I think my laptop is dying.

I got a weird email:

From: M---------@aol.com
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:33:42 EST
Subject: hello registration name

hello

apparently you have the name registration for "stari"

if you are not using it

would you please release it to me?

thanks

John

I guess he wants stari.org. Funny thing is I was just writing an update for it today.

What does he mean by 'not using'?? Domains are used for more than obvious web sites. Some of us remember when the web wasn't a picture book. (Yay, Lynx!) Repeat after me: The Web Is Not The Internet.

I picked up two bags of candy on my way home. I was only getting one but I wanted to be safe, and repay all the candy I got as a kid. How else are we going to keep this tradition going of asking complete strangers for free stuff?

I'm imagining getting one kid where I can dump the entire bag into his sack, say "Happy Halloween," and turn off the light.

It doesn't work as well out of context, but quote of the day: "The Mad Hatter doesn't have a wand you stupid dumbass!"

And of course, "Nice hat" – Kermit

I tried to doodle a pumpkin, forgetting they're not lumpy all around the edges like a cloud.

There are anonymous bags of orange caramel corn at work. I didn't think I liked Carmel corn but I've eaten half a bag. Otherwise people are rather boring. There's a few orange shirts and the temp receptionist dressed up (yay!) but that's it.

I've wanted to wear my Renaissance dress to work all year, so this is just an excuse, along with my Mad Hatter hat. Tonight I'll be wearing my completely insane Mad Hatter costume to the Wet Spot, the only place I could really get away with it.

Andrew claims not to be responsible for things he does in my dreams, but I still expect cuddling-on-demand when I have a bad one.

me: you told me
Andrew: I did?
Andrew: I'm looking through our chat history, and I'm not seeing anything about that
me: you told me in the car!

Another one from Bush, Embryos Now Labeled 'Human Subjects'

Since the Cruxshadows show, nothing else has been worthy of listening to.

So now that my mom is reading my web site, how am I supposed to keep future tattoos and piercing a secret?

This is the first morning where I can see my breath in the car and the windows have to be scraped. I put another blanked on the bed last night and my bed warmer was colder than me. I slept with socks on even though it's oh-so-unsexy. I'm sure it's better than me trying to warm my feet on him. The first thing I did when I got out of bed is stand on the heater vent. In winter I time getting out of bed to the sound of the heat.

Andrew has the perfect excuse for his feelings on any weather, being Canadian and moving here from Phoenix. Just two days ago he was saying the temperature is perfect. Now he says it's perfect if he was skiing. I said it's perfect weather to be inside with a blanket and a cup of hot chocolate, or to be more authentic to Seattle, a latte.

"The Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts has given Eagle Scout Darrell Lambert about a week to decide "in his heart" if he's truly an atheist. If he insists on sticking to his belief that there is no God, the Council will terminate his membership."

Andrew and I discovered Whole Foods, the biggest organic grocery store I've seen. I'm in awe. It's like Ikea in that you can go on a date to this store.

I forget that I didn't link to the bareSquare post, so read this for context.

I joined the National Novel Writing Month and I'm wondering what have I gotten myself into? What if I run out of things to say long before 50,000 words? I can't imagine I'll ever meet the goal. You're expected to write a lot, not write well, but a definite split between story and filler doesn't' seem right either.

I'm not sure if I'm cheating or not writing a proper novel. I'm writing in the style of David Sedaris and a few others, parts of my life thinly veiled as fiction. (More specifically, see the bareSquare article.) Am I being vain thinking my life will make a good book? Does it matter since no one's going to read it?

Yes I could deal with complete strangers reading it but not people I know. Strange, but I think most writers understand this. I can't even change the names because names are such a part of who a person is.

Most of it will have to be written in a spiral notebook to be typed later. Insane.

A small job perk—I now have a three and a three and a half pound weight for my wrist exercises, actually pieces of a stainless steel bar.

Shannon and I were trying to figure out what sound penguins make, and decided they should be like Pokemon and say their own name. 'ping! ping-gwen!'

QOTD: "There's nothing wrong with snorting Prozac."

Styrdyst: i drove home!
branchstudios: whoohoo!
Styrdyst: wheee
branchstudios: how many dead?
Styrdyst: um.. two
branchstudios: not bad. you'll work your way up.
branchstudios: and there's more pedestrian s out on friday and saturday evenings

I drove home!

