Quzzes...'cause they're fun

I AM 17% GEEK! I wanna be a geek. But I'm not. Why would I even want to be one. Do I think it's fun? I should try writting an online test application at 1 am in my underwear Take the GEEK test at Fuali.com

I am sooooo less geeky than Jenny! =)

I AM 27% PUNK ROCK! Well, I may know what punk is, but... Okay maybe some people think I am punk, but is that enough? Nope. Take the PUNK ROCK test at Fuali.com

And yet, I am more punk.

I AM 47% TORTURED ARTIST! I have some artistic ability, but it is probably a hobby and doesn't drive my life into a dark abysmal hole were I am alone and against the world. Take the TORTURED ARTIST test at Fuali.com

I'm not an artist, just tortured.

I AM 44% INTERNET ADDICT! I could go either way. Deep into the madness of nights filled with coding CGI-Scripts and online role playing games, or I could become a normal user. Good luck! Take the INTERNET ADDICT test at Fuali.com

I just haven't found my drug of choice yet.

I AM 36% GOTH! Goth by night, normal by day. Deep in my heart I know I am evil, but not on the company's time. I do need to eat. Take the GOTH test at Fuali.com

Okay, no one else took this one, but I thought I should.

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Please read Khristine's blog (or Xanga, or whatever you call it). The girl is on a rampage through Europe, and it's hilarious.

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So, I went to the library today and saw Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? I'm about three chapters in, and it is interesting. Perhaps the funniest part so far is Moore's rundown of the "Coalition of the Willing" aka the countries who actually went along with W's unthought-out plans of war, although in most cases, the citizens of said countries disagreed. Here are some highlights of the list:

"Afghanistan? What exactly was their contribution going to be? Horses? Ten sticks and a stone?"

"[W]hile Morocco also was short on military assistance, they did offer to send 2,000 monkeys to help detonate land mines in Iraq. But they didn't and, if you don't cough up the monkeys, you don't get to reap the benefits of being a member of the Coalition of the Willing."

You'll also learn about the nation of Palau, which you've probably never heard of. Of course, I haven't seen "Fahrenheit 9/11" yet, although I hear it contains much of the same information as the book.

On another politic-ish note, have you ever watched that Bill O'Reilly guy (I think he's on Fox News Channel). That man annoys the hell out of me. I happened to see the other day when O'Reilly pretty much would not let one of his guests speak because the guest had a differing viewpoint than O'Reilly. What's the point of having guests, then? So they can just sit there and look pissed off? And O'Reilly kept chanting "This is a no-spin zone," which really means "no spin except in the O'Reilly approved direction." How about a "no catchphrase zone" instead?

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My friend Jenny did this. I don't even watch "Sex in the City," but I figured, why the hell not.

You Are Most Like Carrie! You're quirky, flirty, and every guy's perfect first date. But can the guy in question live up to your romantic ideal? It's tough for you to find the right match - you're more than a little picky. Never fear... You've got a great group of friends and a great closet of clothes, no matter what! Romantic prediction: You'll fall for someone this year... Totally different from any guy you've dated. Which Sex and the City Vixen Are You Most Like? Take This Quiz Right Now! Find the Love of Your Life (and More Love Quizzes) at Your New Romance.

Strangely enough, I have no desire to fall for someone this year. Kirk is enough for me, and I think I can safely say he's like no other guy I've ever dated. I can't handle more than one boyfriend, thanks.

And just for the heck of it, I did the quiz again, with other options that are also true for me, and I got Charlotte, the romantic idealist.

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Hey, is it July already?

Where does the time go? So, what have I learned lately?

1. There are no jobs out there if you're under the age of 35. Nope. None. And it kinda sucks, since I've finally decided I can take my current retail servitude no more. Everyone wants five to a million years experience. I'm gonna laugh when in ten years there's no one left with experience. Just us inexperienced folks between 18 and 35.

2. Corsets aren't as hard to make as you think. Nor are they anywhere near as expensive as people sell them for. Well, I guess you have to pay for the labor. I made one for about...well...99 cents a yard for fabric, so about $1.50, about $2.50 for nylon boning, $4 for neat black and silver cord, and the expensive part, $18 for eyelets and the tool to apply them (the tool was $15, but it's reusable). So let's say $26. Oh, and $2 for the pattern. There is a trend lately for historical patterns, so I got one with Civil War era corset patterns. So, there's an initial cost of about $28, but I could make a second one for half that price. Sweet.

