Blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah.

I get it. You're a unique flower. BUT SO IS EVERYONE ELSE.

2007-12-08T02:54:00.000-08:00

It's an interesting experience, working retail in a consistently, more-and-more, understaffed store. You find out what it's like running the customer service desk, answering the phones, fielding questions about the locations of products, taking a payment, finding a manager to deal with a complaint, and checking someone out. ALL AT THE SAME TIME. Which in fact should be impossible, but somehow manages to happen. Mainly while being glared at by 12 more people who are waiting in line.

I honestly think I should get hazard pay. Everyone who works on the front end should, it is among the most stressful jobs I can imagine.
"Could you open up another register?" yells someone halfway down the line, while staring at you as if you are an evil dumbass who is just trying to make his life harder by making him wait. Oh the humanity.
If only I could ask him some questions-- "I am assuming you can see? Okay, great. Do you see anyone else behind this desk? Do you see any person working in this store who isn't dealing with massive lines or at least one customer and a constantly ringing phone? DO YOU HEAR ME, when I have a millisecond break, paging a 'Code Three' over the intercom? Do you see the other things that I am dealing with right now (answering the phone, fielding a customer who's upset because they couldn't find anyone in electrical, telling someone that I'd LOVE to take their payment, but I am taking care of this line right now)? CAN YOU SEE HOW STRESSED I LOOK RIGHT NOW? DO YOU THINK I WANT TO BE IN THIS SITUATION WITH NO HELP? DO YOU THINK I WOULD BE CALLING SOMEONE IF THERE WAS SOMEONE WHO COULD COME?"
He can answer his own stupid motherfucking question, but he doesn't. He has to make me spell it out. I can't reply truthfully, so instead I say respectfully, "I'm sorry sir, I'm trying to find someone but there just isn't anyone available right now. I'll keep trying." This, of course, detracts from the time I could be spending telling someone where to get a key made (between aisle 16 and 17, ask at the desk, though they'll be busy).

Then of course, there is the old woman (they come in all ages, genders, and races, but it is more likely to be an old woman than anyone else) who comes up and asks me to get her a cart. She doesn't have anything in her hand, mind. She can walk perfectly well up to the desk to make this request, while having selective blindness/ hearing loss to the point that she can somehow miss my massive line and constant direction giving/ phone answering.
Listen, lady. If I could, I would go and get your lazy ass a cart. It is very difficult, I am aware, to walk the extra 50 feet (if that) to go out to the cart area and get a cart. Apparently. BUT I CAN'T. I will tell you exactly where YOU can get your own cart. I can try and find someone else working who can pull you up a cart. But I CANNOT get you a cart right now. You ARE NOT the only person in the world. You are one of many, and while you may have some lovely qualities that I cannot see at this rather unflattering moment (all I can see right now is a selfish dumbass who thinks that her need for a cart is more important than the handicapped woman who is trying to check out of this hellhole of a store right now so she can go home). I don't mind getting your cart. I really, truly don't give a shit about how lazy you are. BUT YOU ARE NOT ANY MORE SPECIAL OR IMPORTANT THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THIS LINE, SO DON'T ASK ME TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR MINOR, TIME-CONSUMING NEEDS WHILE THESE PEOPLE WAIT.

This is just one example, but it happens all the time at work. My job sucks, I know it and you know it, please don't treat me like that.

Happens all the time in traffic too.
The road to another highway is running slow, and traffic is backed up. Some guy pulls out from 600 feet behind you, and zooms past, only to cut in (in front of some well-meaning, small-testicled person who lets this dickwad in without a single honk of protest) again 300 feet in front of you.
Apparently, they are very special and important. Their time is much more valuable then the rest of the people who are patiently waiting their turn (onto a road that is probably backed up because some other asshole pulled a similar stunt 20 minutes ago and cut it too close-- to the point where the person they cut off had to brake extremely abruptly, causing the back-up in the first place), and so it doesn't matter that they are elevating the wait for all the rest of these people even more by cutting someone off, causing another string of brakelights to go off down the road again.

You may be special, but so is everyone else. Please offer them the same consideration that you would like them to offer to you.

I am so miserable and jaded at work now that I have begun to lose the ability to care. I used to be able to hear someone who was genuinely mistreated (not too frequent an occurance, actually), with genuine sympathy for their plight, and do whatever I could to make it better. Now I'm just so tired that I can't care anymore. I can hear it, understand it, but I just can't muster up the energy to do as much anymore.

I've worked retail too long, and working in an understaffed hellhole is killing me, mentally and physically. I had no idea how bad it could be, despite retail's overall shitastic nature with even more shitastic pay.
I need to find another job, but rarely have enough energy left to put into the search. God help me if I don't get into grad school, which will provide me with retail freedom (and a whole new set of interesting new challenges and problems) in less than a year.

A trip to the zoo!

2007-09-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ah, what better way to resume a blog than with a delightful trip to the zoo? Quite frankly, there is no better way.

My cousin (who is Australian, but has been living in Ireland, until recently when she moved back to Australia with her Irish boyfriend...) came to vist us in the US, and because I'm just a stellar person, I totally agreed to go to the zoo with them. I know, what a huge sacrifice. What kind of person would volunteer to take people with positively charming accents to the zoo on an absolutely beautiful Tuesday with the best weather we've had for months? A saint, that's who. I'm a saint. Yep.

Anywhoo, we went pretty much everywhere, and a good time was had by all.

But what trip is complete without pictures?

Now, kiddies, this is an EDUMACATIONAL trip to the zoo, so I've included links to the species whose names I can remember courtesy of wiki. Be sure to learn lots!

The first thing we were facinated by were dragonflies. They weren't special dragonflies, but they were pretty cool, and the first real animals we saw. When I went home later that day, there was a dragonfly of that very same species flying about the front door. A lovely indigenious breed, of a pretty powder blue color. They were pretty big.

