Not you, personally, of course. But you must check out these urban asshole notification cards from Glarkware. You can hand them out to people who double park, bring too many items to the express lane, talk too loudly on their cell phones, and so on. I love Glarkware for their cheeky humour (I have a Goth union: Individuality through conformity shirt from them). It's worth a browse.
Also from Glarkware, for my alien friends: America is Scary
MySpace will be the death of us all....
Okay, that was a rather melodramatic headline, but it got your attention. So Jenny said something to me today and again mentioned MySpace, which (while I know what it is) I haven't actually looked at before. I wanted to take a gander at Jenny's page, but I had to sign up first. So now I have a page at both MySpace and Friendster, which is redundant, if you ask me.
Why are these things so popular? For me, Friendster was a way to see what my friends from high school were up to. I was actually able to reconnect with a few people. After awhile, I gave it up. Now it seems people are migrating to MySpace, and a lot of people seem to treat it as an online dating service. Personally, I'd be a little worried about folks I meet online. I'm sure that most of the folks out there are good people, but you have to beware that 5% that likes to ruin it for everyone else.
Just like Starbucks...almost
I've been on a quest to recreate Starbucks' peppermint hot chocolate. While billed as a Christmas beverage, it is available year-round, but why not make it at home? Here's my current recipe:
8oz milk
3 tablespoons Ghirardelli hot chocolate powder
2.5 tablespoons Torani peppermint syrup
whipped cream and red sugar sprinkles (optional)
Mix the milk, hot chocolate powder, and peppermint syrup in a small saucepan. I like to use a whisk for thorough mixing. Heat at a medium setting until steaming. Top with whipped cream and sprinkles and enjoy!
Right now, this mixture is a little sweeter than I'd like. I think it's because the peppermint syrup's primary ingredient is sugar. A slightly less sweet chocolate powder would fix that. Suggestions?
Read this!
The Dog Blog: http://www.automatedredemption.com/flavorcountry/dogblog/
From Friday night...wandering around Vegas with one of my co-workers. Here's Bally's (duh) with the Paris Hilton's scale model of the Eiffel Tower in the background.
The whole ornate (yet neon--it's Vegas, after all) hot air balloon that announces the Paris Hilton makes no sense to me. What does a hot air balloon have to do with anything? Then again, I've never been to France.
Saturday afternoon, I wandered the south end of the Strip. I took the monorail to its south terminus, the MGM Grand. This is the lion habitat inside the MGM Grand. Unfortunately, the lions must've been on their union break. Is it just me, or is the habitat vaguely reminiscent of the opening of Disney's "The Lion King"?
Speaking of lions, here's MGM's Leo the Lion keeping watch over the city.
And look, right next door, it's...the New York City skyline? Even better, it has a roller coaster.
If sombody told you to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, make sure it's the one in Vegas. There's not much of a drop from this one.
Saturday night, a group of us went to dinner at the Venetian. I got to show off my brand new Betsey Johnson dress I'd bought that afternoon in the Desert Passage shops in the Aladdin (sorry, no pictures). The restaurant, Bouchon, was on approximately the 10th floor of the hotel. This lovely little gazebo and pool were just outside the restaurant.
Don't let the blue sky fool you...this photo was taken around midnight. You'll find these fake skies in the Venetian and the Aladdin (and probably a few other places). We didn't get to take a gondola ride, but they sure look neat.
Sunday night. With CES over, we had a few hours to kill before heading to the airport. I made my friend go to the Bellagio for the third time that week, since I hadn't been there yet. This is the glass ceiling of the main lobby by Seattle artist Dale Chihuly. Impressive!
Also in the Bellagio, more strange glass artifacts. A chocolate fountain. It extends a long way and that is a lot of liquid chocolate. It might be enough to make a chocoholic call it quits for awhile.
Pretty as a postcard...the Bellagio from the outside just before the start of the fountain show.
Also of note--though I don't have a good picture of it--there are actual live flamingos at the Flamingo Hilton. Of course, around 1am, the sensible flamingos are asleep. There are some swank penguins, too, and if you show up at the right time, you can see the penguins have lunch.
The consumer electronics blues
Christmas is coming, so it's time to go cross-eyed from staring relentlessly at Amazon.com.....hoping for answers. Actually, buying for others wasn't bad, but I drove myself batty researching mp3 players. And today, after watching two-thirds of Superman II, my DVD player revealed its true nature as a piece of junk. I didn't expect much for $36, but the skipping kept getting worse as the movie went on. I finally took the disc out to make sure it wasn't defective. It was fine, so I stuck it back in. Then, I could not get the chapter select function to take me back to where I was in the movie. The player kept freezing. And with that, I boxed it up and found my receipt. Back to WalMart it will go in the morning. But now I have to find another one. It looks like all the small DVD players are mediocre at best. *sigh*
In other news, life is boring enough for me to be borderline obsessive about my two favorite tv shows. The first is Veronica Mars, which is on winter hiatus until mid-January. I bought the first season DVD set a couple months ago when I was home sick, and watched half the season in two days. For more, you must check out www.televisionwithoutpity.com No site has more snark per square inch. My newest addition to the "must watch" schedule is Crossing Jordan. I'd never seen more than a couple of eps prior to A&E's Thanksgiving marathon, but now I'm hooked, which means I'm up til midnight Monday - Thursday watching it in syndication on A&E. And I'll admit it....I've been known to tune out on episodes without Jerry O'Connell. Yep, I'm a schmuck. But do you remember Sliders?