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Wow, first post of the new year. I saw Evanescence Friday night for the third time in 13 months. It would have been three times in less than a year, but the concert was postponed from November to February. It was my first time going to the San Jose State Event Center, and I'd just like to say their website lies! It says the 7th Street Garage is free after 6pm on weekdays, so we got there at like 6:10. I pull up, and they're like, "Ten dollars." I informed them it's supposed to be free. "Not today," they said. I told them they ought to have a sign then that says $10. They said there was....apparently it's an invisible sign because neither Jenny nor I saw it. The next garage also had no sign, so I asked the attendant. No free parking. I said screw that; so we parked on the street at the other end of campus, which proved to be a shorter walk, anyway.

After making it through the line of thousands, we were inside the arena. Time to check out the band merchandise. In two other Evanescence concerts, I had yet to come home with my usual concert T-shirt. Bad news here, too. The shirts were not only large and ugly, they were $30! I think I'll get both shirts I like online for about $10 more.

During the concert, I became a boring old lady and sat in my seat the whole time. I didn't feel like hassling with all the annoyingly tall people standing out on the floor. At least I had a clear view of the stage...it was just a little distant. Actually, it was distant enough that Amy Lee's outfit confused me for 90% of the concert. It was only at the encore that I realized she was wearing ripped jeans under her red and white sporty-looking skirt. I thought she had really ugly boots on. I finally got to see Amy play the keyboard for "My Immortal" and the start of "Bring Me to Life." I also heard "Farther Away" for the second time. I really like it, but the song is virtually impossible to get. Sadly, there was nothing off the "Origin" album. Terry Balsamo (formerly of Cold) gave the band a different sound at times...especially on the guitar solos. Ben Moody barely deviated from the recording when I saw him with the band. And while playing along with a recorded track limits how creative you can get, they did manage to finally make the songs a little different in concert...but not much.

This time there were two cover songs (there were two or three plus bits and pieces of a few others last time): Metallica (can't remember the title) and Soundgarden. Amy may love Soundgarden, but the Metallica song went over much much better.

And on a side note, I was pleasantly surprised by Evanescence's opener, Default. Their singer is pretty amazing live...in other words, he sounds just as good live as on the recordings.

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I love this book....

I went to the library the other day and picked up a book called Haircoloring in Plain English by Roxy Warren. It answers just about every question about hair color that you'd ever ask...and then some. It explains a lot of the chemistry and biology about how and why hair dye works. I thought the book was fascinating and read it in one day.

Of course, when Kirk saw me with it he asked, "Why do you need a book to tell you how to color your hair?" He didn't really get that there's more to just grabbing a box off the drugstore shelf. Yes, you can do that, but you might not get the color you want. For example, no matter what box dye I used, my hair was still too orange. Using beauty supply store colors, you get a lot more options of base tones (the underlying color that box dyes never give you beyond the general "ash" or "golden" in the title). To fix my orange-y hair, I bought dark ash blonde with a green base (using the color wheel, green cancels out red--it was a toss-up whether I should use a green base or a blue base). Strangely enough, despite the base tone, the dye still looked purple. Of course, who cares what the dye looks like as long as your hair comes out the right color in the end.

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It tastes just like Cherry Coke, only cheaper.

I did lots of shopping today....I finished my Christmas shopping in an impressive hour and a half, then I went to the grocery store. While I usually go to Save Mart, I stopped at Albertsons, 'cause it was on the way home. I found some amazing things there. Number one, off-brand cola. The Albertsons brand cherry cola actually tastes like Cherry Coke (my favorite soft drink). I've mostly given up on actual Coke because it's expensive. But the Albertsons stuff was $1.25 for a six-pack.

The other great thing I found was an entire 6 feet of freezer section of vegetarian goodies. They had vegetarian taquitos with fake beef or fake chicken. I bought the beef ones, and they're quite good. Much better than my cooking disaster the other night. I'm terrible at frying things.

In an update from the last entry, I got my DHC CD from Tower (yay!), and I sold the Best Buy card to my parents.

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Don't buy Best Buy giftcards!