I tried to dye my hair 'Mystic Heather' last night but it didn't do a thing. Luckily Metro is open until midnight from now until Halloween for your late night hair dye needs. I got some real purple before the Vogue and I'm going to try putting in streaks again tonight.

I had this crazy idea of getting my redesign finished by next month since then I'll be working on the National Novel Writing Month. Tonight I have Shannon, tomorrow Andrew, and Thursday is Halloween. And I have to hope I don't look at my idea and hate it now.

I also had that same crazy idea about getting the house clean by next month.

I was excited because there was a clerical job on the sign outside of HR rather than warehouse, but it turned out to be a part time credit department thing.

It looks like I'm going to be stuck here until next year though I don't really want to think about that. It would be pointless to lose paid holidays coming up and two weeks of vacation next year. As soon as possible next year I have to put in my vacation request for Convergence.

Reading Pink Think makes me realize how ungraceful I am in everyday life. Practice getting in and out of a car in heels? How about getting in the low seat of a sports car parked on a hill while wearing heavy boots. *THUD* It's a good thing Andrew doesn't judge me on my 'daintiness'.

I want someone else to be able to meet Karla so they can tell me if she has the personality of a cheese grater or if it's just me.

I found a Hello Kitty 'shimmer set' at Bartell's Friday. It might be reinforcing gender roles but they got one thing right—girls like sparkles.

Shannon told me McDonalds is having Hello Kitty toys in their Happy Meals. Of course I won't go into a McDonalds, let alone eat their food, so I need a consumer of Happy Meals.

I checked out the web site and they're giving Hello Kitty glamour toys (oh the pink! it hurts!) to girls and Transformers to boys. Strict enforcement of gender roles, go McDonalds! I want the Transformers too and Andrew wants Hello Kitty.

I think I wanted to play with Transformers as a kid but it never occurred to me to ask for a boy toy.

What, no comment on 'I like avocados'?

Virtual Pikachu in need of loving home. Inquire within.

I'm wearing capri length leggings to the gym so I feel obligated to shave at least the bottoms of my legs.

The PowerPoint Anthology of Literature

I just found another old online friend using the web search on his name trick. I feel obligated to apologize for doing bad things with his name though:

me: i found mario
andrew: huh?
andrew: who's mario?
me: old old online friend
andrew: ah, okie
me: he saved the princess you know

Virgin recently paid compensation to Barbara Hewson in an out-of-court settlement after she sustained injuries during a flight from London to Los Angeles in January 2001, when an oversized woman sitting next to her spilled over into her seat.

CNN is a little clueless about Washington geography. There was an article about the sniper suspect which called Bellingham a suburb of Tacoma, but they seem to have fixed it before I could post it.

I like avocados.

Pink Think is another one of those books where I'd want to quote enough to violate copyright laws, so I'll stick to this sidebar she took from old books on sex:

According to the Experts: A Glossary

hermaphrodite

"A female bisexual" (Pemberton)

homosexual

"A bad boy or bad man who wants to play with the penis of another boy just to get the pleasure out of doing it." (Fr. Filas)

masturbation

"A tyrant that robs its [female] victims of the incentives and radiant energy for worthy accomplishments. . . . Oftentimes the remedy for this situation consists of a minor operation spoken of as circumcision." (Shryock)

orgasm (male)

"Takes place shortly after the penis enters the vagina" (Pemberton)

orgasm (female)

"No more essential for conception than a mink coat or a lipstick" (Davis)

penis

"The muscular organ through which [boys] urinate" (Pemberton)

sex

"Works only in marriage" (Fr. Filas)

testicles

"Hang in a pouchy sac. . . one slightly above the other for your comfort and convenience" (Pemberton)

vagina

"The female receptacle" (Fr. Filas)

I especially love that line about "for your comfort and convenience".

Ted has a bag of tube-shaped styrofoam peanuts on the wall over desk, with the label

* Cheese Puffs *
No artificial coloring
Help yourself to em!

A coworker Mike, looking at the cover of my book, says "I think therefore I am. I'm pink therefore I'm spam."

Paul was being mean to me today. He read on the cover of my book Pink Think, "Every woman with a brain should read this book" and said that means I shouldn't.

I am being such a fangirl right now.