Can you see it?

I'm betting no, and that's okay! Go ahead and look at the bigger version. If you still can't see it, I have a note on the original flickr page where you can see it. Yah? Megan and Danny have a picture of some of these dragonflies having sex (right after I had commented on how bizarre dragonfly sex looks), but I took the high road and skipped out on the kinky dragonfly porn. And, you, the people, lose. I'm sorry!

Then there was a giant anteater with some big-ass guinea pig looking things (I think cappy-somethings? I'm not posting their pictures, so who cares).

You don't get the scale, but trust me, he's a big mamba jamba. You wouldn't want him to sit on you. Fat tail, too.

And the surprisingly majestic hippopotamus (I have no idea what species of hippo, sorry!)

Which are surprisingly sleek and graceful underwater. The hippo habitat has improved in size and coolness remarkably since last I saw the hippo (when I was but a wee child!), we watched them for probably a good five minutes.

Did I say sleek and graceful?

Yeah, but still super massive. Those fish were a lot bigger than hand-size, maybe a foot or so.

(Maybe worth looking at in the large size, if you are interested.) Cool fish, eh?

So why is it in with the hippos?

Because this, along with the eleventy trillion fish in the hippo tank, live by eating HIPPO POO.

They even had a charming informative table off to the side, describing how the hippo feeds all the fishies with it's amazing, poo-spreading tail. The hippo swings it's tail back and forth to spread it's poo about freely, allowing all the happy little fishies to dine with vigor. One did poo while we were there, and the fish were pretty enthusiastic. AND SUPER GNARLY. Gross, but cool-- nice recycling there, Ma Nature.

Do I even need a description for this one? Did you even wonder why this made it onto my mini zoo tour?

I mean please. Everyone knows that I am the original Somali Wild Ass!

You may think they look like donkeys

But they aren't, okay? They have striped legs. Dumbass.

For the kutest kritter award, I offer you the red panda.

My picture doesn't do it justice, but this thing was OMGWTFBBQ adorable! I want one as a pet! I'll treat him nice! I'll love him and squeeze him and feed him bamboo shoots and small animals, and name him George! Please?! Ma?! I want one.

And penguins! God I love penguins. Our last actual zoo animal that we checked out. These are Humboldt penguins, and the saucy guy in the front is a brown pelican.

You can only vaguely tell, but the penguin in the water and that brown pelican were totally having a stand off. They were all like, "Hey! I'm gonna peck at you!" in a, "HEY, YOU KIDS! GET OFFA MY LAWN!" way, where the pelican plays the part of the crotchety old man, and the penguin plays the part of the kid on a dare who keeps running up on his stoop and then dashing off before he can hit him with his broom or whatever. It was pretty funny.

The pelican looked at ME like that too, last time I was at the zoo with my sexy friend (on 7/11/07!). Observe:

It was a death stare, I assure you.

However, I played the role of the chick with the camera, who's all like, "Damn, crotchety old man, I just want a damn picture, I don't wanna stand on your lawn!" (And as our trip comes to an end, I'd like to tell you that if you'd like to see any of the pictures bigger, just go to my photos page, click on the photo you want to see bigger, and hit the "all sizes" button at the top of the picture. These were all uploaded in original, ginormous size, and took forever to upload, I assure you.)

My favorite picture (that I took... Danny's was better) was another indigenious bug.

Clicky for biggy! I think it's worth it for this one.

Goes to show you, sometimes the prettiest critters are the ones you find at home.

Now I remember why I stopped doing this for a while! What a time hogger!

Doodily doodily doo...

2007-01-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Dum dum dum...

Hey, what's this? A “blog”?
Why, lo and behold, it is mine! And I haven’t updated in forevah!

Hmm...

So, what have I been up to?
Um…
well, I dyed my hair a little darker.

From:

To:

I generally like the change, I think it suits me okay, but I do sometimes worry that I look a bit emo-er with the darker hair. Due to the increased drama from the contrast of the darker hair and my pasty face.

I won’t deny that sometimes I want to have a little fun with it… you know. It is my way.
Say, a late night photo session galore! With emo pictures! FUN!!

God... I'm just so pouty. And misunderstood. Gawd, it's like, you know, no one understands what I'm going through, you know? I'm gonna go write some [bad] poetry, excuse me guys.

I'm so emo and misunderstood and sad that I lack the energy to hold up my head or even look at the camera... luckily, I have kept my ability to hold the camera up at a suitably pseudo-artistic angle, because... that... is the burden... of the emo.

Okay, maybe I'm not really emo. You caught me. And maybe I like the new hair color. You caught me twice. And maybe I put on some chapstick after I looked at this picture. But only maybe. You're living in suspense over the chapstick now? Suspense that will never be broken. Sorry.

I’m going to go ahead and share the blame a bit. I haven’t had as much free time lately to keep up with that blog updating due to… THIS!

HA! Blame spread! Take that!

God, my photography skillz rock. It's like... I took my camera phone? And... put it on sepia. W o w.

Holiday Greetings, My Friends!

2006-12-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

Ben knows how awful I've been feeling about how rarely I am updating.

So he gave me permission-- NAY! Demanded that I do a really, truly, heart-felt, really really bad photoshopping of a picture of him to express his Christmas/ holiday spirit. And also so I could show it to his friends and then they could mock them.

Enjoy!

Piggles was really busy listening to Fall Out Boy and complaining to her emo buddies that she was misunderstood to give a crap about my bad updating skillz, but I photoshopped a picture of her anyway. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the gentil temperament that Ben does, so I adjusted the message accordingly.

Have a great holiday, guys! Enjoy your, er, holiday spirits (and I am not talking about love and brotherhood) as necessary!

This is a number two.

2006-12-06T11:54:00.000-08:00

Ha, meaning it's one of the second type... if you scroll down a bit and look on the right section, you'll see a little description, but basically, I'm a gonna be a bit of a pretentious douchebag in this entry. Enjoy!
Also, my throat is absolutely KILLING me, but I don't know why. Okay, on with the show!

