 36 bikes and 601 pairs of shoes, in addition to the numerous everything that we sold. Craaaaazy. I’m pooped, but in a good way. Tomorrow I’ll stop and get my crew the goodness that is Roses Donuts. They deserve the sugar. Plus there’s a tri-tip bbq challenge between two guys at work, so they’re making tri-tip sammiches for everyone for lunch. Us vegetarians get baked potatoes and other tasty things.

Also, I’m feeling the pull for tattoos. Again. In no way is it connected to the fact that my pal Robbie just got a new tattoo. (Or that I saw this sweet ink after Robbie’s popped up.) While it’s still my dream to get some ink done at Eccentric in Nagoya, Japan, I somehow doubt I’ll be able to arrange both a tourist stop and a tattoo stop in that part of Japan. That’s a lot of coordination. I’m not sure where I’d go to get ink done these days. It doesn’t appear that Mike is still at Staircase, where I had my ankle tattoo done. It’s still holding up, even though it’s nine years old. My guess is that I’d head up to San Francisco to get another one.

My ankle tattoo is my favorite, hands down. I’m not particularly in love with the other two. A new one would probably cover both the old ones. I’ll have to start looking for inspiration.

Norelco has a new, online Flash ad campaign. Brilliant. It’s mostly work-safe, but I guess that depends on where you work.
[via]

Tee hee. Never in my life did I think that I would post about the new Star Wars DVDs nearly 11 full hours before Slashdot. Hooray for The Digital Bits for keeping me in the loop.

It’s about goddamn time! Thanks to my favorite DVD site for bringing it to my attention, and a giant HELLS YEAH for the official word. Those bastards at Lucasfilm are slightly less bastard-y as of today. It’s official, the original Star Wars trilogy will be released on September 12 (in “limited release” a la Disney vault) on DVD in their original theatrical format. No stupid added special effects, no digital Jabba, no Hayden Whineyson ghost with the Ewoks, just Star Wars like it was originally presented.

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie, as well as the original theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

See the title crawl to Star Wars before it was known as Episode IV; see the pioneering, if dated, motion control model work on the attack on the Death Star; groove to Lapti Nek or the Ewok Celebration song like you did when you were a kid; and yes, see Han Solo shoot first.

Oh yes. Oh yes.

I was thinking about importing my LiveJournal posts into Wordpress, but I can’t decide if that’s a good idea. It’s possible I’ll just nuke the LJ all together. It’s like sad posterity.

Since I’ve been thinking of this, I’ll revive an ancient meme that I found on my LJ, but with new!jinkies answers.

Things I can’t do (that most people can):
1. Roll my “r”s.
2. Walk down stairs without looking down the whole time.
3. Tell when meat is done cooking.

Things I can do (that most people can’t):
1. Recite all the helping verbs.
2. Properly calibrate a home theatre system.
3. Use my computer. Really.

Things I love (though my demographic group is supposed to hate them):
1. grammar
2. NPR
3. Staying home on Friday nights.

Things I hate (though my demographic group is supposed to like them):
1. reality TV
2. MySpace. Guh.
3. Fancy-schmancy coffee drinks.

These things are available at regular stores, but I go out of my way to get the schmancy variety:
1. Coffee. Give me Peets or Coffee Society.
2. Stuff for our house. Avoid Bed Bath and Beyond, go to Williams Sonoma.
3. Face soap. Shiseido or nothing!

Oh, and I’ve implemented asides, which are the mini-posts you see here. I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with it, but it seems neat.

Moving Veronica Mars to Tuesday night has seriously affected the TiVo. It’s now on at the same time as House and Scrubs. One time, two tuners, three networks. Grrr.

I’m spreading. Three days per week at the gym (minimum) is my goal. Or if Sarah buys a damn mountain bike frame, maybe I could do outdoor activities too…

Tonight Amanda and I flashed back…we hustled guys at foosball for free drinks. Then took shots and hung out with the bartender and Giovanni. Then Giovanni took us to La Pizzaria and made us pizza while we sobered up. It’s good to know the right people, and it’s fun to be a “regular” and get the personal service that is so great. Recently I’ve been missing some of this due to other circumstances, and it’s been nice to feel a little bit like less has changed.

That would be an awkward subject if I weren’t talking about a CD. I just purchased the long-lost (to me and MikeD) soundtrack to the 1997 film, The Last Time I Committed Suicide. I have to say that the movie isn’t one of my favorites. I don’t really even like it very much. (Sorry Mike!) However it’s got an amazing soundtrack that’s been out of print for ages. Mike and I used to listen to it fairly often, and once I left Stockton, I realized I needed a copy for myself. No dice. It’s almost as hard to find as a copy of Boulderdash’s We Never Went to Koxut Island, which I had to have a friend in Belgium buy for me. I’ve been trying to get a copy of Suicide off eBay, but never found one when I remember to look, but didn’t quite want it enough to look harder.

I lucked out the other night, and found a copy for $6 and change after shipping through an Amazon seller. It arrived today, and I’m just so pleased. :D While I own some of the tracks on other albums, it’s a great all-in-one piece. Blue Note knows how to put out an album, that’s for sure. Read the track list and feel the love.