I don't have the usual concert photos from the Cruxshadows show because my digital camera isn't recognizing its memory card. I brought my cheap film camera but I felt too obvious up front to take any pictures until the last song. Now I have to be like a normal person with a camera and wait until I use up the film.

It was dead enough being a Wednesday night that there was no problem being very front, very center. Andrew and I just walked to the stage when the lights dimmed and the thin wall of people tentavely filled in behind us. I had more dancing space than on an extra busy night at the Vogue.

No need for my new stompy boots that will be perfect for concerts, but to make up for it Rogue stepped on my foot. <fangirl>Rogue stepped on my foot... *dreamy sigh*</fangirl> I was the first one pulled onto the stage during Marilyn My Bitterness.

I meant not to miss out on getting a t-shirt this time, but since Rogue was right there signing CDs... I now have Wishfire signed by the entire band, and a hug from Rogue that's going to mess with my head. I told Michael this morning, "cute boy who hugs me in the club generally = new crush". And the realli cute violinist.

Michael at Peak: i could so take that band home with me.

Jessica sent me this ebay link for a Hello Kitty corset(!) I want it! So I guess it's a good thing I'm not the right size since I can't afford it. It shows how weird my body is shaped since from the top down, I'm too small, just right, and too big.

Cruxshadows tonight! Yesterday's posts up tomorrow.

Izzy emailed me a link, which originated from Sharon (have to keep everyone happy here) as a reason I'd want to join Livejournal—the kitty_ears community. Now I need a way to get into this thing without actually joining LJ (which I think is evil and must be avoided at all cost.) The sad thing is I could see myself updating more than my actual web journal.

Sarah and Shannon took me driving! And I didn't hit anything! While driving or parking!

I got yet more happy-clicker spam, but this one was the best yet. I got the same email twice, to stari@happy-clicker.com and allyourbasearebelongtous@happy-clicker.com. I bet those addresses were grabbed right out of this post.

I'm reading the book Pink Think and it's talking about a 60s board game called Mystery Date. It reminds me a lot of the Barbie game I played on my Commodore. Ken calls Barbie and asks her on a date, "sounds great!", and says he'll see her up in an hour. She/you then have that hour to drive around town and get the appropriate outfit and hair for the ballroom or tennis court or swimming pool. If you're late you come home to a note on the door saying 'Sorry I missed you' because Ken obviously doesn't understand that dying your hair green on the spur of the moment sometimes takes a bit longer than expected. Usually though when you come home, even on time, the phone is ringing and Ken says, "Plans have changed," and gives you a new hour-ahead plan. Instead of telling him "No, take me out now like you planned. I just bought a new outfit for this," or hanging up on him like we wanted to, she says, "Sounds great!" as many times as it takes.

Luckily money isn't an issue. I can't even imagine what her shopping budget is. Hope he's paying for dinner. Anyway, it got boring quickly, especially with Ken changing plans. The only real fun ends up being that your clothes doesn't actually matter in the end. So when you're lucky enough to hear the doorbell, you can be rewarded by a picture of Barbie next to the pool in a floor-length fur coat and purple hair.

I'm thinking about domain names:

Stari.org is the most uninteresting of the names—it's my name. But I have to have it for that reason too. At least Dotster hasn't convinced me (as hard as they try) that I need RebeccaMessa.name.

Happy-clicker, the name, came from Mindspring through Gryphon, as bad customers who click too much and go ahead (or behind, or sideways.) The label got passed on to me and was the perfect name for a site that started out for things too random for my web journal. Dotster thinks I need happy-clicker.biz.

Boingy.net is meant to be my learning site. I planned to make it into an art-for-art's-sake Flash site for learning Flash (with the disclaimer that ti's meant to be just another obnoxious art-for-art's-sake Flash site.) I also planned to host it on my computer as part of the learning aspect (so don't expect to see it live often, if at all) but now that Andrew and I are sharing hosting with PHP and all that good stuff, it might not be necessary.

deSoleil.net will be my portfolio. I still love the name. As for it being hard to spell when spoken—most domains are given in text. I wouldn't give someone happy-clicker without specifying the dash. And it can't be any worse than "stari with an 'i'".

I haven't gotten around to announcing squishymoose.com yet. It deserves its own post.

I've been compiling a list of domains that, if they don't exist, should. Squishymoose was on the list before it found a purpose.

