July 2003 Archives
I have a friend who used to be one of my Very Good Friends. I guess he still is, but I don't see him much anymore. He was always one of my first calls when making plans. He was one of the first people I came out to.
I wear Degree Invisible Solid. Shower Fresh-scented.
What do you wear?
I'm already sick of the word codify.*
*Link to President Bush's statement provided so I'll remember what the hell I was talking about.
Nobody actually needs to see Gigli to know what a horrible movie it is, right?
Natalie picked up on some bad dialogue from the movie and started on a writing project of her own.
Back To School Challenge Brought To You By The Medical Weight Loss Pro-Teen Program
I just saw an ad for this on tv. I'm sure the Pro-Teen Plan is a positive thing for those who use it, but I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of sponsoring a back to school slimdown contest for kids.
On the one hand, there are kids who could benefit from learning about healthier eating and lifestyle choices. And it's well known that making a contest out of something is a good motivator. And Pro-Teen's website says things like "Want a better life?" and "Want self-confidence and better self-esteem?" so I would imagine/hope that there's a focus on overall wellness and not just getting skinnier.
But it also says "Want to be more accepted by the people at school?" Like the problem isn't about other kids being jerks, it's about you being too fat.
I am simultaneously applying to quality/process technician jobs and working on my Queer Day Personals profile.
I went out with Steve the Beave last night and had adult beverages at no less than three Ann Arbor establishments. My tummy is not happy with me today. I guess the cost of having BeerClarity and being BeerArticulate last night is being completely mentally fuzzy today.
I just spent 5 minutes staring at the word self-deprecation and thinking it said self-deprivation. That makes it totally different.
I was gonna weigh in on the whole Harvey Milk School issue, but my brain hurts thinking about it. Suffice it to say that I see the need for a safe haven for gay kids, but I'm not sure this is the way to go about it. See also: Natalie, David, Grey Bird, Michele, and Rossi.
And while we're talking about gay stuff, I like what Kevin Drum at CalPundit had to say about gay marriage. He's all sensible and reasonable and calm.
Who knew ping pong could be this fun?
*There is no full contact in that video, but I once played a game dubbed "Full Contact Ping Pong" where there was... never mind, it makes sense in my head.
I'm having a good day today. Not a great day, but a better than average day. I've accomplished some things. I'm mentally sharp. I'm going out tonight. My friends continue to make me wonder how I got so lucky. Not too shabby.
Grey Bird has a mini-tutorial on her landlording process. I'm about to start looking for housing again soon, so I'm reminded to mind my Ps and Qs. Too bad I'm not moving to her neck of the woods.
I've recently add Pandagon to the blogroll for perusal. I needed another lefty voice. I was starting to feel completely off-kilter. I like Jesse because he writes in a normal tone, not like he's publishing his damn thesis. And he said a couple of things about College Republicans that totally tickled me. I dig the panda picture, too.
I had dinner and beers with the watergirl! She's about to run off to Boston to live and have fun and stuff, and I thought it would be a shame if we've been in the same vicinity all this time and never got to meet.
I learned today that the WAB has half-price dinner on Mondays. Shweet. And the Porter is better than the Vanilla Porter.
Confession: I obsessed over what to wear to the point of doing laundry and then discarding two freshly-laundered shirts for one of the two already-clean options I had selected in the first place. Wasn't trying to impress like that. Just wanted to make a good impression, ya know? No, I did not think too hard about it.
But it was fun. I had that "I know stuff about you even though we've never met" thing going on. This is not a new phenomenon for me, but it was a little strange nonetheless. I think hers is one of the first blogs I started reading. So after a couple hours of eating and drinking and talking we left and ended up standing on a corner talking for a while after that.
She's shorter than I thought. I think most people are shorter than I think they are. Except for David. I bet David's taller than I think he is.
I saw some folks from my high school and managed to successfully avoid them. We weren't friends or anything. They weren't even in my class. But it's a small world. Word gets around quick.
I've decided that my hair, if not properly restrained, has a fern-like presence. If I planted my head in a white bucket and hung it up in a sunroom, it would fit right in. Maybe I'm more of a terra cotta kind of gal.
Kathy Howe of Kazoofus has debuted another project near and dear to her heart. Kathzoofus, a weblog for the inspired masses, is "designed to make you think."