-----

My life is humble. I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people who is remembered for anything; I won’t even be a mote in the eye of history. I guess I’m okay with that; honestly, fame was never my thing. I don’t like to be the center of the attention all of the time; I don’t need to be remembered by anybody except by my friends and family (hopefully!). I do wish a bit to have made some sort of (preferably positive!) mark on the world, even if only in a minor way that no one knows about.

But I still wonder what the meaning of my life is. Or will be. I guess, when it comes cosmic calculator time, for my life on earth to have a positive balance, no matter how slight. I want to end up contributing more to the world and the well-being of people and life in general than I used up in resources, methane production (greenhouse gases?), waste, etc.
And I don’t think I’m anywhere near that point yet.
I'm just a giant larvae at this point, sucking on the teat of the universe. Now that is a hot image.

I don’t entirely want my life to be all about self-sacrifice, either… in a way, I sort of collect memories and experiences… I don’t know that everyone thinks this way, but on an almost subconscious level, I do. I want experiences that I can look back on with pleasure; to enjoy something in the moment without worrying.
I’m getting a lot of those lately, for which I am grateful.
For instance, I have work on Saturday, and I’m going to try to rearrange my shift so I can go to the concert of an awesome local band (The Otto Modest link) because, at the end of the day, I won’t remember, except in a general way, how shitty it was getting up at 4:30 am to go to work; I’ve opened before. But I will remember the awesome concert (they promised to play my favorite song, because they are capital guys), and the great experiences that I’ll have that night. It’s also my, er, fellow’s (I don’t really like the term boyfriend for some reason. I feel like I should giggle and then write Mrs. Chloe HisLastName in my Trapper Keeper because I’m twelve years old whenever I say it) birthday weekend as well. What can I say, he’s a lucky guy! He has all his finals on his birthday! So I’d rather be hanging out with him on Saturday night then being trapped at work, staring at the walls.
I really hope I can find someone to change shifts with.

I can’t figure out why the fuck my throat hurts so much!
Have a lovely day guys.

An odd situation...

2006-12-05T16:06:00.000-08:00

Earlier today I did a nice load of laundry. Now, some of my clothes are more delicate than, ahem, others, so I normally hand-wash them, but today I didn't have the time or inclination so I just tossed them in the washing machine and prayed for the best.
Luckily, nothing got snagged or torn, but obviously, I can't put them in the dryer...

I have a biology presentation tomorrow that I must get done today, as I have other plans for tonight. I don't have a designated place to put my, er, delicates (there's a railing in the kitchen that's really convenient for hang drying some things, but I really don't feel like having my mother or father seeing my scanty, lacey underwear every time they go into the basement or the kitchen), so if there's only a few items that need to dry, I generally just sort of strew them over the arms and back of my computer chair.

So... right now I'm typing a biology presentation on Olestra in powerpoint... but I'm resting my elbows and the back of my head on damp underwear.
Hmmm.
Well, at least it's clean.

Someone found my site by googling "Blah I suck"...

2006-11-22T03:55:00.000-08:00

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, right thur!

NaBloPoMo: A winner is not me. That's okay... I'm actually surprised I even got half-way through. That is definitely some sort of record for me. Of course, I celebrated the realization that I had horribly lapsed in my BloPo by... not posting any blogs for a week. Ah, truly joyous.

No, seriously... I had a few ideas to write about. The instant I sit down, pbbbbt. Out of my brain. In a fart-like motion. Well, shit. Um...

I'm reading Interview With The Vampire. Heh. Yeah, I know, welcome to 1994! When I was eleven! Probably why I didn't read it back then! I actually got Vol. 1-3 in an omnibus from The Big Huge Dork Book Club (which incidentally, isn't all that great, so don't go and join based on my mentioning it, like that would happen), so I've had it sitting around for about six months.
And seriously, never tell anyone you've joined the SciFi Book Club. Even my dorky group of friends mocked me when I told them that; honestly, who can blame them? SCIENCE FICTION. I need a pocket protector and an inhaler, stat.
Also, lose the boobs. They confuse people.

Rain, rain, go away...

2006-11-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

and don't return.

St. Louis is not a city at home with its precipitation. Apparently, the instant that water starts its mysterious descent to the ground, every single driver on the road turns into someone’s eighty-year-old grandma who can’t see and drives 10 miles under the speed limit, while simultaneously running red lights and swerving in between two lanes every few seconds without signaling.
To say it is immensely frustrating for a clearly fantastic driver such as myself (ahem) is an understatement.

As I was walking from the Metrolink towards campus today, a guy passed me headed towards the Metrolink on his cell phone. I overheard a tiny bit as we bulleted in opposite directions towards dryness,
“It’s raining and people here drive like…”
…in a very irritated tone of voice. It made me grin, because I know exactly what he’s talking about.

Also, maybe you haven’t heard about this, but I’m kind of short. Not freakish or anything, but I’m a hair under 5’4”. I’m too tall to wear petite/short jeans, and too short for average jeans… I’d rather have my pants too long than too short, so I end up with dragging hems everywhere I go. Result: cuffs wet to about mid-calf in the back. Feels reeeally good. And I never replaced my last umbrella (apparently, I’m really hard on my umbrellas), so I’ve got that sexy, frizzy, my-hair-has-been-wetted-and-then-air-dried-several-times-in-a-row look. Obviously, I’m still working it, though.

Anyway, test-o-rama tomorrow. And I just volunteered myself to do a presentation a week early, so it’ll be during the week following Thanksgiving... like I don’t have enough work to do that week. I get the whole week off for Thanksgiving, so hopefully I’ll end up doing lots of fun and exciting things and there will be fantastic content that whole week.
...
Heh. I somehow doubt y’all are that gullible.