Legospoiler.com – Andrew points out the obnoxiously modified cars and I started calling the ones with those horrible spoilers, which must come out of some kit because they all look they same and never match the car with that base metal color, lego spoilers because they look like they're attached as a lego piece. There's enough sites out there making fun of the cars, and I certainly don't need one, but someone needs to use the name.

Suicidetechies.com – Shannon misread the site Andrew was looking at as suicidetechies from across the room and we all agreed it's a great name. If I had a web comic, which will never happen, this would have to be its name.

Shinyheads.com – This one is Shannon's and I can't believe it doesn't exist. I was expecting a porn site for people with a bald head fetish, or at least a porn site. I wonder if she'd want a domain for Christmas.

I've told Paul about the gym and he asked if I'm 'pumping iron'. "Well it's more like pumping aluminum at this point."

Too many people immediately jump to the idea of freak-of-nature muscle magazine women when they hear "strong woman" and that's what scares so many of us away. You don't get to that extreme without spending eight hours a day trying, and probably steroids! The end of Woman: An Intimate Geography talked about how incredibly important it is for us to get strong. This girl I saw at the gym working with a trainer had such beautifully shaped arms—that's exactly how I want to look.

On the bulletin board at work is a newspaper clipping of local events: The Association of Women in the Metal Industries.

me: i want to be strong
bikepoet: i don't think girls should be strong though.. it makes them unsexy

Make your own Bush speech!

There was a new Men's Health magazine in the break room at work. I like looking through men's magazines with a 'What are they teaching the other side?' sort of curiosity. The front listed an article, 'How to _____ a naked woman'. The word was covered up with the label. So I had to find this one... How to feed a naked woman! – Good breakfasts to make a woman once you have her in bed. I *like* this idea.

This is another one of those days at work where people must think, 'Hmm... Karla's working on stuff and Rebecca isn't. Let's give Karla more work!'

I've hit the time of year where I can't wear my kitty ears. From now until the end of the month people are going to say I'm early for Halloween. Next months it's going to be, "Halloween is over."

Some new people just moved in next door and we're hearing lots of voices so I'm guessing there's a housewarming party. Shannon and I think we should invite ourselves in.

I got a catalog from Northern Sun in the mail which says, "Last chance! Place an order and continue to receive our catalog. If you don't order, this will be your last catalog." I've never seen this catalog before in my life! What's worse is there's a lot of interesting stuff in it and they might convince me to order after all. (Of course I remember how these catalogs work and they give you lots of last chances.)

I went to the birthday party at Andrew and Izzy's apartment last night with Shannon so we could hide behind each other. There was a big red X of ribbon over Andrew's door, so when I went in there first thing to drop off my stuff I was just waiting for someone to tell me I wasn't allowed. (Shannon pointed out that anyone with the power to say things like that would already know better.) We spent half the party hiding together in the room which counts as being social, because going off in a room with someone always counts at a party.

I got another call about my resume. This one turned out to be part time so that's no good, but at least I'm getting response. I hope this doesn't mean I'm destined to do clerical work for the rest of my life.

The scary one at work handed out plastic leaves for us to decorate with. Everyone around me says how wonderful fall. I guess it's alright as a season but it gets a bad name in my mind because it's leading into winter.

I made it through a night at the Wet Spot without any weird old* guys trying to dance with me. [*Weird: We just met and I certainly don't know you well enough. *Old: Too old to even consider dating you] This seems to happen to me all the time there. Last time the guy may have gotten the hint and tried to dance right next to me instead.

More proof that I'm not a real girl:
It's pretty much known that I don't bother with makeup most of the time. I see it as another part of playing adult dress-up, fun but not an every day event. So last night I had eyeliner too heavy in parts. I tried to use a piece of wet toilet paper to clean it off but some had gotten into my eye and collected in that spot in the corner of my eye where things collect. I ended up smearing that all over and then doing it again as I tried to clean it up. I decided there was no way to fix things without starting all over, and washed it all off right in time for Izzy to show up.

More proof that I am a real girl:
I told Izzy I wanted flowers and he brought me some. Getting a guy to bring you flowers when you're mad at him is an inherently girl trait. Getting a guy to bring you flowers without telling him to is a talent beyond me though.

More proof that I'm not a real girl
I ran around for a bit not knowing what to do with the flowers when I got them, and finally left them on the kitchen counter knowing that Jason would find them and find a place to put them.