Test entry from a Treo 650
So I've decided to try this mobile blogging thing, but typing is a little slow for me with long nails. Admittedly, I can't type on laptops very well, either. Treo typing tips appreciated!
Continue reading "Test entry from a Treo 650"You know you're from the Bay Area when....
I found this list at http://www.blogthings.com/bay-area.html Here are some of my favorite excerpts:
You bought stock in Starbucks just for the free chocolate-covered coffee beans.
Almost all of the companies featured on your resume are no longer in business.
You make $120,000 a year, yet still can't find a place to live.
Your commute time is 45 minutes and you live 8 miles away.
You live an hour or more from the office so that you can afford a larger house.
You know vast differences difference between Thai, Vietnemese, Chinese, Japanese, Cantonese, and Korean food.
You think that "I'm going to Fry's" is an acceptable excuse to leave the office for a while, and your boss does too. (I have actually witnessed this one)
You know that 280 North goes west and that 680 North goes east.
You know where Woz Way, Resistor Avenue, and Floppy Drive are located. (Yep, I used to work on Woz Way, but where is Floppy Drive? The only one I've been able to find so far is in South Carolina.)
Fun with Firefox
My mom read about a new web browser in the San Jose Mercury News today. It's called Mozilla Firefox v. 1.0. The Mozilla people believe in open-source (meaning, sharing) as opposed to the evil empire otherwise known as Microsoft. Firefox is fun because you can customize six ways to Sunday (whatever that means). Oh, and it's free.
My Firefox currently sports a theme called Red Cats (green flavor). You can download skins for it just like WinAmp. I also enabled the code to make the program complete URLs as I type. For example, if I type "www.y" it comes up with "www.yahoo.com." By default, it will give you a drop-down list of possibilities, as in Internet Explorer, but I prefer the URL autocomplete.
Firefox is supposed to be more secure than IE. Maybe it's partly because you have the option to make your version different from mine, whereas everyone's copy of IE is virtually identical. Since it's open-source, all sorts of programming folks are working on it all the time, which is cool. There are more volunteers working on this than there are employees.
If you'd like to play with Firefox, too, go to Mozilla.org, and for future reference, the Firefox support page. (The forums will answer a lot of your questions.)
And just for reference, that bit of autocomplete code: browser.urlbar.autoFill (it's a boolean value, and the answer is true)
Whenever Jenny does these quizzes, I end up taking them too.....
20 Questions to a Better Relationship
eXpressive: 7/10
Practical: 5/10
Physical: 3/10
Giver: 8/10
You are a XPIG--Expressive Practical Intellectual Giver. This makes you a Catch.
You are a magazine-cover, matinee idol dreamboat. Parents love you and want to set you up with their kids. However, first dates are tough because it takes time for your qualities to come out.
You are generous and kind. You think first and act later. You are cool in a conflict, but your practical side means if your partner throws out emotional appeals ("why can't we do what I want for a change?") they will grate on your nerves, even when the conflict is resolved.
You're a romantic. You enjoy the thrill of the hunt, and you don't just fall into bed with anyone. You pay close attention to your significant other's needs, and this makes you an excellent lover and partner. The problem is that your friends and lovers may find it so easy to express things to *you* that they lose sight of whether you feel as comfortable with *them*! This doesn't necessarily make you feel under-appreciated -- you're too well-adjusted and self-aware for that -- but you may feel restless. Thus you seek adventure in your life outside the relationship to prove and actualize yourself.
Of all the types, you would make the best parent.
You are coiffed.
Didja see "Big Fish"? 'Cause you're like Ewan MacGregor in "Big Fish."
Of the 147066 people who have taken this quiz, 9.3 % are this type.
Strangely enough, I sometimes do feel under-appreciated, and becoming a parent is about the last thing I want to do. And sorry, I didn't see "Big Fish."
Continue reading "
"
Today, I installed computer hardware for the first time in my life.
I'd never even taken a computer apart before two weeks ago...thank you new job with lousy computers. Today, I got my new computer, but it only had one CD drive. The nice folks in IT said it was fine if I wanted to rip one of the CD drives out of my old computer. I got everything installed, turned it on and....nothing. The computer didn't recognize the drives. Okay. Power down, rearrange some stuff and...nope.
The lesson learned: when something doesn't work, first check that your cable is firmly plugged in to the motherboard. You might save a whole lot of time.
On another note today, I finally got my own digital camera. I decided to copy Jenny and get one of those tiny Minoltas, 'cause Fry's had some leftover ones for $200. I picked a teeny tiny one so I'll never have those "Darn, I wish I had my camera with me" moments again. I'm charging the battery now, so hopefully it will prove to be a good investment.
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 |
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. |
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. |
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! |
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. |
Okay, no one else took this one, but I thought I should.
Continue reading " "
Please read Khristine's blog (or Xanga, or whatever you call it). The girl is on a rampage through Europe, and it's hilarious.
* * *
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? Continue reading " "
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. Continue reading " "
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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