One of my friends bought me a giftcard for Best Buy for my birthday. Stupid me forgot about it (and didn't have it in my wallet) when I bought the car stereo. That's okay, I thought. I need to replace my Dance Hall Crashers Live Record as it was stolen along with Kirk's car stereo. (Theives with good taste.) So, I logged on to bestbuy.com, where they had the CD for $13 and shipping's free. Cool. But when I went to check out, I learned that you can't use giftcards at bestbuy.com. Many retailers let you use giftcards online or in the store...heck, I even used a gift certificate for towerrecords.com once; I just had to mail it in. But Best Buy has yet to graduate to the 21st century.

You can also arrange for store pickup through bestbuy.com, if there had been a single store in the Bay Area with my CD. ("Available for pickup in most stores," it says. Yeah, just not in the ten around here.) I called the 800 number just to make sure there was no way around my problem. The guy's only suggestion was to call my local store and see if they could order it. According to the lady at my local store, nope. However, she told me that two stores in San Jose had the CD, according to the computer. I called one of them, but I was told they don't carry that CD anymore. So, the only way I can get my DHC Live Record is to buy it...from a different store.

So what have we learned...don't get a Best Buy giftcard unless you know the person has mainstream tastes and can actually use it at the store.

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Downtown Snow, the revenge

Two weeks after the adventurous three decided against partaking of the San Jose Downtown Snow ritual (i.e. skating on ice that looks like it hasn't seen a Zamboni in a week), we decided to try again. The weather was questionable, so I was smart and called the rink. They said the ice was wet and thus they hadn't run the Zamboni...again. No big this time, 'cause I had a backup plan called the Ice Centre. The adventurous three (Jenny, Kirk, and I) plus my mom headed to the nice big indoor rink. Of course, even this ice hadn't seen Zamboni love for several hours, but it was bearable. The center patch wasn't bad at all. And, as with public sessions, there were far too many small children for my taste.

After skating, we adjourned home to change clothes, etc., before meeting for dinner with a few other folk for my happy birthday to me event. After some running around by people who misinterpreted directions, we all met for a nice big meal followed by presents. Fun! After that, all the twenty-three year olds went off in search of the Britannia Arms. I only had a vague idea where it was, and apparently Jenny's idea was even more vague, 'cause she and Megumi ended up wandering around San Pedro square.

At last, we found the Britannia Arms, but there was no karaoke. We (well, mostly the boys) amused ourselves with foosball and some sort of hockey game. When I'd resigned myself to games and TV, a soundsystem appeared. The karaoke lady had arrived, bringing with her binders full of songs to choose from. We sat ourselves around the binders and took eons to pick anything. Finally, Jenny and I busted out with "Lady Marmalade." Of course we spent as much time cracking up as singing. It was a whole lotta fun, especially when Megumi and Jenny did some Linkin Park. I'm all for a return to the Brit...nice casual atmosphere, free karaoke, and reasonably priced drinks (I've heard the fish n' chips are good, too). All in all, a nice way to spend a Sunday night.

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San Jose's Downtown Snow

So, Bay Area people have perhaps heard of Downtown Ice, but Downtown Snow?! Well, the plan on Sunday was to go ice skating downtown, since the Evanescence concert in SJ has been postponed. So Jenny, Kirk, and I met at the rink, got our waivers to sign, and got out our money. Well, then the lady at the register noticed my skates and said, "You might want to take a look at the ice first." I did, and it wasn't ice I saw--it was snow. Apparently, they'd had problems with the freezing unit and thus hadn't run the zamboni. The ice looked like it hadn't been resurfaced in a couple days (and I truly don't think it had). I said no way (much to Kirk's relief, I think). So the three of us in our multiple layers of (California) winter clothing wandered around downtown and ended up having dinner at Johnny Rockets. We also found a really spiffy snowflake patterned light and a snow (bubble) blowing machine. But the ice skating will have to wait. What have I learned? Call the ice rink before travelling and wasting your time (or in Kirk's case, $10 in parking...I guess he didn't hear me when I said Jenn and I parked on the street).

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The not-so-great nail polish experiment: day 7.

It finally chipped today. Sure it's three days short of Revlon's advertised 10 days (well, up to 10 days), but for me and nail polish, that's darned impressive. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought another shade of it.