With all the kid's fundraisers I wonder why no one has Girl Scouts. Notice: I WOULD BUY GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!

The awful green soap is back at work. It smells like cheap candy, like green Neco wafers, and has gritty stuff in it to clean grease, while at the same time not really feeling like it cleans. I'm considering anonymously putting some liquid hand soap in the bathroom.

The trainer at the gym did mean things to me yesterday so now I can barely lift my arms.

I'm stealing this link from Zannah, but it has relevance here. You can't change your name to a '?'.

Jason (Indiana one) called me tonight. I still think it's weird that I get calls from my first boyfriend, but...

I hadn't put a link from here to this post on bareSquare, but now it's weird that these happened so close. Of course, if there's any time of the year I'm going to be thinking about Trent, it's October. We met at a haunted house being put together.

Anyway, Jason did a sweet thing... He told me he took the poem to Trent's grave and read it to him, and left a copy. This is the kind of thing I've wanted to be able to do myself, or at least have done.

I may have made a mistake on my way to the gym this evening. This guy started talking to me ("Do you work at Borders?") and pretty much followed me all the way there. I mentioned the Vogue when he asked what I do, so he may end up showing up there, and this guy looks like he has definite puppy potential. He touched me a couple times which I couldn't tell if was accidental or "accidental".

I'm so glad we're in the age of email. It feels so much less risky than exchanging phone numbers.

I started thinking about the notebooks I use to carry, around the Michael/MICA era, and a couple years after. I think it bothered my mom that I spent so much time writing in notebooks but now I wish I ever wrote as much as I used to. It's fun flipping through the old ones I still have laying around. The pages alternate between notes from five different classes, poetry scribbles, and stream of consciousness writing.

So the last time I talked to my dad he had gotten a cell phone and thinks that I should have one too. He'll probably stay stuck on this idea (talked about getting me one for Christmas) because he thinks it's a good toy, even though it'd really be a waste of money for either of us to pay for. I want to convince him instead that I need a PDA, with actual reason. Besides the big notebooks, I'm always trying to organize a bunch of small ones to keep track of things away from the computer. I want to keep track of what I spend, what I eat, books I want to read, and have an exercise journal. I can even keep track of phone numbers that would go in my imaginary cell phone.

I really am liking this gym thing. Unlike other people I've heard who don't like it for this reason, I like having the structure of a place to go just to exercise, with everything I need.
I like that it's convenient on my way home from work (or to work if I was ever that crazy.)
I like that I can walk in and walk out in the same clothes, but have gotten sweaty and cleaned off in between.
And that my membership came with free sessions with a trainer so I won't start off lost.
And the women's area so I won't be intimidated by big muscular men.
And that I haven't really seen any intimidating men.
And the club being neither empty or overrun whenever I've been there.

And unlike Andrew, paying for this every month will be an incentive for me to go.

I knew this would happen—as soon as I join a gym and become commited to this excersise thing, my candy I ordered from Tom's kid's fundraiser came in. But, mmm... white chocolate peanut butter cups.

Michael is coming to visit me over Thanksgiving weekend!! I've been telling people for years that they have to come to Seattle and now someone finally is. It's weird how much we've both changed since we knew each other at MICA, but changed in many of the same directions. He wants to go to the Vogue with me.

Now I have to figure out where to put him. Jason says, "There's always the couch."
"But he'll be bigger than the couch."
"Oh, he's a big guy?"
"No, it's a small couch!"

I was thinking of the leopard print pillow and Jason was thinking of the papasan chair, but neither would make a good sleeping spot.

And if there isn't a book called "The Care and Feeding of Vegans" there should be.

My sore throat is pretty much gone by this morning so I think I'm okay.

Izzy says Thursday. I've been trying not to be too bitter and assume he'll cancel on me for a third time, while at the same time not counting on him. It's was looking promising so far. This morning I woke up with a bad sore throat.

Jason says I can have a Serval!

Here's what I need to get Andrew for Christmas, a Lego harpsichord.

I've seen some administrative jobs that require experience with scheduling, appointments and travel. I started thinking you don't know scheduling until you've tried to manage a polyamorous relationship. I suppose it'd take just the right interviewer to explain this to.