1. “Better Get It In Your Soul” - Charles Mingus
2. “Straight No Chaser” - Max Roach Quartet
3. “Move” - Miles Davis
4. “It’s A Metaphor”
5. “Sugar Blues” - Dianne Reeves
6. “Shaw ‘Nuff” - Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie
7. “Right Back Where I Started”
8. “A Tisket, A Tasket” - Ella Fitzgerald
9. “Sixteen” - Thelonious Monk
10. “The Thin Man” - Art Blakey And The Jazz Messengers
11. “Woody Wagon”
12. “Country Girl” - Javon Jackson featuring Cassandra Wilson
13. “He May Be Your Man” - Dianne Reeves
14. “The Wild Stuff”
15. “Heartbreaker” - The Andrews Sisters
16. “Budism” - Jacky Terrasson
17. “The Suicide Suite (Original Score From The Movie)” - Red Fish Blue Fish
18. “Carry On, My Brother”
19. “Ride My Heart” - Pet
20. “Who Is This?”

As posited by Jim Emerson and found via kottke, here follows the list of 102 movies which critic Emerson believes everyone should see.

This isn’t like Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” series. It’s not my idea of The Best Movies Ever Made (that would be a different list, though there’s some overlap here), or that they were my favorites or the most important or influential films, but that they were the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.”

…I tried to represent key examples of all important genres, movie stars, directors, historical movements, and so on — like an overview of the 20th century in 101 [sic] movies.

I agree with Emerson that there is a certain cinematic literacy that we should all strive toward. However achieving this literacy is difficult at best. I know that I would not have been exposed to any French New Wave cinema (for example) had I not been a film major in college. I’d guess that a goodly number of films on this list were part of the cinematic explosion in my life that happened between 1996 and 2000. (The musical does seem to be greatly underrepresented here, but I’m also biased toward the format.)

The following is Emerson’s list, with notations for the ones I’ve seen [#] and ones I own [$]. I realize there are some “odd” films which I’m missing. Chalk it up to me wanting to follow the path I was already on (either continuing with the oeuvre of a director or seeing the major pieces of a genre, or possibly just that I don’t really like Stanley Kubrick). I’m trying to put together my own (significantly shorter) “must see” list too. Coming soon to a blog near you.

Read the rest of this entry »

My dad called tonight to tell me that the time has come. The information for my ten-year high school reunion arrived in the post today. (C’mon, you didn’t expect me to just come out with the Paul Spericki/Grosse Pointe Blank quote, do you? Been there, done that.) I’m not sure what to do. Granted, I do want to go, I think. But for $74? It’s hard to believe it’d be worth the money. The reunion is at Dave & Busters, so I could just show up and play games and not interact in the fancy-schmancy showroom where the reunion is being held. Checking the list of people that the reunion service couldn’t find…well several folks on that list are people I’d be most interested in seeing again. Guess I need to call Hedyeh about being my other date to the reunion.

Also, while I particularly loathe the “Fight Club” episode of The X-Files, I’d forgotten how cute the Mulder and Scully guess-the-cause-and-culprit-before-the-slideshow interaction was. I should watch the first 10 minutes of the episode again some time.

Oh, the cute…

Mulder: You have any ideas, Scully? Any thoughts?
Scully: What I’m thinking, Mulder, is how familiar this seems. Playing Watson to your Sherlock. You dangling clues out in front of me one by one. It’s a game and…and as usual, you’re…you’re holding something back from me. You’re not telling me something about this case.

I’ve definitely had enough drama to supply myself and the four of you with some dramarama for your afternoon. But suffice to say, I’m coming around…I’m only hoping that others might as well. The more things change, the more they continue to change. If things happen for a reason, it’s only natural to imagine that some of those reasons are unreasonable. Meh.

However, the true Hollywood story is, in this case, my behind-the-scenes work on the blog today. I’ve updated the theme (finally) to Tarski 1.1.1 and chose to join the modern sector and use my own CSS instead of b0rking about with the style.css in the heart of the theme. I updated Ultimate Tag Warrior to the latest version. My archives have been tidied up a bit with Clean Archives, which I really dig. For really no reason at all, I also added a specific Creative Commons deed.

Want to know about other stuff you can see? myStatus got its own class in the CSS, so it has a specific look all to itself. I felt that it looked too much like the post content, and not enough like sidebar content. I’ve updated my DVD collection info, which is now mostly complete. Did I mention the change to the header? That happened a few days ago, but I’ve been working on it just as long as the other one has been up. Because I know you’ve been waiting for this for ages now, you can click on that cute photo of me and read my new bio/about page.

I’ll bitch a little too. Now that I’m tracking my traffic etc., I know and understand my Google page rank. (Nifty extension which I use to see this.) I’m vain enough to want to know why someone who has a hosted blog (i.e. Blogger or LiveJournal) can, with very little content and zero link savvy, receive a higher page ranking than me? Feh.

This has been, hands down, the most difficult and exhausting week of my career. Capped off with today, a brutal test of who I am and what I stand for. I’ve challenged who I am as a person, as a friend, and as a manager. I’m still only sure that I’m a pretty good manager. The rest may be up for debate, at least in my head.

I won’t be blogging for the next few days. The bullshit in my head isn’t fit for public consumption.

Well, at least Dena and Melis might remember that one… I’ll be working, and not doing anything even remotely interesting in that vein. I shall live vicariously through the people who I know will not let the day pass them. I also did the smart thing and gave several key people on my staff the day off. I wasn’t born yesterday.