What else? I spent way too much money today. I bought Skechers ($40) so I could have another pair of shoes to wear to work. They're black, white, and silver. Pretty. Bought jeans at Sears ($30), but of course the pair I liked best had a hole in them, so I'll stop at Oakridge tomorrow and look into exchanging 'em. I had to buy a size five! Bwahahaha!

And on the KOHL front...Kirk Patrick keeps looking to me for all the answers to the station's music programming. I'm not the music director...I just happen to be the music director's girlfriend. I just seem to know more than most of my classmates because they apparently don't pay any attention during their airshifts. Okay, I've also watched Kirk work when he's doing the logs, so I guess I have a little more exposure to the joys of scheduling than the others. I suppose I'd better get a good grade in this class. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm the girl who broke the curve on the midterm. Unless I royally screw up between now and next month, I'm getting an A.

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It's just another manic Monday. Well, not really. I woke up this morning to the sound of a vaccuum at about 8:30 or 9, which is not much earlier than I usually get up (considering most days I don't work until 3 or 4 pm). I tried shopping for jeans today, as somehow most of my pants are now too big. I'd just like to say I hate the current style. Super-low jeans are not for me, and they're always too big at the waist (or as close to a waist as they get). And why is it that the pockets on women's pants are either nonexistent or just useless? I always envy how guys manage with just stuffing everything they need for the day in their pockets, while I lug around a five pound purse. I wonder if guys jeans would even fit me? Or maybe more expensive ones would fit better? I doubt it, but that's going to be my theory as to why Kirk's jeans often cost more than entire outfits of mine. I'll head to Macy's tomorrow to test said theory. I just want some pants that fit. Is that really too much to ask?

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Not to be all "miss product endorsement," but I am fascinated by Revlon Colorstay nail polish. I was at the salon on Wednesday, waiting for a haircut, so I started flipping through a magazine. They had a short blurb about this nail polish and how the formula is acrylic-based, similar to car paint. Their tests had it last 12 days. Well, that sounded worth a try, so off to Target I went. For $5, I got a box containing a bottle of color and one of topcoat. On it went, and three days later, this stuff hasn't even chipped yet. That's with resetting aisles and blowing up balloons at work, and washing and coloring my hair. Okay, so there's one little chip, but my actual nail broke, not the polish...darned shelf tags. This stuff is great for those of us who are incapable of actually being careful with our nails. I love this low-maintenance makeup (this and the Max Factor Lipfinity/Covergirl Outlast).

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Well, I had an interesting weekend...how about you? Friday, it was finally Halloween, so I figured the madness at work would be over. Nope. Can you believe we still had a huge line of people buying last minute costumes until about 7pm?! Get your act together people. I rushed home after work to change costumes (from a Catholic schoolgirl look to a dominatrix-y outfit). Kirk showed up with his (overpriced) Neo coat. It looked cool, but $80 for a Halloween costume? No thanks. We went to City Beach in Fremont, where the ads promised a 10-piece disco band, which sounded fun. Well, it actually turned out to be like House Band, but worse. Oh well, at least we got free Ataris tickets out of it.

Saturday morning I went to work on about 4.5 hours of sleep. Fun. I got to deal with all the customers who expected Halloween merchandise to be half price. "You're joking," one woman told me. Nope. I don't think I can be quite that deadpan about it. I finally got out of work and was heading over to Walgreens to scope out the discounted Halloween candy when my phone rang. The caller ID said "Kirk cell," which was odd, since he said he had to work from 3pm to midnight. Well, he said he wasn't going in to work (obviously).

"Are you feeling okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Okay, now I was worried. "What's wrong?"
Pause. "I hit the center divide at 65 miles an hour."

Well, you can imagine my shock and horror. For a moment, I forgot he was calling from his cell phone and imagined him phoning from the hospital or something. It seems that other than a few cuts and bruises, he's okay. I happen to consider that just shy of a miracle, because the Miata, on the other hand, is toast. Or scrap metal. Thank God for airbags, because without one, Kirk would be in the hospital.

Here's what happened. He was driving home after dropping me off at about 3am Saturday morning. He dozed off a little, came to in time to swerve to avoid an abandoned vehicle, slid sideways, and hit the center divide head-on. It sounds positively frightening. You don't how relieved I am that he's okay. The fate of the car is a little sad. It was a cute little car, plus it was all paid off. Now he's looking into buying a new car, well, a new used car.