I got two responses to my resume last night which meant two companies I had to try to call from work today. The first left a message on my voice mail about an interview but didn't even tell me the name of the company! ("...position in our firm in downtown Seattle") At least it told me it was one of the data entry jobs. Then for some reason my phone at work couldn't call their number. It has problems with certain numbers and not others. I ended up having to call from a pay phone on my break.

The other company I had to call three times before someone had time to talk to me. The three women I talked to all had the same accent, how confusing! This seems to be another temp agency in Bellevue who wants me to go in for three hours of testing, so I don't think I'll bother with them. But the other, I'm trying to schedule an interview after work.

My feminist reading habits must have rubbed off on Paul and he bought a book (which he's letting me borrow) called They Used to Call Me Snow White... But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor. It's mostly interesting, often funny, but there were some places I thought the idea of a joke not being funny if you have to explain it applied. Humor isn't explainable if you have to explain it?

At the beginning I had to check the date the book was written (1991). It didn't seem to be written about the kind of women I know of today. Women don't laugh and tell jokes in front of men? (This being the main idea of the book, and that we should learn to.) Then I remembered that boyfriends and guy friends don't fall in the same category as men. (I just know someone's going to misinterpret this sentence too.)

I was telling Andrew all about the book last night before we started talking about other things, such as the trouble with character movement in Earth & Beyond. I said the tables just get in the way and I'll get stuck trying to get around a chair, "just like in real life!" Immediately I caught myself. The book says that women often use self-depreciating humor. If there's anything about myself that I tend to joke about, it's clumsiness, to the point that I've probably made it seem more so than it is, even to myself.

There was another entire chapter on women's sexual humor. Much of it is supposed to be from the idea that women want oral sex and men don't provide it. (I'm still not sure if this is just a myth or if I'm really lucky.) Anyway, this one joke seems to have stuck in with me. (credited to Truly Tasteless Jokes by the book.)

Little Red Riding Hood goes out into the forest, but this time she's hiding a .44 in her package of goodies, ready for action. The wolf follows her into the woods and grabs her from behind. "Now that I've got you I'm going to fuck you until dawn," he growls. But Little Red Riding Hood pulls out the .44, holds it to his head and announces calmly, "No you're not. You're going to eat me like the story said."

The whole essence of girl for me right now is coming down to the soft feel of her upper arm.

I sat on the back seat facing forward on the bus so it was easy to observe someone in front of me, sitting sideways, without really trying to observe.

He pulled out a laptop that looked so light it must be a toy. Mine wouldn't have flipped out of a bag so easily. Then I remembered that his must be new, and mine isn't.

Then he had something dark and folded on his lap that I realized was a tie when he buttoned his top shirt button. Seattle's a very casual city, maybe too casual according to some study or another, so it's been a long time since I've seen a tie so close. It's been long enough to have been looking at it out of context. Women have suffered through some horrible fashion ideas but we get over them. (Well, high heels are still around.) So how do men still accept being told they have to (flip collar up) tie a piece of fabric around their neck (flip collar down) so the ends can flop down your front?

Then once the tie was adjusted perfectly—he seemed used to doing this by feel—he played Solitaire on the laptop.

I have to keep reminding myself that I have two whole days left to go.

Our future chairman of the Food and Drug Administration panel on women's health policy is going to be a very scary person to have in that position. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/09/opinion/09DOWD.html?ex=1035198528&ei=1&en=94d507e911dba9e9

He says he prefers not to prescribe contraceptives to single women, but will if they insist and reject his advice to abstain.

He says he does not do abortions, will not prescribe RU-486 and will not insert IUD's. "I am pro-life," he says. "I believe sex outside of marriage is a sin. But I am not against medication. The fact that I'm a person of faith does not deter me from also being a person of science."

But unlike C. Everett Koop, who did not let his evangelical beliefs influence his work as surgeon general, Dr. Hager has written that it is "dangerous" to compartmentalize life into "categories of Christian truth and secular truth."

I thought it would be interesting to try to diagram a poly relationship, but I think I got confused without labels and connected Andrew to Steel.

Your Evil Spleen: You're like a cute, adorable evil, you know, the kind that you just sort of look at and go, "It's soooooooooooooooooooo cute, but evil."