I rarely get to use one of my favorite phrases on myself (because while I’m self-mocking, I have to draw the line somewhere), but in this case, it’s definitely apt: “The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.”

Mentally, I feel like my wittle brain went on a marathon race and forgot the water and the Clif bars. The last three days have been a whirlwind of activity, and I’m exhausted mentally. So exhausted that I was unable to react to the complete and utter cow patty that was tonight’s ending to Alias. (My essay on where J.J. Abrams went wrong is now in its fourth volume.) Beginning on Monday, we started interviewing supervisors. A candidate pool of seven needed to be whittled down to four–three in my new store and one to replace me. But who can replace me, right? Oh snap.

Each interview ran anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, and each one required a huge amount of mental juice. It always amazes me how much energy just sitting and really listening to someone takes. This may be because I’m not much of a listener. (I’m sorry, did you say something?) Monday was just a single interview to get my feet wet. Tuesday was a grueling four interview session, from 10:30am until 5pm. We were chomping on some Mocha Magic during the last one to try and stay with it. They were all phone interviews, so I was sitting in an office with at least one other manager, trying to make deep and meaningful eye-contact with the phone. Today we rounded out the interviews with two final candidates.

The decision making has been, thus far, the easiest part. I got to give my recommendations to my boss, then I sit back and wait for his ultimate decisions. He’ll be conducting one more reference check tomorrow, and then I expect we’ll have a decision to throw out there to our candidates on Friday morning. Oy. I’ve definitely been sweating the whole process. It’s really important for me to feel like I’ve given this my all and have helped to make the right decisions for this new store. Frankly, it’s making it difficult for me to sleep, and most of you know that sleeping is nearly my favorite hobby.

Have I mentioned that I’m also still doing my old (current) job on top of all the interviewing. I feel I’ve managed to be relatively productive doing both. I’m getting a lot done through others, that’s for sure!

I’m going to get into bed now. It’s time to try and sleep while I can.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, asked recently:

If you had to design a dating web site that matched people on just two criteria, what would those criteria be?

The comments/answers to his query range from thought-provoking to ridiculous. I’d previously told Amanda and Savannah that I only have one criteria for dating consideration: personal hygiene. Everything else can be negotiated. After all, I’ve been known to do ridiculous things for people I love. Like go to Texas or enter a country-western bar. (Thankfully I didn’t have to do those two things at the same time!) Thus, I present my two criteria.

1. Attention to personal hygiene.
2. Interests that are not exactly like my own.

I figure if they bathe regularly and can introduce me to things I may not have otherwise done/tried/seen, they are worth consideration. Some overlap is good, but why would I want to date someone exactly like myself? That’s just narcissism. Bryan fits both nicely. Now if only he would close the kitchen cabinets… =)

I GOT IT! :D

For those I couldn’t tell in the first 36 hours, I’ve been offered the assistant manager job at the new Mountain View store, and I’ve happily accepted it. Wahoo! I’ll be working in my current position for the next month, then will be working in a temporary office until the store itself is ready to have inhabitants. Sadly, I’ll be doing double-duty of both jobs for the next month as well, but without the pay jump. We start interviewing supervisors next week. Guess I should get ready…

Monday afternoon I got the call. The Bay Area human resources rep called me to ask about the weather. Ok, not really. She called to set up an interview time with me, and to joke that she was calling about the weather. I like her. =) I’ve been ready for this interview since the middle of February, so I’ve just been itching to get out and do it. I set it up for 11:30 on Tuesday morning. Get it out of the way, and then sit back. I was, if I am correct, the first interview. For me, I definitely want to be either first or last. Set the standard, or be the last one they have in their head.

The interview was a conference call with the HR rep and the new store manager. It lasted just over an hour, and I paced the whole time. I’d posted up in my manager’s office, and paced as far as his phone cord would let me. Slightly less than three feet in either direction. While I don’t like phone interviews (I’m much more brilliant and charming in person), it does afford an opportunity to have my notes in front of me. Rather than flipping through pages, I had color-coded post-its. Each post-it was one example of something great I’d done which I wanted to use in my interview. Once I used it, I pulled it off the wall so I wasn’t repeating my examples.

At the end, there were only three left on the wall. Not because I hadn’t gotten to them, but because I had only touched upon them, and didn’t feel like I’d said enough to pull them from the wall. All in all, I think it was a good interview. I’m feeling pretty confident in the way I presented myself, and the kind of impression I made.

There are seven people applying for three jobs. Someone else can do the math for me on that one. I’ll know about the job by Wednesday, the 12th. Keep your fingers crossed!

For the third year in a row, my friend Anne is doing the AIDS LifeCycle. In short:

AIDS/LifeCycle is co-produced by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center and is designed to advance their shared interests to end the pandemic and human suffering caused by AIDS.

It’s a seven-day, 585 mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. I repeat, Anne is doing it for a third year in a row. This year she’ll be joined by her brother and her father. I’ll also pimp my co-worker, Micheal, who is doing the ride for a second year. Please, if you have a few dollars to spare, donate to them and help them with their fundraising goals. It’ll only take a minute, but every penny makes a difference.

Please donate to Anne and her family.
Please donate to Micheal’s goal too.