I suck at NaBloPoMo.

2006-11-14T21:22:00.000-08:00

I am really dragging here. Today I was going to post a review of mineral makeup that I use, but I got about a page in and completely lost steam. I don't really know how many, if any, female readers I have, so is it really worth the bother?

Eh, I'll post a bit of it. If you are a guy (and don't wear make up) feel free to skip this one.

Like everyone and their dog (who stays up late enough to see infomercials), I’d heard of Bare Minerals. I was fascinated by the infomercial, but there were a few problems.

“natural” looking or not, I don’t want to look that shiny.
It was too expensive to appeal to me.
I hate that bitch Leslie What’s-her-face. God, she is such an irritating dominatrix. No way am I increasing her profit margin.
Eventually, I found out that it contains bismuth oxychloride, which a considerable number of people are sensitive to (itching) and can make people break out. Also, it was the main contributor in what I would call the shiny effect. Ugh, no thanks.
Plus, they spell essentials escentuals. Someone needs to be smacked. I nominate that bitch Leslie.

I found out about a cult favorite mineral makeup brand, Everyday Minerals, which offered free samples (you have to pay a few bucks for shipping, though). Also, note how nothing in the name is misspelled cutely. Big ups! My skin was acting out by this time, due to liquid foundations and the fact that they contain Satan's semen... er, maybe not. But most of them have an alarming amount of ingredients, many of which have the power for irritation! I figured I didn't have much to lose, what with the free samples, plus they are a lot more affordable than bare escentuals, so I ordered the samples.

One of my skin hurdles is that I am extremely pasty. I’m not sure from whence it came, as my father is actually rather olive-complexioned and my mother, while pretty light, is still quite a bit darker than I am; but regardless, I am white as feck. I have never found any liquid foundation that was light enough for me.

Though they didn't have the shade I am using now when I first ordered the samples; regardless it was still easily the best match I'd ever had with any foundation at that point.
And it really did look natural! Like I wasn't wearing make up, except my skin was flawless. It lasts all day! It's not completely waterproof, but it can handle normal rain. And sweat, er, I mean, "glow". My skin is a bit oily (combination), so by the end of the day, I may be a bit shiny, but it still looks great.

The coverage can be varied quite a bit-- my skin has become MUCH MUCH better since I switched to Everyday Minerals (I also switched moisturizers around this time, to Kiss My Face Alpha & Aloe Oil-Free Moisturizer, which is the shit); so at the start I used more than I do now. Your skin doesn't feel all nasty like it does with liquid foundation... in fact, I get compliments on how soft my skin is when I'm wearing makeup. And it doesn't smudge, so I don't have to worry when people touch my face.

The point is, I ♥ Everyday Minerals, and I seriously recommend them to everyone I know... at least everyone that wears make up.
I haven't even covered all the stuff I love about the stuff, for the sake of time, because I have two tests on Thursday.
Two thumbs up-- and here's the link for the free sample kits, if you want to give it a try.

My pasty-ass self wears Fair Neutral (intensive formulation, you'll need to look around the site a bit for the explanations between the different types). I would recommend "Apple" blush-- I have never seen any person on which this was not a gorgeous shade, it also makes a pretty neutral lip with balm over it. It's a very pretty natural flush... but be careful, the color is intense, so you only need a little bit. The concealer is too dark for me, but I love the finishing dust. I haven't tried the balancing dust yet, but I plan to eventually...

Er, long-winded, much? I really could have gone on for quite a while, so consider yourselves lucky...

Random # 98465123

2006-11-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

I motherfucking hate insomnia. Last night I just could not fall asleep for the life of me. I would just lay in bed for an hour or two, get up, do something, then lay down again for a few more hours. It sucked major testicles. Then I fell asleep, finally, at 8 am. My alarm goes off at 8:30.
The one benefit to insomnia should be that, hey, at least you’re early for class! But no, I fall asleep half an hour before my alarm goes off, causing me to blearily hit the snooze button waaaay more times than I should have, so I was late anyway.

In short: I’m really tired. And I just can’t bring myself to care all that much about the dissociation energies of diatomic molecules (which is a homework problem that I am supposed to be solving) right now.

It would really suck to be one of those people who always looks angry because of their eyebrows. I’m sitting across from a guy with angry eyebrows right now, and I keep thinking, “God, what’s his problem? I’m not being noisy or anything [for once]!” And then I realize that there is his neutral face, so he just looks angry all the time. I bet people are always responding to him defensively.
I wonder if he knows he has angry eyebrows? Is there any way to fix them (using tweezers, or perhaps those trimmers (as seen on tv!)?) using modern grooming techniques so you’ll no longer look angry? Of course, maybe then you’ll look like you had a facelift or you’ll look all weird or something because of it. Hmmm. That’s not exactly something you can ask someone either:

“Excuse, Mr. Angry Eyebrows. Do you know that your eyebrows make you look mad all the time? If so, have you ever found any method to remove or reduce this effect? Why haven’t you continued using said technique, if the answer to the previous question is yes?”

“What the fuck? Get away from me, you psycho bitch!”

“Hmmm… so it’s not just the eyebrows.”

Yes, it is cold in here.

There is this crazy wooden statue in the student computer lab that I can also see right now. It’s a very stylistic wooden statue with their right “hand” (a wooden blobby thing that is flesh colored) on it’s left “breast” (or where the breast would be were it not completely covered by the “hand”). I wonder what it’s supposed to be doing? Breast self exam? Maybe it’s supposed to signify breast cancer awareness.
But it’s not wearing pink. There is no hint of the pink ribbon anywhere on it.

Hmmm, maybe it’s saying the pledge of allegiance? But it doesn’t look patriotic either. Its head does appear to be slightly downcast, though… It’s supposed to look like it’s wearing some cream colored shift, I think…
I would take a picture of it, but I have no way to upload a picture from school—no memory card reader. Also, there are a lot of people in here. Maybe some other time.