I always think I should spend some more time focusing inward (focus being the key word), but so far I haven't expended much energy on it. I'll be following along and maybe I'll even discover a little shumpin' shumpin' about myself.
I just accidentally saw Kyle from Real World: Chicago on General Hospital Days of Our Lives.
I hate to admit this, but Tomb Raider Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was such a bad movie.
Make no mistake, Angelina looked fine. And, actually, the movie was visually interesting. The stunts and locations were cool. It was the terrible cheesy dialogue that ruined it for me. I guess when I buy it on DVD (and I will buy it), I'll have to watch it on mute or listen to the commentary or maybe watch it dubbed into Spanish or something.
I hate her. What a stupid snobby simpering bitch. This opinion is entirely based on her guest hosting performance on The View last week.
I completely missed Blogathon yesterday. Congrats to everyone that made it through the whole 24 hours. I gave a little love to the fabulous BeerMary.
The reason I missed Blogathon was because I was at the Michigan Brewers Guild Summer Beer Festival. That was a spectacular time. Lots and lots of really good beer. I skipped Copper Canyon, Grizzly Peak, Arbor Brewing Company, and Bell's since I already experience those semi-regularly.
My favorites:
I was just saying last week, in light of the news that the economic recession actually ended 2 years ago, that it sure as hell didn't feel like a recovery to me.
And then I read this: U.S. Recovery Cold Comfort for Unemployed
Damn straight!
Economists know all too well employment does not immediately improve when an economy emerges from recession. Even if growth surges and business investment kicks in tomorrow, the ranks of the unemployed may not thin for months....
[numbers, numbers, blah blah blah]
Bill Dudley, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, agreed. "I wouldn't expect to see the unemployment rate really falling until probably the end of the year," he said.
"What you'll need to see first is an increase in demand that convinces businesses the recovery is really here, and then that translates into them changing their behavior and increasing their hiring," Dudley said.
I'd like to see some Treasury Department bigwig get laid off for "productivity" reasons.
I was gonna paraphrase what Jane said, but she's all concise and shit, so go see her links on the RIAA hitlist and how to avoid being sued.
Sweet, angelic Angelina loves you. She's attracted
to your gentle soul and amazing taste. The two
of you will live happily ever after in a little
cottage by the sea. (Gag gag gag)
Which Angelina Loves You?
brought to you by Quizilla
*sigh* I'm boring. Be sure to check all the results, just to see the pictures.
(via Tanya)
A while back, I posted a tiny little bit of a rant about someone I thought had lied to me (let's call them BlogFriend). At least I started off being angry about being lied to, but it was more about me being hurt because I thought I got blown off. I spouted off. That was premature and immature. Then, instead of going to the source to find out what really did happen, I chose to back off and distance myself from this person so I could avoid caring or wondering about what happened. That was stupid.
So I feel badly about all that. I really do. But now I'm really pissed.
It seems that someone else (let's call them ShitStarter) saw my rant, thought they knew what I was talking about, and took care to point it out to BlogFriend. So then BlogFriend is all, "man, Erica's really pissed" and is reluctant to make contact. That's understandable.
So on the part of myself and BlogFriend, there's some sad misunderstandings and some assholeness on my part.
You may ask what ShitStarter's vested interest is in this situation. ShitStarter obviously read me at least semi-regularly. ShitStarter may have even commented from time to time. I may have even commented on ShitStarter's site from time to time. But we've never talked, chatted, IMed, or had any kind of direct personal contact. We don't really know each other at all. I'm kinda stumped as to why ShitStarter would care at all, but it seems the ShitStarters of the world have this in their nature.
It's all just sad and stupid. I'm mad enough at myself for my own behavior, and I'm even more mad that I got sucked into one of these silly Blog Dramas. But I'm over it now. The air has been cleared (between me and BlogFriend anyway). And nobody has lost their job!
I have Will & Grace on for background noise while I flip through the Blogroll, waiting for the watered down lamer version of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I'm in a much happier place. A little sangria goes a long way.
I had a whole bunch of complaints all typed up, but they all sounded really stupid, so I couldn't bring myself to share them. Especially when I started off having such a good week. I'd like to end with a good week, even if I'm dipping a little low in the middle here.
The excitement of putting a new plan in action has worn off now that it hasn't yielded immediate results. I'm practicing patience. And the art of following up.
