Ego! Ego! Ego!: Pure Ego! Archives

January 13, 2010

Linkage: New Commandments

Man, I've been quiet. Things are crazybusy in meatspace, and Twitter relieves my frequent urge to share stupid little crap, so... yeah. Quiet. But that's why we have RSS, right?

I do, however, want to log on here briefly to share this: Irshad Manji's blog and specifically her entry on Dana Gallagher's new version of the Ten Commandments. They are:

I: Love yourself unconditionally.

II: Love others unconditionally.

III: Don’t confuse loving with shoving.

IV: Corruption happens.

V: Keep your laws on your own naughty bits.

VI: Challenge the “bros before hoes” approach to religion.

VII: Be not afraid of scientists.

VIII: Polar bears are God’s creatures, too.

IX: Keep your candle lit.

X: Know when to be humble.

Read the full entry for commentary on each one. Good stuff.

Thanks to Dad for the link!

File under: Political Schtuff, Pure Ego!
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December 11, 2009

Umloud! Also, surgery update

Wednesday was Umloud, a Rock Band fundraiser for Child's Play. It was epic win.

The highlight of the evening for me (besides playing Boston's "Rock 'n Roll Band" on the main stage with Twon, Tim, and Witwix) was winning this in the silent auction:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 30, 2009

NaNoWriMo 2009: COMPLETE

It's over!

I finished. 50,040 is my final official wordcount. There was a last-minute kerfluffle when the NaNoWriMo official verifying wordcounter totally disagreed with the one in Open Office and I had to scrounge up another 900 words, but whatever.

I FINISHED.

In spite of knee surgery and seasonal affective disorder and work being crazy and and and. WOOOO!

I am considering printing the book out for burning purposes, but whatever. It's not National Good Novel Writing Month.

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 25, 2009

Post-Surgery Update!

As previously noted, I had knee surgery this week! Woo! It went really well. The surgery was at Precision SurgiCenter, which was kind of a trip. Very fast, very efficient. But it was surreal to go to a normal-looking office building for my surgery!

Everyone was really nice, and my anesthesiologist was this awesome Navy guy who was very low key. He was also burly and scruffy, and looked pretty hilarious in scrubs. He did a great job. I don't even remember the facemask -- he gave me something he called "a martini to take the edge off" as soon as I was on the surgery table, and it made everything kind of floaty, and then I was waking up afterward.

Dr. J said that when he checked under my kneecaps everything looked good, and that after he made the incisions for the release my kneecaps started tracking better immediately. So yay! They had me bundled up and ready to go pretty quickly, and I came home and slept most of the rest of the day. The only hitch so far is that the Vicodin prescription Dr. J gave me totally did NOT cut it once the morphine shots wore off. But now I have a prescription for something called Norco and am doing much better. Yay! I even managed to eat some real food for dinner. So not too bad overall.

I have little exercises to do already, mostly to do with preventing blood clots and encouraging range of motion. Those kind of suck, but post-surgery physical therapy usually does.

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 11, 2009

Insectoid Horror

One of the most horrifying things I was exposed to in college (aside from the ordinary horrors like unrequited love and having to maintain a 3.5 GPA) was a disgusting kind of insect-looking THING which I frequently saw on one of the walkways around campus. Imagine, if you will, a hornet, with no wings and no stinger, but pale, like a grub. Two inches long or so.

Now imagine, if you will, coming upon this thing at NIGHT, while it wriggles futilely on the cement before you.

I'll wait while you get your stomach churning under control.

Well, I encountered them regularly for all four years I was at college. I never figured out what they were because I tried to pretend they didn't exist (as much as you can do that while muttering "ew ew ew!" and carefully not stepping on them, anyway).

Today, however, I tracked them down.

Potato bugs. Also known as Jerusalem crickets. Here, for the brave and the strong of stomach, is a link to a photo taken in Valencia, LA, not toooooo far from where I went to school. DO NOT CLICK THIS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

The ones I saw were paler than that, and smaller. Possibly immature ones?