Yeah, this is good enough. Lock ‘n’ load, people.

Is it any wonder...

2006-11-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

That I don't post everyday, normally?
Take today for example. I realized that I had an assignment due TODAY at about 1 am last night (which is still pretty early for me, FYI) (P.S. What kind of asshat teacher sets an assignment due on a SUNDAY?)
I was up till about 7 am, reading the book and the study guide, trying to figure out whuzzup between Napoleon and the French Revolution. I was too tired to write coherent sentences, so I set my alarm for 11 am then hit the snooze button till 12 pm.
I got up, attempted to function, failed, and dozed till about 2 pm.
Got up AGAIN, wrote my damn discussion with lots of procrastination in between sections.
Published it at 4, spent some time talking with my family, spent more than a fair amount of time on facebook talking with someone in particular.
Invited a few friends to Thanksgiving dinner, finally ate breakfast (I am a freak who could live off of caffeine), started to doze off again...
Woke back up fully, realized that the important thing that I needed to do today was write a damn blogger entry, and realized that I don't have anything to write about.
On the plus side, I think with a full night's sleep tonight I will be absolutely fine and cold-free (crosses fingers, takes even more vitamin C, knocks on wood).

I mean, this is pretty normal shit, but not the material that makes for a facinating blog entry.
Sure, if I were clever and motivated enough, I could probaly figure out some way to make something sound ever so slightly interesting... but I'm not motivated enough, and I seriously doubt I'm clever enough.
I mean, w00t! I had an assigment due and didn't realize! Hilarity ensues!
I actually got everything I needed to get done today done... I wonder if this could be a sign of maturity...

pbbbbt. Yeah, that's gotta be it.

I didn't forget!

2006-11-11T21:52:00.000-08:00

Sure, I came close, but I didn't forget.
Another lovely day at work, but at least it was busy, so I didn't spend all my time standing around, nowhere to go, nothing to do, etc.
I think I'm fighting off a cold (no thanks to what's-his-face...) so I'm going to call it an early night and sleep... for health. Also, take a butt-load of vitamin C.

I love clean sheets. There are very few things better than climbing into your clean, fabric-softener scented sheets at the end of a long, painful day. Yum.

I also love cherry cordials. Why aren't they available year round?
Oh, I know... because I would end up weighing 200 pounds if that were the case.

Argh, I'm tired and not funny. G'night, my dears!

Camera-phone-er-ific!

2006-11-10T14:56:00.000-08:00

I don't think I need to extoll the many virtues of camera-phones on here-- everyone already knows they're awesome, right? I mean, it's pretty much always with you, whether you are wearing an embarrassing dragon hat or not, which really gives you the opportunity to embarrass yourself and the ones you love on a daily basis!

Unfortunately, most of the embarrassing photos on my phone are of me (and you've already seen plenty of embarrassing photos of me!), because I obviously have not been whipping that sucker out often enough! Even if I did have a bunch (instead of a few) embarrassing pictures to share, you wouldn't know anyone in them, so where would the fun be?

Here's a smattering of photos taken with my phone (I use amp'd mobile, the Motorola Hollywood... which is either a motorola e815 or e816, I don't know which).

Incidentally, I may as well do a quick review of my phone-- I love it. It takes pretty good pictures (for a cameraphone, anyway), nice big screen, lots of fun stuff, great battery life, and excellent reception (I have had one dropped call but that was really to be expected in the area I was in). It also uses a memory card which means I can download wallpapers and ringtones (though I have to do the ringtones in a roundabout way) that I make myself on my computer for free, which is sweetness. Because most ringtones are rip-offs and also aren't of songs that I love.
There is one disadvantage to it, though... it's a fucking brick. It's thick. It's heavy (which I would also call a nice solid feel, but it is pretty heavy). It's wide. When it is closed, it snaps shut like it might take off a digit (and I have been pinched a few times). Now the size and weight don't bother me that much, but most of the time it's in either my purse or backpack, so it isn't a huge deal... the rare occasion that I've had it in my pocket, I have found it extremely huge and irritating. So, keep that in mind too.

Er, anyway, on to the pictures!

I'm a big fan of foliage (we don't often get good foliage in St. Louis, so I notice it especially amongst all the gnarly brown leaves), and at school with the grounds and whatnot? I've stopped to take pictures of some nice examples.

This is not at all enhanced in photoshop.

I took this on the first floor of BH while I was supposed to be studying for a p chem test that I think I blew.

2nd floor BH.

This is an unedited shot too (I will always let you know if I've messed around with something in Photoshop). The problem is that my camera deadened the colors a bit, the red trees in the background? Were stunningly bright. So I fiddled around a bit and came up with...

It's maybe not all that huge a difference, but it's a lot more true to life. I used Sundry's technique on this (duplicate background, use soft light blending mode, then I brightened it up a bit using curves).

All the red trees are nude now... winter is coming.

If you walk across the hall on the second floor of BH (right across from the exit in the picture right above this one) and look out the window, you'll see this.
You can't see behind the trees too well, but there is a man made pond. Oh, and a PARKING GARAGE! W00t!

I took the above picture and messed with it in photoshop last night (I was extremely active last night, got loads done), because I wanted to try out a "faux-infrared" technique that I saw in a magazine.
If you're cool, like a chemistry major, you'd just call this an IR technique. Yo. Anyway, I think it looks neatish.

Almost as soul-deadening as retail... is Mathcad. I shudder to imagine how many hours a week go into staring at this evil, evil program.

Yes, I could be reading about the Vibrational and Rotational Spectroscopy of Diatomic Molecules... or I could be taking a negative photo of the Tomazi lounge! Which would you choose?

And there's also some cat photos that I don't feel like subjecting you to, because I'm nice.