And I'm looking through "Roommate Wanted" ads. *shimmy*
Having a bunch of furniture and shit to bring along makes moving a lot harder. If I weren't so attached to it, I might do like that guy who sold all his shit on eBay and then wrote a book about it.
*idea strikes*
Simplify, hello.
They say the first rule of wardrobe-pruning is to remove the stuff that you haven't worn for a year, right? More than half of my worldly belongings have been sitting in boxes for over a year. It should be no problem to get rid of it.
Okay, I have been telling myself for weeks that I should sell off some excess stuff, but it never really occurred to me to get rid of ALL of it. I'm sure as hell not selling my Perfect Bed or my Ikea bookcase that I haven't even opened yet that I've been wanting for years.
I can totally do this. One box of stuff per day. I wonder if my parents will notice if I sell my childhood furniture that they gave me free of charge. They might want that shit back. Especially since they're trying to furnish another bedroom. I don't even remember what all I have anymore. Too bad it's getting late now. Tomorrow. First thing tomorrow.
I'm getting all up in MTAmazon. This is my new work-feverishly-until-it's-done project. Don't judge.
101 Amazing Earth Facts is not only an informative Q & A, it's actually entertaining. It tells about the extremes of the Earth and how it compares to some of our celestial neighbors. I guarantee some of the answers are not what you thought they were.
(shamelessly ganked from email notification by Dee)
I realize it's sometimes hard to come up with a username for yourself on the spot.
But trying to pick up other girls under the guise of "clamcrazy" is not going to get you very far.
I mean, really.
Ooglay and Poonanny Uday and Qusay get sent to the Big Penalty Box in the Sky:
Awwwwwww SEE YA ChumpDickWussDoooooouchebagAssholePrickCheaterBitchWHORE(s)!
Dawn has a post up about some of the odd things she's noticed about Michigan since moving here several years ago. What tickles me is some of the items on her list would be on my list of things I may occasionally have nostalgiac feelings for. Local quirks, whatnot.
So, I'm beta testing TypePad. I couldn't come up with any new and original subject matter to make a whole 'nother blog out of, so I decided I'd start off by transcribing my old journals into it.
Details shall remain confidential, but man, the range of emotions (however muted) is killing me. I was so naive. There were some little things that I thought were the end of the world. There were some huge things which I totally blew off. I'm reading with the knowledge of the impending doom and mentally shaking my head. And, frankly, I was more explicit in places than I remembered and I'm a little embarrassed.
Quote of the Day comes from my 18-year-old self:
But she was nice. Very trying-to-be-cool, which is kinda hard to pull off when you talk about your religion and your Catholic sorority all the time.
Gabe Misura has written a script for importing Haloscan comments into movable Type. You can get it from MT Plugins or directly from Gabe.
Zack Ajmal has written a blurb about his experience and an installation tutorial.
Most importantly, don't forget to rebuild your site after the importing is done. Make sure you do that before you start asking questions about why it's not working (like I did). It probably worked just fine.
So now you don't have to pay Haloscan $10 for neat exporting. I was afraid I was gonna lose about 1200 comments. Shweet! Thanks, Gabe and Zack!
I've been sitting on an idea.
I was trying to keep this a little vague, but it's hard to follow, so I'll just tell y'all what's up.
Background: I'm a chemical engineer. I used to do product development for a food company. My job search so far has focused on staying in that general arena.
About a week ago, I decided to take a little bit of a different tack on my job search strategy.
I mentioned the quick mob thingy before.
Seems like they're rapidly multiplying, only now they're calling them flash mobs.
Don't forget that cheesebikini? is your source for all things quick/flash mob.
This week it's Rossi's turn to do the Sunday Seven at Sketches of Strain. Two of my favorite things in one place!
I was listening to Talk of the Nation* yesterday and lo and behold, the subject was urban tribes. Even more exciting, one of the guests was Ethan Watters.
I've mentioned this before and I'm kind of excited to see Ethan** get some publicity since I've been sort of following his progress.
I think the segment could have been better than it was. Frances Goldscheider, a sociology professor at Brown University, was a little blah***. And then when they got to Ethan, the calls were getting a little out of hand. And I thought they had some dumb callers. But it's still worth a listen, especially if you would like to learn a little about the concept (think Friends before everybody got married).
*Lynn Neary's alright, but can we get Neal Conan back, please?