I have now seen enough photos of potato bugs to hold me for life, thank you. The one good thing to come out of this (aside from the pleasure of knowing wtf to call those monstrosities) is that I found this hilarious FAQ (no photos on that page, but the rest of the site has more pix) about them. A must-read.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 13, 2009

Time flies

Two years ago today, I woke up a married woman for the first time. Holy crap.

It doesn't feel like two years, at least in part because Twon and I aren't all that big on anniversaries (except our zeroth-date anniversary, but we cheat because it's the big Thank God It's Over party for NaNo, so the party's thrown for us). I still haven't finished sorting all the photos we got from our friends and photographers, let alone put them in an album like I planned.

They say time flies when you're having fun, maybe that's why. I'm still as crazy in love with Twon as I was the day we got married. Best. Husband. Ever. /comic book guy.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 05, 2009

Skillz

Dianne Sylvan blogged a list of her skills/talents over the weekend, and challenged her readers to do the same:

Here are some of the things I can do, from the awesome to the silly. Sit down and make your own list--what are your talents? Your skills? What can you do, either through innate ability or acquired learning?

This is a pretty keen idea, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 25, 2009

WTF, Internets?

OK, so I haven't posted in... uh... like two and a half weeks. WTF?

It's not that I haven't had stuff to post about. See my Twitter stream. I think it's just that I haven't felt especially moved to post anything.

Well, that all ends today.

I present: CHIBI WATCHMEN!

So insanely cute. Seriously. Be sure to read all the pages of All Aboard the Owlship.

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 09, 2009

Ow.

Cinequest kicked my butt this year. I was dealing with some non-movie-reviewing crap and my head just wasn't in the game. I still had a great time, though, and am really looking forward to next year. Cinequest 20 should be badass. It sounds like they're planning something big to celebrate the double-decade anniversary.

Antwon sometimes says that Cinequest is like a NaNoWriMo that only I do, and he's so right. I just vanish into movies for at least a month -- I start watching screeners and writing about them as soon as I can get the PR folks to hand 'em over. It's so fun, but my God, it's exhausting.

At least now I can recouperate in preparation for next year.

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 27, 2009

2008 Book Wrap-up

Somewhat belated, a list of the books I read last year!

1. Surviving a Borderline Parent
   
2. Mossad Exodus
   
3. The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre
   
4. Deja Dead
   
5. Healing the Child Within
   
6. Women, Work, And Autoimmune Disease
   
7. Rain Fall
   
8. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, Vol. 1
   
9. Agents of Light and Darkness
   
10. Science Fiction Omnibus
    
11. Iron Man (movie novelization)
    
12. Califia's Daughters
    
13. Making Money
    
14. Sandman: The Dream Hunters
    
15. Swordspoint
    

Fifteen. Not bad! But not great. One of my goals for this year is to finish more books than last year. (I'd aim for 52 like Elke but I am too fond of dense nonfiction and too short on time for reading to make that goal actually happen.) I still have my requirement in place that I'm not allowed to buy new books until I'm down to 180 books in my unread category (and once I get there, after one book-buying splurge, I have to get down to 160!). Exceptions are made for my collections, though -- Pratchett and Gorey in particular. And for classes. And books I'm given or which I get for free also don't count.

Anybody want to bet I won't see 180 any time soon?

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 20, 2009

Excitement at the Apartment

Today at lunch, I went out to run errands. One of the errands was picking up Mauser's meds, which have to be refrigerated. I dropped by the apartment to drop them off, and while I was there, I noticed someone's smoke alarm was going off. I didn't think anything of it, because I set ours off cooking pretty regularly.

But it was still going off once I'd finished everything and was ready to head out, so I thought, "I'll go find out whose it is and help them turn it off, maybe they don't know what to do."

I ran all over our stupid building and finally find the apartment -- on the third floor, pant pant!. I pounded on the door but nobody answered.

Then I smelled the smoke.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 05, 2009

Aikido and Feminism

Good grief, I've been quiet, haven't I?