Spring cleaning time! Seriously. I understand that those of you who know me really well will find the idea that I’ve embraced any sort of cleaning as a sick and belated April Fool’s joke, but I’m quite serious. Bryan and I got home from our vacation and came home to a sty. And not a neat pig-kind either. We’re talking dog fur and dust everywhere. Granted, now that the weather is (in theory) changing, Chandler is shedding more than ever. Be that as it may, we’re trying to keep up with the fur deposits, as well as minimizing our own “deposits” along the way. Little things like doing the dishes every night and me hanging up my coat when I get home go a long way toward reducing clutter. I even found our kitchen table earlier this evening! Go me!

We’re sweeping through the house in stages. The kitchen, living room, and bathroom are complete. I’m finishing the office and the guest bedroom tomorrow. Our bedroom will happen too, but it’s mostly buried under laundry, and not filthy like the rest of the house was.

Oh, and I get my interview date and time tomorrow. Wish me luck on getting the promotion!

If you don’t know who Mitchell Hurwitz is, you’ve missed out on the best 30 minutes of live-action television in recent history. (And as Gob would say: “COME ON!”) Probably the best television since Joss Whedon got out of the game. Hurwitz brought us the Bluth family and Arrested Development. In a recent decision, Hurwitz has decided not to continue with the show, despite an offer from Showtime to keep it on the air.

Sadness.

I thank you, Mr. Hurwitz, for putting great television back on the air, and making me feel less enmity for the sitcom genre. You reinvigorated and slapped some life into an art that was falling by the wayside and catering to the lowest common denominator. Your cast and crew made FOX tolerable (with an able assist from Family Guy), and kept the network from being a (complete) festering cess pool of human waste. I salute you and your work. Thanks for three stellar years.

More photos from the trip. Editing these is a pain, but I’ve promised to do it. More Yellowstone images, plus Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Maybe not love. But people are certainly looking for all kinds of mysterious crap and ending up here at jinkies.org. You weirdos know who you are. I appreciate the hits, but since I don’t have any ads to generate revenue, I just hope you got a giggle and come back some time.

I’ve been using Blogbeat to keep track of my blog stats: how many visitors I get, where they are coming from, what they’re clicking on, etc. Mostly it’s vanity. Ok, it’s all vanity. I have to admit, I’d never have believed some of the searches that have led people to me. Some are clearly people looking for either themselves or people they know. (Lorilee, I’m talking to you. Were you googling yourself?) Other people found this site by googling phrases like “birthday spanking photos” and “hoppy floppy.” Hmmm.

Someone else is trying to hax0r my work via wireless at the corporate office. Not sure what that’s all about, but now I’m curious.

So happy searching folks. Find anything interesting?

I tweaked my back at work yesterday. I was pushing a cart with shelves in it, when I went to turn a corner through a door and all of a sudden I had pain. So I spent an hour that afternoon supine on Amanda’s floor. Beer fixed it for a short while, but this morning it still hurt. Tonight while I was watching one of the basketball games I’d TiVoed, I was apparently leaning just right, and I took a deep breath, felt a rib go “pop” right where I had the pain, and then my back was fine. Huh.

Bryan has been telling me for ages that I should be watching Battlestar Galactica with him. I’ve been putting it off. Even though it’s been called one of the best shows on television (and trust me, there isn’t much on right now), I’ve been reticient. Mostly because I so hate the formula MOTW stories that abound in most crap sci-fi shows on television these days. Yes, Stargate series, I’m talking to your lame pants. But I sort of gave in when I bought Bryan the season 1 DVDs, I implied that I would try watching them with him. This was at Christmas.

Over our vacation, we brought the DVDs on the road with us, and I finally allowed for the time to watch the miniseries, which was essentially the pilot event. Damn it all anyhow. I must know what happens next. The plan for me is to catch up with the show during hiatus (since the season 2 finale just aired) and be ready to dork out for season 3.

I hate it when Bryan’s right. It’s rare, but it does happen. He wins with Firefly (which I was annoyed with because it didn’t seem Joss-y enough, and then they finally aired the real pilot episode and I got mad at FOX), TiVo, and now BSG. Lookie world! Bryan was right! :D

They’re either wonderful or they’re Satan. In lieu of editing more photos, which I’m too tired to do, I present young Henry Pipkin, Esq. This is from the trip, though not a panoramic image of beauty. Just Henry. Please insert an emphatic head nod here.

I can’t be arsed to edit 100 photos tonight, so you’re getting what are essentially the first set of pics I could make myself go through. They start at the beginning of our trip (minus the time in Oregon because I didn’t take pictures), and I don’t have all the cute photos of the young Henry Pipkin (Esq., as Bryan insists) because they’re on Bryan’s computer. If you want to watch my near-four-year-old powerbook have a mental meltdown, you can watch me try and edit the photos he took, which are in RAW.

Here’s what I’ve done so far. I’ll try and get more up tomorrow.

Welcome to the latest look. The more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ve taken the lovely theme, Tarski, and made some minor tweaks. After putting together what I thought would be the final set of edits, they went and updated the theme and made it even better! :D So I did some more editing, and I think it’s all up and running. Let me know if anything is horribly b0rked, and I’ll get to it.

Tweaks include…well, you don’t care, so I won’t list them. But thanks to ceejayoz and ionfish for putting together such a great theme. w00t!

Photos from the trip should be up tomorrow!

Bryan and I have stopped for the evening in Cedar City, Utah. It’s about 90 minutes from Zion National Park, which is our destination tomorrow. Looks like we’re going to get some snow too. Should make for some pretty photos if we can get enough light.