**Because me and Ethan are tight like that, ya know. First name basis and all.
***About what I'd expect from someone named Fran.
My sister and I are going to see Cedric the Entertainer at Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort tonight. Woo woo!
UPDATE: It was good!
Kathy Howe is conducting a little bit o' blogging research.
Here are the questions:
1. Do you have a disclaimer on your blog?
2. If yes, what prompted you to post one?
3. When you go to a new blog or read one that you've visited before, how often are you offended by the content? What do you do when this happens (email the writer privately, comment, ignore it, etc)?
4. On the blogs that you read, how much of the content do you think is dramatized?
5. Do you dramatize your own posts?
6. If you do dramatize your blog posts, why do you do it?
7. If you do dramatize your blog posts, do you keep a separate journal (online or off) where you document events and emotions that are more realistic/accurate?
8. Have you ever blogged something that was totally made up but blogged it as though it were real?
9. How did your blog come to be?
10. Some blogs take on a life of their own that is totally unexpected, would you say this is true with your blog?
11. Describe, in general, what a blog is as if I had no idea what it was.
12. Describe, specifically, what your blog is to you.
But don't answer them here, answer them there! Or you can answer them here if you really want to, but I'm gonna pass your answers along to her anyway.
My answers:
As I've been going through my older posts (so anything before January), I've been having to give them all titles, because back in my free Blogspot days, there were no titles. I put so many unrelated items in most of those posts that I've resorted to making the title of each post into a mini Table of Contents.
But I'm all done now. I didn't realize I had started blogging before I finished my trip. Best I can tell the blog began somewhere around Yellowstone.
I'm voting Felber/Sagal in 2004.
When I get drunk, I do not develop Beer Muscles™ as many people do. I develop Beer Speed™ and Beer Agility™. These powers mostly manifest themselves in navigating to and from the bathroom.
I just made a batch of the Reasonable Approximation of Sangria from Casa Dominick's that a friend of mine finagled came up with. I had to quarter the recipe so it would fit in the largest available container, and whaddya know, it happens to fit perfectly in the half-gallon mason jar I stole borrowed from Dominick's just last month.
I even made myself a handy dandy chart with full-, half- and quarter-gallon measurements. I ought to type it up, print it off, and laminate it. Maybe keep it in my wallet.
Haven't tried it yet. It's chilling in the fridge. This might be my favorite summer beverage. Ooooh, the anticipation is killing me.
If you are really nice and e-mail me, I might even share it with you.
UPDATE: Aaaaahhhhhh! :9
UPDATE #2: Note to self: No more sangria on empty stomach. I am actively trying to avoid drunken commenting. Or at least I'm trying to avoid leaving comments that look like I'm drunk. I may not be succeeding. Sorry, David.
UPDATE #3: My feet lower extremities are totally tingling.
I've been trying for a while to import my pre-Blogger-Pro Blogger posts. (Get that?)
The Sorrow Part: Everytime I've attempted it (about 5 times), I imported all these entries, only to find that I'd just re-imported the same entries I already had. I had to go back and delete them all, and Power Editing mode doesn't really make that go quicker. I was beginning to think it couldn't be done, but I didn't find anything anywhere about anyone having this kind of problem importing Blogger entries.
The Heartache Part: My dumb ass just realized that I had 2 different directories named "import" and (surprise) I was placing the new file-to-import in the wrong one.
So my project for this evening will be to peruse all the older stuff and make it pretty for public consumption. Because I know you're all waiting with baited breath to read "Stuff and Whatever, The Early Months."
This time a year ago, I was embarking on the first leg of Road Trip USA. I'm still kicking myself for not starting blogging at that point. I didn't really chronicle the trip very well. Not in words, anyway. I have a thousand pictures or so. (I'm pretty sure I put those on a disc somewhere.) (I hope I put those on a disc somewhere.) I have ticket stubs and brochures and maps and a couple of guidebooks with many dog-eared pages.
That trip may be one of the things I'm most proud of in my life so far.
I've talked before about the Never-Really-Was-My-Girlfriend. She called last week because her mom saw my grandpa's obit in the paper. I was a little harried when the phone rang, so I forgot to avoid the call. I let her talk at me for a while.
We've reached the point where we have nothing to say to each other except to talk about old times. Actually, I might have something more to say to her if I cared enough to ask her how she's doing.