As a side note, I just switched to beta blogger, and there's still some bugs in the photo-inserting... every time I insert a photo, it puts huge spaces between all the paragraphs... I'm going to go back and fix it now, but I may miss something, so if you see a huge gap in this entry, that will be why. It's a pain in the tush.

So... let's talk politics.

2006-11-09T15:36:00.000-08:00

I know, political posts are de bomb! Looking at what's up right now, it's hard not to be stoked. The post that I was going to do on the 7th was to remind people to vote, but I forgot to do it before the polls closed... so...
Hey, I voted! That's important!

I'm sure everyone has heard the overall results by now... the Democrats took over the House and the Senate nationwide, which is teh win!
It's still going to be bittersweet for me until President Monkey-boy is out of office. I just don't see how someone who supports so many things that are, in my opinion, genuinely evil can continue to run under the banner of religion, "morals", and flag-waving.

In St. Louis, however, the Republicans got the shaft. Honestly, this is a very blue city (in a very red state. Once you get out of the Lou, you will see the vast majority of elected officials are Republicans.)

The stem-cell initiative passed, which actually surprised me quite a bit.

The tobacco tax failed. I can understand why, though I voted for it. It was for an additional four-cent tax PER CIGARETTE, which is pretty gigantic. I mean, we are talking an additional 80 cents a pack, and I can't even imagine how much per carton (I don't know how much is in a carton, since I don't smoke. And I don't care enough to look it up on wikipedia). I don't think that the way the funds were going to be used was articulated very well either... it made me nervous, so I'm imagining that's why it went down in flames (56.6% against). I was hoping it would pass just so my slowly-killing-themselves-one-puff-at-a-time friends would finally remove their heads from their anuses and realize that it's fucking time to quit already. Because I love. I love toughly, sometimes.

Proposition B passed by an absolutely enormous margin-- 79.0% vs. 21%. That was a prop to raise the minimum wage in Missouri-- to $6.50 an hour, or to the federal standard if that is higher. It also will be reviewed yearly from now on based on the Consumer Price Index.
ABOUT FUCKING TIME.
Mind you, this doesn't affect me in any way, but the minimum wage is poverty level, if you are only working 40 hours a week. It's about time that Missouri did something about it.

Clair McCaskill won, which made me very happy because I have an intense dislike of Mr. Jim Talent. I'm going to be the bigger man (girl?) here and not slam him... but it's hard not to. I wonder how much of her win she owes to Michael J. Fox? That commercial is really hard for me to watch. It was really surprising to see this local ad mentioned in national news... I saw mentions of it in Time, not to mention that it has well over 2 million views on YouTube.

Anyway, I don't really have any underlying message to talk about in here. I'm just happy that things are finally turning around. It's about fucking time!

Sometimes I wonder...

2006-11-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

if people think I'm colorblind.
Case in point:
Today, I wore:

bright green Converse Jack Purcells (he's a Canadian badminton player... yes, I ♥ wikipedia, and I need serious help)
medium-wash blue jeans (with rather demure floral embroidery and studs on the back pockets)
a light blue tee-shirt with red text that says "Slightly Stoopid"
a rusty-ish pinkish hoodie... it's a hard color to describe, but suffice to say that it's awesome.
turquoise watch (you can't really see that underneath the hoodie, though)
bright azure blue backpack

I know, I'm a fashion victim... but seriously, I work it, yo. It looks almost coolish...

(in my head).

mobile post

2006-11-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Iatesushitoday!

Edit (3:09 am 11/8/2006):
To clarify, my friend (who is referred to here as "Rapty" or "A Rapt Reader") sent me a text at about 11 pm mentioning that I hadn't posted a blog today, and that NaBloPoMo was about to GO DOWN! Because he's awesome. I had intended to post a blog before I went out, but I forgot.
So, today had a few firsts:
1. I had sushi for the first time today (that was what the 'original' post was about. For some delightful reason, my cell phone is apparently incapable of inserting spaces into the text of the post (I probably did something wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to fix it), so it ended up looking like that. Sorry.
2. I posted my first (and hopefully only) mobile blog. W00t! Actually, first time ever using internet on my phone, so that counts as two, maybe?

So, it was a great, fun day and all (I also enjoyed a first trip to the semi-famous local coffee shop Coffee Cartel... which is much nicer than it's shitty website suggests) and now I need to go and write a history paper that is due in approximately 8 hours. Hopefully I can fit in a little wee bit of sleep too.

Big ups to Rapty! I owe you one!

whine whine whine

2006-11-06T20:42:00.000-08:00

*Whine whine whine*
*whine whine whine whine whine whiiine*
*wimper piss moan whine*
*whine whine whine wHInE wHiNe WhInE whine whine*

Okay, I think that did it.
Suffice to say my day sucked and my physical chemistry professor can suck my imaginary cock, because he made it much worse than it needed to be.

On a lighter note, here's a fun little ancedote about a guy in my p chem class.

About a week ago, we were talking about snacks (for our p chem tests which tend to run EXTREMELY LONG... no, I'm not whining).
So my friend (I didn't ask if I could use his name, so I won't) says he likes to eat oreos and brocolli. Together.

I'm, shall we say, a bit flabbergasted by this combination. I believe I made my "special" face when he said that.

I stare at him a while.

He says, "What?"

I say, "Brocolli and Oreos."

He's said, "Yeah. That's what you eat when you go to the dentist-- gotta get your money's worth!"

Then I perhaps fell out of my chair laughing... okay, so I know it doesn't seem all that funny, maybe, to you, but the delivery was just classic.

Take my word for it.

Anyway, I'm tired and hungry, and I've got lots to do...
and so I must...
bid you adieu.

(I'M SO SORRY FOR THAT!)

So... I'm a little immature.

2006-11-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

This is what happens when I get a camera phone...
So I was at work the other night, and I was asked to clean aisle 18 (that's in hardware, tee hee).
As I'm sweeping and front facing (yes, the e'er exciting life of a retail worker), I see something that I have thought about for a long time.