On the way from Montrose to our current location, Bryan and I detoured through the fantastic Colorado National Monument. Wow! We took a heap of photos, which will be part of my giant photo spam for Tuesday.

For now, we relax in Utah and watch some hawt-ass LL Cool J on TV. He is ridiculously hot.

Oh, and Stanford trounced Southeast Missouri State. On to the second round!

March Madness is here again. If I weren’t totally anti-Howard Stern and thus not willing to support Sirius radio (plus my car head unit comes with native support for XM), I’d make Bryan suffer through listening to basketball games all the way home. We’re leaving Montrose, Colorado this afternoon, and will be driving back west, stopping just before Zion. Sadly, the Stanford Cardinal women are playing in Denver tonight. Had I known (they’re in the San Antonio regional, so why are they playing in Denver?), I’d have moved our leave dates around. Oh well. Got to continue making progress back home…

The blog is definitely getting a new look. The new look is nearly done. I’m just holding it in super sekret for about a week. I’ll be tweaking it while on vacation (because CSS is still vacation), and will go live once I get home next week. I’m happy with the new look, and am now just making sure that all my plug-ins play nicely and that I can get everything looking just the way I want.

Cruse over to see Flossman.org for his new layout too. I’ll be sporting him some new headers soon. Look for mule-deer asses!

Bryan and I are visiting friends in Montrose, Colorado. I’m just so excited to be in one place for nearly three days. We’re going to be in Montrose until Saturday afternoon. Today we’ll head out (in an hour, I’m hoping) to the Black Canyon and do some shutter-bugging. Then a lot of nothing tomorrow. Yay! I’m so thrilled to not be driving everywhere. Covering the distance that we did in the time we did was extremely tiring.

No, really. My favorite all-purpose font is dead. The only casualty from the last OS upgrade was this odd font death.

Bryan and I are in Beulah, Colorado visiting his friends Cole and Kim. We’re having a lovely time, but I’m butt ass tired from all the driving. We’ve gone from Seattle to southeast Colorado in two and a half days, which is waaaaay too much driving. We’ll do a few more hours on the road tomorrow, heading out to Montrose for two days before leaving for home. Yellowstone was good. Pics are coming as soon as I can see straight to crop and edit them.

Bryan and I are on a well-deserved vacation. I’m writing this from the lovely Super8 Motel in Butte, Montana. Which for a bargain $54 also includes high-speed wireless internet.

The quick run-down of the trip thus far, without linkage: We left San Jose on Wednesday morning, getting to Ashland, Oregon around dinner time. Saw a play, then went to bed. Got up in the morning and drove to visit our friends Jess and Tom in the Seattle area. (Lynnwood, for those keeping score at home.) Left their house today after lunch, and made the drive to Butte. Tomorrow we jaunt to Yellowstone for some photo opportunities and snowshoe bliss. Tuesday we arrive in Colorado. We’ll leave Colorado on Saturday, stop in Zion National Park, possibly Vegas, then arrive home late Monday the 21st.

Whew.

I should also point out that while I’m sure the joke has been made more than a million times, we’re employing the “boo-tay” mispronunciation of “Butte” for the nonce. Tomorrow it may be just “butt,” but “boo-tay” is today’s joy.

Happy birthday to Bryan! You’re the best thing, well, ever. I love you!

Thanks to my handy moleskine notebook, some coffee, and an idle moment at work, I’ve come to some conclusions about the direction of this blog. Both design and method are going to change soon-ish. I’ve got a good handle on what I want, and even mostly how it’s going to look. Just a heads up that things may take on a new look in a few weeks. Be inspired as I was. :D

Two days of work, and two kids vomited. Huzzah!

Yesterday, I was walking around the store, and I saw a boy around eight years old with a plastic bag (the kind you’d get in the veggie aisle), sort of walking around and using it as a kite. I fought the urge to say in a monotone voice, “this bag is not a toy.” Later, I’m helping one of our cashiers, and he comes up to the register with his mom and his sister. I duck down behind the counter, and when I pop back up, I appear just in time to see him puke into the bag he’d been holding. His mom didn’t react at all, just kept doing what she was doing. In the end, her only reaction was, “Hmm, guess it’s a good thing we had that bag.”

Today, I was in the back helping out with hanging clothes. I’m up to my ears in cycling clothes, when one of the girls comes into the back to tell me that a kid has again thrown up in the store. One of the other managers goes to get me the mop (it’s kept in the men’s room), and by the time I get out there, his lovely father has all but eliminated the mess. Yay! He did let his son continue eating strawberry yogurt-covered pretzels, which probably contributed to the hurling, but he didn’t blow chunks in the store a second time, so it wasn’t that bad.

Never a dull day at REI.

I’ve been enormously negligent of this here blog. I apologize. Stuff has been busy. Plus I crashed my car. D’oh. It’s quite sad, and I’m without my car for at least another 10 days while it gets a new hood and front grille. I rear-ended a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and while he suffered very little, Roy (my car) and I suffered greatly.