Well, if you've been watching my Flickr stream, you know I passed my brown belt test. Tons of pix here. While I was testing, I thought I was doing terribly, but I'm always my own worst critic.

I also recently sent a link to one of my favorite essays on feminism of all time to a young woman on a message board where I occasionally hang out. She had, much to my dismay, said that she was not a feminist in a post espousing the idea that men and women are equal! So I sent her Yes, You Are, by the brilliant and hilarious Sars of TomatoNation. Here's a taste:

The definition of feminism does not ask for two forms of photo ID. It does not care what you look like. It does not care what color skin you have, or whether that skin is clear, or how much you weigh, or what you do with your hair. You can bite your nails, or you can get them done once a week. You can spend two hours on your makeup, or five minutes, or the time it takes to find a Chapstick without any lint sticking to it. You can rock a cord mini, or khakis, or a sari, and you can layer all three. The definition of feminism does not include a mandatory leg-hair check; wax on, wax off, whatever you want. If you believe in, support, look fondly on, hope for, and/or work towards equality of the sexes, you are a feminist.

Yes, you are.

I don't make New Year's Resolutions anymore, but if I did, I'd probably include "to fight abuse and misuse of the word "feminist" wherever I find it."

Aikido and feminism are definitely connected for me. One of the reasons I'm so proud to have reached brown belt is that I'm one of only two women with this rank in my dojo. We have no higher-ranked women, either. The idea of a woman attaining high rank in a martial art -- even one as pacifist as Aikido -- is so unusual in our society that we have very few women at the dojo at all. There are a handful of teen gals who train, but most of them will probably go the way of other teen gals who trained there -- off to college, and off the mat.

Continued...

File under: Aikido, Feminism, Pure Ego!
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November 30, 2008

NaNo 2008 = DONE

I made it! In spite of having to write 5k+ each of the last three days, I DID IT! WOO HOO!

Can't type much more, my wrists are dead. Will update my various badges tomorrow.

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 10, 2008

I had a plate around here somewhere...

So, why am I behind on blogging and on my NaNo novel?

Here's what I have on my plate for the next month and a half:

- Try to nurse one of my beloved cats through what looks to be kidney failure (he's been getting subcutaneous fluids every other day since the beginning of last week, we're retesting his kidney levels on Wednesday)
- Test for Brown Belt (nikyu, test date is Nov 22 OMFG THAT IS IN JUST OVER A WEEK AUGH!)
- Host Thanksgiving
- Finish my NaNo Novel
- Officiate at the wedding of one of my oldest friends
- Do Christmas shopping
- Write Christmas newsletter
- Do Christmas baking (or decide not to do it, which would kind of suck)
- And, of course, work -- my full-time day job as well as my reviews and my one remaining tutoring student (though it looks like she may finally be leaving the nest after this semester!)

Every year around this time, I mutter that next year will be different! Next year I will make sure to have enough time for myself to actually relax and enjoy the holidays.

HAH!

File under: Pure Ego!
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October 15, 2008

Help Ealasaid raise money for the Office of Letters and Light!

Some of you will have already seen this in my blog/Facebook/Twitter/MySpace/whatever, but hey, cast a broad net, right?

Short version:
I'm raising money for the Office of Letters and Light, the folks who put on National Novel Writing Month (and loads of other fantastic creativity-encouraging programs) every year. Please donate! Even just $5 would be fantastic.

Sponsor me here.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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September 17, 2008

Publishing panel

Check it out! I'm going to be speaking on a panel about publishing! I'm looking forward to meeting the other speakers, and I think it will be a nifty evening. There are still spaces, so if you're interested, register and come check it out!

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 25, 2008

Happy Anniversary to Us!