See, about two or three months into my career at [home improvement warehouse] I accidentally mistyped an item number (as I recall, it was for a dog igloo. Yes, a DOG IGLOO) and what item description popped up on my screen?

1 1 5268427 1" shank w/ 2 balls Y $xx.xx $xx.xx

(I don't actually remember the item number off the top of my head, or the price. Just the description.)
Barely able to conceal my glee (and muffle my laughter), I apologized to the customer and said I must have mistyped the item number. But just one second because I HAD TO WRITE THIS ITEM NUMBER DOWN. (Incidentally, I could swear I had written about this before, but the search for "shank" brought up nothing on this url or my old one, so I guess I'll never know).

Now unfortunately, it appears the 1 inch shank is nowhere to be found (it was just. too. big.)
*snort*
But what did I see?

You heard me the first time. It's a 3/4" shank with 2 balls. You can barely restrain yourself, right? And I'm sorry that image is so blurry, my arm was quaking with laughter and as I was working I really didn't have time to try a few more shots.

With this entry, my life is complete.

And the item? The three-quarter inch shank with two balls? That, my friends, is just a trailer hitch that you can put on the back of your truck or SUV. That's it.

Oh, then at the party I attended later that night, one of the first things I was handed was a porn movie named Buttologist. (You should definitely not click on that link if you are:
at work
babysitting
have children anywhere in the room
are watching tv with your younger brother
are around anyone who you would not want to see you looking at a porn movie's description).

Do you want to know why these two girls had purchased this delightful, classy porn movie? For the tagline, which was simply

The doctor is in... her butt!

which is on the back, unfortunately, so you can't see it in the above link. Boo!

Yeah, I probably would have purchased that too. I admit it. Who can resist that?!

Of course, I'm wondering why there is a man dressed as a nurse (with a blond wig, little hat, and red lipstick) in her butt (at least on the cover), and not a doctor. I mean, get it together, second rate porno!

Good times, good times.
This entry makes me feel a bit like a social deviant. But in a good way.

All we need is... time.

2006-11-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

I never realized before how little free time I have. I mean sure, I know I whine about never having free time, but for the most part I just thought that I wasted a large amount of it doing useless things, rather than not having any.

Today I realized that I need to post a blog before I go to work, because I'm working till 11 (PM! I KNOW! If it weren't like this every weekend, I'm sure I would be shocked) and then I'm going to party with a (ahem) friend. So it's pretty much guaranteed if I don't do it now that I would not keep my NaBloPoMo up. Yo. But I need to get ready for work.

The problem is, I'm kind of low on content right now because I'm spending a lot of time with my new... friend. And so most of the stuff I am, er, thinking about right now is not appropriate blog content. I mean, what? I didn't say anything.

Erm. Soon to come: that hideous scarf-- soon! I swear! You're beginning to suspect that you'll never see that scarf, aren't you?
You may have a point.

Random thoughts

2006-11-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

I blogged your mom.

Identification items suck. Also, WTF declaratory act? S'up?

Going out with friends? Rulzz.

Later days!

How many iPod pictures until this becomes a geek blog?

2006-11-02T17:02:00.000-08:00

Wait... this is already a geek blog. Heh. Nevermind.

So, I had a whole entry planned about **SPOILER ALERT** how I have the most hideous scarf in the world. AND I wear it! But I'll leave that for another day, because today my iPod arrived!
I've done one or two of those dorky "free gift" sites (believe me, they are not for everyone, and it's not as easy as you'd think) and the site I got this iPod from is going under... which is why it came in two weeks instead of 6-8. So yeah, not advocating those sites, and if you are crazy like me and decide to do them, always research the site to make sure it's not bullshit and you won't get hosed. End public service announcement.
They sent me an old nano (4GB white) but a quick trip to the apple store and I am the proud owner of a new 4 GB blue ipod nano... and oh, it is sexy.

So, as I know not everyone is as big a dork as me, maybe you've never seen "unboxings" before, in which people take pictures of the product as it's being opened (you see quite a bit of it on engadget)...
I'd like to break your unboxing cherry. Will you allow me that honor?

I know, the way I have this posed all you need is a stream of urine going f rom the iPod onto the Apple logo... but that wouldn't actually make any sense, would it?

You dirty bastard! Stop staring at its ass!

*Heavenly music plays* WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
... well, it sounded heavenly in my head.

Is it a bird? A plane? A UFO?
... and I'm just going to preserve all of our dignities by moving on now.

They have instructions on how to pop it out on the back. Surprisingly, I did it successfully!

Perspective shot.

This picture is much better full size, but the finish is so pretty on it. Pretty pretty panda!

And here's all the shit they manage to fit into that tiny box.

Yay!

And now I have a concert to go to, so I bid you all adieu.

Blo me!

2006-11-01T21:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know that I am not, ahem, known for my regularity in posting. And I've tried to change in the past, I really have! I swear! But eventually it wears off, because I am lazy and not creative.

So, guess what I've decided to do? Join NaBloPoMo!!!!1! Yes! Whooohooo!

So, what the fuck is NaBloPoMo? Other than super-irritating to type and very strange looking? National Blog Posting Month, of course! I mean, DUH!

Basically, I'm supposed to write an entry every. single. damn. day. for the entire month of November. I will probably die. It will probably be very boring. There may, at some point, be a discussion on the pros and cons of cheese sandwiches. Unless I get tired halfway through and it ends up being all pros...
It'll be hard, but if we just stick together, I think we can make it! Or at least, I shall try my very damndest!

Interesting piece of information.

2006-10-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

The best match on wikipedia for "what the fuck am I thinking" is The Spirit of Truth.

I am not at liberty to discuss why I was wiki-ing (wiking? wikipedia-ing? wikiing? wiki'ng?) this phrase.

Also, I am doing physical chemistry homework. How very unusual. And droll.
If you assume that droll means the same thing as dull, anyway.