In other news:

• I’ve gotten up before 9am on two of my days off to have coffee with Amanda and Savannah. I now qualify for Best Friend In the World.
• Amanda has a new man, Tommy, who I quite like. He was up for the weekend and we had a lovely time.
• I went to San Francisco and saw an “art exhibit” for one Frank Chu. It was odd. He is just as weird as you expect a former child-star from an intergalactic soap opera might be.
• We also ate at a Japanese restaurant called (no, really) Country Station, which was playing Willie Nelson when we walked in, and was later visited by a traveling mariachi band. The food was fairly good, but they definitely get by on ambiance.
• I still haven’t gotten to interview for the new job yet…maybe next week?
• I’ve been watching way too much Olympic curling, but not much else Olympic-y.

And because you also need links to keep you in the loop with my random internet browsings:

• Make a paper case for CDs instead of using a jewel case.
• Our friend Peter is working on new photography stuff. Stuff under “Houston” is new.
• I’ve just bought: Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Death Cab For Cutie’s Plans, Prefuse 73’s Security Screenings, RENT on DVD, these cookies called Lemon Melts which are fantastic, and a new knife
• Peter Cohen (yes, of MacCentral et al) rules. And so does his cat.
• Lorilee asked me to post this. So I am. I hope you didn’t eat just now. If so, do not, for god’s sake, click.

That is all for now. More soon, I hope.

High school pals Alan Chang, Greg McFall, and Tom Jackson (L to R) and the without-drummer version of The Cosmic Giggle. They played the “grand opening” of our old high school performing arts center. The one I used to perform in burned down about two and a half years ago.

A typical night doing nothing at Amanda’s. Where “nothing” is throwing food at each other. Watch the flying goldfish!

The Cake show, with the two gals from Gogol Bordello helping them out.

Amanda posing outsite our friend MJ’s house. I was originally trying to take a photo of something else, when she walked into the frame and started posing for the camera.

Just a few photos of the trip.

Definitely a full-fledged three-day birthday celebration. Thanks for all the phone calls, the lovely singing (either in person or on my voicemail…you know who you are), and overall making my birthday quite fun. Jam-packed with fun! I can’t possibly blog about the entire three days, so I offer this condensed timeline.

January 31

• 6:30pm Dinner with Dena and Melis, Amanda and Savannah at Cafe Torre, which was both Christmas and birthday since I haven’t seen either Dena or Melis in ages.
• 9:45pm Drinks at Khartoum with Amanda and Savannah. Jeremy from work came out and bought me a drink. I had lots of drinks.
• time unknown Miles (my favorite bartender) comes in when he’s not working to have a drink with me for my birthday. Miles rules!
• later time, still unknown, probably before midnight Knock Amanda’s half-full beer off the foosball table onto the floor. Party foul. Go to bar, yell at Steve (the bartender) for service. Tell Steve, “I don’t think I should drink any more. I just knocked over a beer. Can I have a shot?”

February 1

• around 1:15am Call Bryan for a ride. Go outside with the girls to wait for him. Savannah tackles me onto the hood of Bryan’s car when he arrives. The girls give me an official birthday spanking. 28 whacks from each of them. Ow. [1]
• 7:30am Wake up, still a bit drunk. Have a glass of water, go to the bathroom, then back to bed.
• noon-thirty Get up for good. Manage to take a shower.
• 3:45pm Stop being peeved at Bryan for not making the birthday waffles he’d promised me while I was showering. (He went back to bed. Pthbbbt.)
• 5pm Bryan and I go rescue my car from the bar parking lot.
• 5:30pm Bryan and I head up to the city, where we have a great dinner at sanraku and I gorge on two faaaaaaabulous pieces of toro and unagi donburi.
• 8:30pm Walk to the Warfield where we see Cake. They performed after Gogol Bordello and Tegan and Sara. Fabulous show. Golgol Bordello was a rockin’ surprise!

February 2

• 12:30am Leave San Francisco and drive home.
• 2:15am Finally fall asleep.
• 4:15am My alarm goes off and I actually get up.
• 5:05am Knock on Amanda’s door, but she’s not ready yet.
• 5:30am Get on the road and drive to Tahoe.
• the next 4ish hours Singing along to music, having a generally giddy drive up, with rain from Colfax to 267.
• 11:05am Arrive at Northstar for REI NorCal employee ski days. Amanda convinces Sarah that she’s dropped me off in Auburn “to see friends” and has arrived on the mountain by herself. Good for a laugh or two.
• 11:15am We go down to the lodge, register for the day, I win Amanda some goggles in the raffle, we walk back to the car where I try and take a short nap before the snowboarding. Amanda succeeds in talking to me so much in the car that I can’t really sleep, and we get on the mountain.
• noon-4:30pm SNOWBOARDING! Amanda’s first time back in seven years. I’m riding my new board and new bindings, which RULE. I get to ride with people I adore for my almost-birthday and it kicks ass.
• 5:30pm Arrive at our friend MJ’s house in Incline Villiage, Nevada. I start a fire in the fireplace while we wait for MJ to get home from work. Amanda and I shower, and while our co-worker Michael is in the shower, we fall asleep on the couch.
• 7pm-10pm Amanda and I sleep on the couch.
• 10ish We eat soup with MJ, who has been home for an hour. We brush our teeth, and lay on the couch some more.
• 11:30pm Sleep!