After Saturday's excitement, I had a Not4Sale gig on Sunday morning. Kirk came with me, though he had to miss the Raiders game to do so--that's devotion. I was surprised, but he thought the show was really cool. I half-expected him to not like it. That evening, we went to SCU to see the Ataris. I think the crowd was more entertaining than the bands. We sat up in the bleachers and watched the insanity on the floor. People were moshing and crowd surfing, and playing volleyball with giant Live105 balloons. When we left, we saw a couple fire trucks and concertgoers on stretchers. That's why I don't stand in the front. I don't want to risk being trampled by idiots.

Well, that's about it for me. I think I'd like this weekend to be positively boring in comparison.

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Two weeks to Halloween; then the madnesss will be over. Work is sooooo crazy this time of year. Then again, it's never boring. Apparently now the upper management has decided that having employees wear costumes is good for business. At Sarah's behest, I donned the Snow White costume to go with her Cinderella outfit. While I've never seen myself as Snow White, it was an okay ensemble. (And strangely enough, Kirk has been pushing for me to get a different Snow White costume--one with a much shorter skirt that, obviously, we don't sell.) I'm not sure what costume I'll pick tomorrow, but I think I need to bring different shoes. Black Vans and long dresses really don't go that well...I think jazz shoes would be better.

Well, it's off to finish making my batch of fudge. I've yet to ever get fudge to turn out properly, so wish me luck.

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Post removed for your safety

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You don't need to know

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Thursday Threesome (on Friday, just to keep you guessing)

Onesome: Ain't- There's a lot of slang floating around out there. Some of it has even found its way into the dictionary. Is there any one word that you find more annoying than others? That you just wish would fall off the face of the planet, never to be heard again?

I can't really think of one super-annoying term right now. Of course, I'm a valley girl and commonly overuse words such as "like," "y'know," and "dude."

Twosome: It- It's/Its, they're/their/there. Just a few of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. So the question is, when you blog, do you worry about grammar, punctuation and spelling? If you notice a typo do you go back and edit? Or do you shrug it off because everyone makes typos?

I wish everyone would not make typos. I try to use proper spelling and grammar. I'll fix it in email and in the blog, but I tend to leave errors in chat and IM simply because I don't notice the errors until after I've pressed return.

Threesome: Purty?- Purty/pretty, crick/creek, warsh/wash. All common pronunciations, whether they sound pretty or not. And one is mispronounced. What's one commonly mispronounced word that just drives you nuts?

Nuclear. All too often I hear people say nu-kew-lur. I can't stand it. Say it with me now: nu-klee-ar. The word "poosey" also bugs me, but that's because my boyfriend and his best friend say it all the time and laugh hysterically.

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My goodness, I've gotten lazy. I just haven't felt like writing of late, so now, let me update you.

First of all, I can't go to Santa Barbara for Elysia's senior recital this weekend. That really sucks, 'cause I know it's going to be a great recital. But because one friend flaked and I didn't tell the other about the recital soon enough (and a whole bunch of other things) I can't go. But Khristine and I sent flowers, so that makes it a little better.

More bad news. Apparently not all California drivers know that when there are two left turn lanes at an intersection, they both turn left. Because of this, someone squished my mom's car. Don't worry, she's all right, and even the car didn't look as bad as I expected. Still, it's very annoying and a very stupid reason for an accident. At least our insurance provides a rental while mom's Corolla is being repaired.

Now for some good news. After weeks of house hunting with Adam, Brad, and Sou (and David, too, but he doesn't join us as often), they've found a house. (I'm so tempted to say "we," even though I'm not actually living there.) They're moving in this Sunday, so it should be exciting, especially since Sou and I both have to work that afternoon because it's the once-a-year inventory.

And on Monday I start my internship at a real live radio station. So I'll now feel like I'm working 40 hours a week, but my weekly paycheck will only average out to $3.50/hr (it's an unpaid internship). So we'll see how that works out.

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Best radio jingle ever...

"Channel 104.9, the new music alternative, spending our nights killing the zombies that roam freely through Sunnyvale." - KCNL Sunnyvale, CA (Gotta love the Buffy reference.)

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