How many cat photos do I need before this turns into a cat blog?

2006-10-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

I can't resist...

Meet Ben.

As you can see, Ben loves Cartman (the pillow). Very much. He would have kittens with Cartman (the pillow), though Ben is incapable of producing kittens and I believe that Cartman (the pillow) lacks reproductive organs of any kind.

I'm sure that you can also see from Cartman (the pillow)'s expression that Ben's open, honest adoration of Cartman (the pillow) fills him with rage.

Hopefully, this doesn't result in Cartman (the pillow) breaking Ben's poor wittle heart.

(I used the dooce effect on this photo, since I've never tried it before. You can really feel the love of a cat for his pillow, can't you?)

John Mayer irritates the shit out of me.

2006-10-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well, that is a slight exaggeration for dramatic effect-- the reason this topic came into my mind is because my car was out of commission for a few days (due to an inspection and the hijinx that then ensued), so I borrowed my mom's Grand Cherokee, with no cds to listen to, and thus was forced to listen to (gasp!) the radio.

I'm more of a music snob then I like to admit-- I used to be a lot less picky, but now about 95% of popular music makes me want to pry my ears off with pliers. It's painful to listen to Bo Bice, okay? And you realy should not get me started on Daniel Powter, because that "Bad Day" song makes me want to kill him. Then I, in turn, could die in peace because he could never again unleash such evil upon the land.

Back on topic, Mayer's newest song (We're still waiting! Waiting! Waiting for the wooorld to change) is actually pretty tolerable. It's fun to sing along to, and it doesn't cause an unpleasant, viseral reaction when I hear it, which is a big plus! But he's had too many missteps in the past.

His first single? I'm sure you've heard it [a few million times]: "No Such Thing". Well, it was... okay. Obviously, overplayed, and I personally am not a big fan of songs that extoll the many wonderful qualities of the singer. The only person who wants to hear a song about how great you are is you, mmmkay?

Then, at some point there was--
oh god, just writing this song title makes me want to hurl--
"Your Body is a Wonderland."
I'm just going to come out and say it, okay? This song is a sappy. piece. of. crap. You cannot convince me otherwise, so don't even try. Sample lyric: "bubble gum tongue." How about you bite yours, eh, Mayer?
There is only one thing that made hearing this song on some rare occasion (i.e. in a public place, it's piped in, no sharp objects around with which you can puncture your eardrums)... the way he sings "swim in a deep sea... of blankets," it kind of sounds like he's saying that they're gonna swim in a deep sea of BACON.
Now, perhaps you have been lucky enough not to see this music video (though I can ruin that for you right here right now), since you probably weren't 15 when this song was released, but in the event you wish to skip hearing that awful song once more (I put it on mute so I could see if I had the right one, a helpful tip from me to you), it features John Mayer and random chick o' hotness (but she has brown hair, so you know she's a real-life, attainable kind of girl) rolling around a bed in a sunny loft.
So, with the mental association of that video when I hear that song, combined with the lyric that they are swimming in a sea of bacon, I picture Monsieur Mayer and random chick swimming around in this huge vat of hot greasy bacon, and they're all nasty and oily, they've got bacon in their hair, etc. And they're still in this sunny loft with a big vat o' bacon. To me, that mental image is so incongruious and hilarious, that it makes having to hear this song playing just a tiny bit bearable. But just a little. Also, I may mentally picture Mayer getting a grease burn as a punishment for writing and releasing this shitty-ass song... but maybe that's just me.

Now I'm not saying Mayer is a bad guy-- I don't know him. But from the very first song he released, I've always gotten the impression that he's... kind of full of himself. Or at least his "talent". (I read a recent interview in Rolling Stone about him, which sort of re-confirmed that in my mind). He's a pothead, too. To each their own, but when you smoke pot, you are no longer allowed to bitch about your dark undereye circles... and I know he has in the past.
Also, not to be hating on someone else with wicked under-eye circles, but he's so not hot to me. Would you tap that? Why do so many girls think he's the shit?

Did you see "The John Mayer Show"? It was like, 1 half hour that aired on VH1 a few times that I saw a few years ago, he made it himself and then VH1 aired it. Okay, so actually, it was pretty funny. But kind of mean. The synopsis (it's been at least a few years since I've seen this, so it's not very specific): he invites a bunch of his (female, swooning, admittedly not that intelligent) fans to talk with him on camera, and basically mocks them for a half hour. I laughed, sure, but I felt bad for them too. Here is a guy that they clearly worship, and he's making fun of them on national tv. That seems pretty dickish to me. Especially since he lured in the stupid female fans with sappy shit like "Your Body is a Wonderland". What kind of fans would you expect with a song like that?

Okay. Now to move onto my biggest grievance with Mr. Mayer.
So, he thinks he's this brilliant songwriter.
WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE MIXED METAPHORS?
(It's me, so you knew it had to be something dorky and grammatical, didn't you?)
I'm sure you've also heard "Bigger Than My Body," which could also be a veiled reference to a small peepee (and I also must affirm once more that I am a 12-year-old-boy in a 23-year-old girl's body).
So, lets do a refresher of the chorus, shall we?

Yes, I'm grounded
Got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded by
All this pavement
Guess I'll circle
While I'm waiting
For my fuse to dry

Are you a bird or a bomb, John Mayer? Make a choice.

It's not even so much that he has a mixed metaphor there... I mean everyone mixes a metaphor every now and then. But he shows such dedication to the bird metaphor-- it's in most of the song, and then at the end of the chorus he has a fucking fuse? He couldn't think of any word to rhyme with "by" besides "dry"? Why not fly? Hell, sty (turn into a pig), eye (in the sky), why, my, tie, shy, dye, die, high (hee hee)? Huh? It really irritates me, and it has for a while. Just in case you couldn't tell. From, you know, this entire entry.

So, John Mayer? Are you a bird or a bomb?