February 3

• 7:15am My alarm goes off, and Amanda and I wake up just in time to see the sun coming up over the mountains and over the lake.
• 7:45am I’ve gotten onto the couch again, and we decide that we should probably get ready to leave.
• 8:15am We depart Incline, and head back home because I have to work at 1pm.
• 12:05pm We make really good time back, and stop at Una Mas for burritos. They’ve changed the menu, which doesn’t make me happy, but we were starving and it’s still tasty.
• 12:25pm Drop a salsa-laden chip on my lap, making it look as though I’ve been stabbed in the groin and have bled salsa everywhere. Not enough time to go home, and the only pants I have with me are ratty track pants and my snowboarding bibs. Amanda says she’ll give me pants when I drop her off.
• 12:35pm Get pants from Amanda, but now I don’t match at all, so I get a sweater too.
• 12:58pm Make it to work with time to spare!
• all day Get compliments on my outfit. haha
• 10:30pm Arrive home, finally.

[1] Amanda claims she and Savanna weren’t hitting me that hard, but I contend that because I was drunk and it still hurt, they must have been whacking me pretty good.

Apparently Lorilee (aka Midget Lover or Chompy) is right, and most of my posts come after midnight. I’m not drunk, which has to give me some sort of leg to stand on, but not much of one. A wooden leg, really.

My birthday celebration is starting to look like a genuine three-day event. Tomorrow (today) I will pop by work to kiss some ass, have lunch with Amanda, and buy a thing or two. Then I’ll have dinner with Dena and Melis, as well as Amanda and Savannah at Cafe Torre. After dinner is the mandatory Tuesday night trip to Khartoum, where I plan on getting ridiculously drunk on drinks that I’m not paying for. (Miles fixed the foosball table for us tonight, since it stopped spitting out balls last night.) (He’s still my favorite bartender…shhhh! Don’t tell Steve or Clayton!) Then Wednesday night, Bryan and I will have dinner at sanraku in San Francisco, then head to the Warfield to see Cake on my actual birthday. Thursday morning I’m driving to Tahoe with Amanda (provided she doesn’t flake on me for a variety of reasons) to snowboard at Northstar and hang out with MJ. Then Friday morning we’ll leave Tahoe bright and early so I can make work at 1pm.

Whew.

Did I mention that I got a raise today? :D

I didn’t get tagged for this, but I will liberally steal from kottke.org and then tag my pals.

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. selling rubber stamps in a stationary store
2. the only girl selling snowboards in a mom&pop store
3. student teacher for a class in college called “Mentor” which taught critical thinking and writing skills (where I then got the professor called out to the carpet for not following curriculum or even MLA Format)
4. supervisor at REI

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Bring It On
2. Singing in the Rain
3. Dazed and Confused
4. Fight Club

Four places I’ve lived:
1. San Jose, CA
2. Stockton, CA
3. Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
4. Los Gatos, CA

Four TV shows I love (which are still on the air):
1. Veronica Mars
2. Lost
3. Family Guy
4. Arrested Development (not on the air much longer…)

Four TV shows I love (which are no longer on the air):
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. The X-Files
3. Firefly
4. Fame

Four popular “must see” TV shows that I’ve never watched a single minute of:
1. Survivor
2. American Idol
3. The Sopranos
4. Deadwood

Four places I’ve vacationed:
1. Ireland
2. Vietnam
3. New York City
4. Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. soupy-soup
2. cheese enchiladas
3. eggs benedict
4. cheese + wine

Four sites I visit daily:
1. bloglines.com (so I don’t visit the 80-ish sites I subscribe to)
2. GorillaMask.net
3. Salon.com
4. pinkisthenewblog.com

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. snowboarding
2. at the bar, playing foosball
3. on vacation…anywhere
4. in bed

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. FlossMan
2. nougatmachine
3. Louie
4. Rachie when she’s back home

I went to a country/western club tonight. I might hate myself a little bit. But apparently this is what happens when I spend too much time with Amanda. Savannah and I both went as good-natured participants, trying to get close to John Corbett while he was performing. Savannah actually got to meet him and shake his hand…it was very exciting. Then we ate at Wendy’s via the drive-through, watched a little bit of Showgirls at Savannah’s, and I went home. I can’t believe I went tonight. Clearly my standards are slipping.

What’s happened? Here’s the quick recap, which I hope to expand upon tomorrow.

• I got into a fight with the ropetow at Northstar and lost. Twice.
• I had lunch with my friend Mike in Stockton, and got to see one of my favorite professors too.
• I went back to my high school for the grand opening of the performing arts center, which was destroyed due to arson a few years ago. I was the oldest non-performing alumni there. Doh.
• Work has been hectic, but probably in a good way.
• Saw Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe on a lazy Sunday and enjoyed it.
• Tonight I got really drunk and got to beat a bunch of guys in foosball. Guys don’t like losing to girls. It apparently dents the ego.
• Rachel and Darren are back from Oz for a while, and I got to see them today, where they spent much too much at my work for their own good. Which is just fun.

Sarah and I are heading up to her mom’s place tonight, then we’re off to Northstar-at-Tahoe for a day of sweet snowboarding on Thursday. So happy birthday to Sarah with good snow. Then Thursday night we’re staying with our friend MJ, to have a bit of a party-party. Whee!

Last night was Cirque du Mac Party 3.0, held at San Francisco’s Red Devil Lounge. It was a packed house, where the booze flowed freely. Bryan’s site, Mac Observer and their sister company, BackBeat Media hosted a great shindig. And the open bar always makes folks more apt to love the party. hee hee

I brought Amanda, DJ, and Mitra, and we partied like minor rock stars. All my usual trade show pals were there (hi to Greg, John, Jim With The New Beard, and Peter), so I got to mix my two worlds. Plus I got to enjoy a lot of Newcastle. I even got to dance a little, and I haven’t gotten to dance in a long time. It never ceases to amaze me how little rhythm middle-aged white geeks have. Then I go to one of these parties and it all comes crashing back.