Anyway, I got an email from her a couple days later entitled "good ol' fashioned web-surfing..." I panicked because I thought she might have come across this site. I don't really know how she could have because I'm pretty sure you can't get here by googling my full name.* And, you know, I've talked about her in less than flattering terms. I don't think she's so stupid that she couldn't figure it out.
But the email wasn't about this site. It was about — get this — a math professor we had our freshman year.
*It turns out you can get here by googling my name. Anybody know if there's a way I can get that to go away?
Does anybody else keep a plunger right by the toilet, or is that just us?
I went to Old Navy Outlet today. I didn't go too crazy (needed funeral/visitation shirts b/c I already wore everything I had last weekend), but I did buy some things I wasn't intending to buy/don't need (another shirt and some jeans).
I feel so much better now. :)
My grandpa died a week ago today. My grandma died today.
Death sucks.
Grandpa at least died peacefully in his recliner. My father and his sibs had to make the decision to take my grandma off life support.
It's funny, my grandma broke her hip right after it was announced David Brinkley died from "complications from a fall" and I thought to myself, "I bet that happens to grandma."
They determined she had a GI bleed, but they couldn't find the source. She was stable enough through the night last night that they did an exploratory colonoscopy today and found that a good portion of her colon was gangrenous. Her intestines had had the equivalent of heart attack. Her kidneys had already failed.
The doctor gave her about a 10% chance to live. My dad signed the papers to authorize the terminal wean (that's fancy talk for shutting off the life support). They turned her meds down, turned the morphine up, pulled the tubes out, and let her go.
It was tough watching her vital signs on the monitor. Green for heart rate. Red for blood pressure. Blue for blood oxygen. White for respirations. Watching them go down and down and down, hit zero, and then hearing the nurse say "she's gone."
Hospitals are never quiet. Something is always beeping.
And there are a lot of really hot nurses.
Hoss was civil, but acted totally selfishly the whole time (passive-aggressively, of course). She has Issues.
Strangely enough, the family reunion (my grandma's family) is the weekend after next. Not only are my dad and his sibs spending unprecedented periods of time in each other's company, so are all their cousins.
On the bright side, my dad and his sibs should be able to breeze through making the funeral arrangements and they'll only have to write one set of Thank You notes. I need to go get a new shirt so I don't wear exactly the same things this weekend as I wore last weekend. We don't expect to be doing this again anytime soon.
I still haven't seen Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, but now I have something to look for when I do see it. There's a tanker named Merkin, the result of an inside joke amongst the cast and crew.
I mentioned before that I cut half my hair off so all I had left on my head was the non-straightened stuff. My mom's been telling me all along I should straighten it again and of course I resisted the idea because it was my mom that suggested it.
But the kink-kink-kink was really workin' my last nerve, so I went on down to the black hair/accessory/gold lame clothing store owned by Asians and bought a fi-dolla box of no lye no mix home perm. My mom put it in this afternoon and it's like I have a whole new head of hair.
There are still a few chunks that seem to do their own thing. I don't know what their problem is. But it's so much thinner. I could actually feel the water hitting my scalp. It never made it throught the hair helmet before. I can still wash-n-go. It's still curly, just not tight. It doesn't require the brute strength of a bandana to keep it from standing 3 inches straight up in the air on top of my head.
And it's actually kinda cute, I think (not that it ever wasn't).
*tosses head back*
You know how sometimes you have a product that you really like? Say a perfume/cologne or lotion or something. And maybe it's discontinued or hard to find. And you are so loathe to use up the last of it that you just stop using it all together or you use it in miniscule amounts.
Do you ever have stuff that's the opposite way? Like you bought this product in a new scent or you bought a different brand you want to try, and you just want to use up the last of what you've got. But it won't go away. That last little bit lasts forever. You don't want to be wasteful and throw away whatever you have left, but you just want it to be empty already. I've most recently had this issue with deodorant, but I see it with toothpaste, too.
And then there's products that you really have to stay on top of, because you don't realize how quickly you go through the last of it. Like toilet paper. I also do this with shampoo and conditioner (and they never run out at the same time).
I feel like a lot of people are dying lately. Above and beyond the usual deaths you see at 5, 6, and 11 (or 10 if you live on Central Time). A handful of celebrities. Other bloggers have lost someone. Maybe I'm just noticing it more because of my own personal experience.
There also seems to be a lot of bloggers without much to say lately. This is not