Your Evil Spleen: You never quote me anymore, I am as left out as Jesus on swinger night.
Styrdyst: it's because you don't say one thing that's quotable by itself
Your Evil Spleen: Ah, but I bet when I become famous after a few books, you'll package all of these chats and publish them for money right? ;)

Quote of the night, "Random Candadianess is good."

Orchestra horrified to find porn on its CD

I've decided to lower the frustration level in my life by reducing the Jake content.

Irony of the day: reading an article on how to dress for work while lacing up my new tall boots.

Karla was back today so it's back to counting down the hours starting at 8:15, 8:30 when I'm out of work. *Why* did they hire two of us for one job?

I think Karla hordes the orders somehow. Besides always getting in before me and starting five minutes early so she always has a stack while I'm left with three (if I notice she always writes it off... "I just grabbed... *shrug*.. whatever.. *shrug* you know *gesture* *shrug*") whenever I come back from a break or lunch she has another stack that she'll work through for ten minutes. I know we're not that busy! And I always have things caught up.

This site, about-face.org is a good one if you care about offensive advertising.

I know Andrew warned me not to get talked into buying a car when I looked at a gym, but I ended up joining a gym.

Karla was out sick today so I had the job to myself. It was crazy busy but I don't have time to hate my job that way. Maybe if it was always like this I wouldn't be so desperate to leave.

Gillian Anderson Almost Naked & Eating Pie

It's Women's History Month in Canada!

Here's another bad thing in the world that by Jake logic you shouldn't bother to do anything about, like send in the letter they've already written for you. Of course knowing it bothers people, by Jake logic, will only make stoning a woman to death a more effective punishment. Now no one will dare to think of having a baby out of marriage.

I think a fun game would be Guess the Prescription Drug Commercial. The one I saw at lunch had people playing outside. Allergy? Herpes? It was for asthma medicine. Should've known—no flowers (allergy) or beach (herpes). I think there's a law that all embarrassing products (douches, herpes med) must be discusses while walking on the beach.

I've had the problem before of not being able to post something and ruin a surprise, but I didn't expect it to happen with my mom.

Another fundraiser booklet was going around work. I was looking through and there was a separate booklet of all flower bulbs inside. I've wanted flowers for the yard and I ordered $50 of bulbs. Black tulips, assorted tulips, red tulips that I'll send to my mom for Christmas (if she reads this she can tell me if it's a horrible idea), a weird variety of tulip, and daffodils which are always my favorite when they bloom because they are the essence of spring.

The deli-mart by work closed down quite a few months ago, the notice on the door saying because of the light rail. It's been sitting empty until just this week that it's now being torn down. I wonder what it's like to be the owner of this place and watch this.

I forgot to post, mostly due to not posting at all, that Andie gave me a book! From Girls to Grrrlz, History of Girl Comics from Teens to Zines

There's a petition to rename the movie The Two Towers because this guy thinks it's "clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center" There's actually note from PetitionOnline itself pointing out that the book was named in 1954.

Looks like someone liked Andrew's idea –

An Iraqi vice president offered a unique solution to the U.S.-Iraq standoff: a duel between George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.

It's almost like we're married. Andrew is picking me up some cottage cheese, and had to call me from the store on his cell phone to find out exactly which one.

An email from Shannon:

The latest XBox commercial shows a self defense class practicing their moves on a man in a padded suit. Then he flashes to game, the text is "Target your enemies, then make them yours" The he flashes back to the room and all of the women are on the ground in pain.
I'm sending Microsoft a complaint at (425) 882-8080, which is the phone number of their corporate offices and if I can find a viable e-mail address on their website, I'll send a message in too.

It's official: housework makes you depressed

Now our country is encouraging the people of Iraq to kill Saddam Hussein. I like Andrew's idea that they should respond with their own propaganda about killing Bush.

I had to remind Andrew not to run over my co-workers this morning. I guess it's a trade-off—he gets me to work in less than ten minutes so there's bound to be casualties.

On second thought, losing a few co-workers wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I posted on bareSquare, why everything wrong in the country comes down to a bag of Cheetos today.

I feel guilty for hating my job so much. I read books like Nickle & Dimed and watched the documentary based on the book, (no matter how bad the situation, they all sounded so hopeful) and I wonder where I get the idea that I deserve better. Where do I get the idea that I deserve anything?

I applied for a job last night. *A* job because it took me three hours to write an entire cover letter, but it's progress.