After the party, Amanda and I had a fierce wresting match, which mostly involved me straining her back. I believe that Bryan and our friend Misha took a giant series of photos of the “girl fight,” but believe me when I say that they won’t make it to the internet if I can help it.

Normally people want to be number one, and in this case, it would be nice as well, but we’ll take number nine. With the recent publication of Fortune magazine’s annual list of the 100 best companies to work for, my humble little company was voted the ninth best company to work for. Woo!  I do love my company, and I love working for them.  They provide a great balance between work and play, and I often get to play as much as I work.  In fact, we also made the list of companies that provide the best work/life balance.  I work with fun people, and generally have a good time doing it.

Congrats to my company and the staff who help make it a fun place to work.

Last night, I had the “good fortune” to work on our semi-annual physical inventory at work.  Which basically means that we count everydamnthing in the store, to make sure that we have what we think we have, and to correct any errors in order to get the correct product into our store in case of any glaring errors.  Over the summer, we had a rocking inventory…it took a very short amount of time (5.5 hours with about 40 people working).  This one was much more difficult because of many factors.  We are still reeling from the madness of the holidays, and didn’t have much time to prepare for inventory.  We are also suffering, as a collective store, from the flu thing that I have had for the entirety of 2006.  Inventory took nearly 3 hours longer because of this, and I didn’t get home until 1am.

The good news is that it seemed to have gone well, so the recounts that happened this morning should not be too awful.  Here’s hoping!  It affects my year-end bonus, so good is better.

Also, congrats to Savannah, for getting a sweet new job!

Hooray! Savannah is home! Now considering I’ve known Savannah for less time than I’ve been hanging out with Amanda (while I participated in hiring Amanda ages ago, we didn’t hang out as friends until The Move Out about six months ago), I sure do miss her when she’s gone. She was in the Chicago area for two weeks, visiting her family for the holidays. We picked her up at the airport after work tonight and went out. First order of business was defeating all contenders at the foosball table. Then, because of poor planning, we had to pause to drive back to work to go get my car. We split up because I’ve got to work again in the morning…but look out tomorrow!

Last night, Adam/FlossMan asked me for a little Photoshop ninja skills demonstration. Ok, actually, he asked me if I could work up a new header image design for his blog. I was being somewhat facetious and said I’d come up with a ton of them. I sat down for about 45 minutes (according to the AIM logs), and spit out five different headers using two stock images and some randomness from my own mind, font-inspired ideas, and a few well-placed Adam quotes taken out of context. Awesome!

I swear, this is the first step toward my own redesign. Really.

I’ve upgraded to Wordpress 2.0 and nothing has changed. Really. The back-end for me is different, but what you’re seeing as far as content goes should not have changed much. The comment system is a little bit different, but it should be for the better. The upgrade went smoothly. As I suggested to myself, via conversation with Adam/FlossMan, installing a second instance of Wordpress on my server, making sure nothing dies, then doing the real upgrade was well worth the extra effort. Though Alex likes to see my site die a horrible, upgraded death for 30 minutes of laughing at me, I prefer the painless sort myself. I know, I know, I have no sense of adventure.

Thus far, I must say that I appreciate the hard work that went into the 2.0 plug-in compatibility list, since it’s helped me freak out less. I still need to play with the joy that is (supposed to be) Akismet, but I expect good things. Raena mentioned something about a photo plug-in, which I haven’t explored. She also said it’s b0rked, but I imagine it’ll come along soon enough. My parents got me a new camera for Christmas/birthday, which I should receive soonish, and then I will start photo spamming much more. You’re all so excited.

I’m still sick, which sucks.  I got Amanda sick, which also sucks.  And now my right foot is asleep, which sucks too.

I installed Tiger last night. I did a clean install…full nuke and pave, back-up on the external hard drive. It went remarkably well. And I’ve got about 12 extra GB of space now that I don’t have an OS 9 partition (2GB itself) and got rid of all the crap I don’t need. Lots of crap, apparently.

Not too many problems. Mail flipped out on me, not wanting to import a damn thing. It seems to have had a lot to do with me having so many nested folders for organizing. Thus getting Mail to where I needed it to be took…well I installed last night around 10pm and I just finished with the last of my Mail tweaks. Feh. For some reason, Mail wouldn’t import my .mbox files unless I said they weren’t Mail-created files. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Took me quite a while to figure it out, and it’s a lame reason. But I have all my old mail now, going back to 1999. Meep. That’s a lot of email.

Other than that, the whole process has gone rather well. I’ve done most of my application installs and re-installs. Now that Mail is up and running with my old mail, I also have all my registration keys for the software I needed to install. Need to back that up in a second place, methinks. Tomorrow I’ll go through and install everything that requires the command line. BitchX will come first, and maybe I can stop the Join of Death with this new install. Wishful thinking, I’m sure.

Spotlight is neat, but mostly it’s in the way. Have to map it to something else, otherwise I can’t properly switch language input. Though I very rarely do any input in Japanese, it does come in handy. I want to be able to get the damn icon out of my menu bar. Quick, someone hack the fugly!