So, Antwon and I had our first anniversary on 5/12. Woo hoo! We decided to buy ourselves a new TV for an anniversary present. After much research and info-gathering, we decided on a 50" plasma from Costco (big brand name only, not Vizio or anything). It turned out to be quite an ordeal to get it - it almost didn't fit in the truck, for one thing:

But we got it home and managed to get it all set up and everything. WOO HOO! Behold, the old setup and the new:

I gotta say, the XBox graphics are ASTONISHINGLY AWESOME on it. Also, it is probably too big for our apartment, but we don't expect to live here forever so we bought a TV the right size for when we get a house. Woo.

File under: Pure Ego!
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April 25, 2008

Review of The Forbidden Kingdom posted

Go read! You know you want to. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 10, 2008

An Exercise in Vanity

Self-Googling is fun. :) Places I found my name today:

• David-Strathairn.com
  
• A review of The Libertine, which calls my thesis "fascinating, and surprisingly easy to read"
  
• Holesinmyshoes.com, where my review of the film is quoted.
  
• A beautiful writeup about Antwon's and my wedding by my sensei, who officiated.
  
• The wikipedia entry on the Earl of Rochester

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 05, 2008

Birbigs is coming!

Mike Birbiglia is coming to SF! Twon and I got tix, and I am psyched.

Cracker, Please!


Prez. Bush = Wiffleball Tony

Wanna come with? There's no assigned seating, just get tix yourself and ping us to say you're coming.

I am so tempted to get this shirt and wear it to the show and get him to sign it, but I think that's a little fangirly, even for me.

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 27, 2008

Books books books

See my booklog update. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 12, 2008

When I grow up, I want to be...

Layer asked, "so... what did you want to do [when you grew up]? and if it isn't what you're doing now, why not?"

I have a tote bag which reads, "When all the little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I wanted to be a vampire."

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 18, 2008

2007 Mix

My mix for 2007 is done! WOO! Now I just have to burn CDs for them as want 'em. As usual, my rules for this were a lot looser than the ones some of my friends use. For a song to merit inclusion in my 2007 mix, it must:

• Have come to my attention one way or another in 2007.
• Have been played over and over by me, or at least gotten stuck in my head a couple times or otherwise made itself really known to me during 2007 (a bunch of this year's songs are in Guitar Hero III and/or Rock Band (the two games have a fair amount of overlap).

It's kind of a weird mix. Weirder than usual for me, even. Track list below...

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 02, 2008

2007 in Review

The thought of trying to sum up 2007 thoroughly is rather intimidating. So, here is a Mayfly (found the concept via Rich):

January - May: Wedding.
Wonderful honeymoon.
Back to regular life: job, Aikido, fibromyalgia, knitting, spirituality, cats ...
Family reunion.
Family drama.
Fake guitar games are awesome.

File under: Pure Ego!
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Happy New Year!

I don't make New Years Resolutions anymore -- I realized a while back that they invariably turn from a list of Things I Will Do! into a list of Things I Didn't Do And Now Feel Bad About. And I don't need more things to feel bad about. Does anyone?

I do like New Years, though. I'm an order-minded sort of person, and thus I like neat and tidy boundaries and the order of things not yet done. New blank books. Fresh reams of paper. A new year. There's the smell of possibility in the air. The smell of hope.

So no resolutions for me, this year, but good wishes to all.

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 20, 2007

How odd

The above photo has 1600 views on Flickr. My next most-viewed pic has almost 500 views (it's this crazy shot of Twon). What is it about those stickers that makes people want to view the photo? Is it that they want to enlarge it so they can read them? What's the deal?

Crazy.

Also crazy: my third-most-viewed shot is this one of me doing a makeup test for my Judy Nails costume. It's only five views behind the shot of Twon.

WTF, people. Srsly.

File under: Geekiness, Pure Ego!
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October 25, 2007

ReadyMade magazine

Hey, readers!

I get to give a gift subscription of ReadyMade magazine away when I renew this year.

The first person to reply to this post (here on my blog! Doing it in the LJ feed doesn't count, sorry) gets the subscription.

Don't say I never gave ya anything. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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October 14, 2007

ROCK BAND

Check out what we did this weekend!!!!

We hit up the Rock Band tour, wooo! Twon's writeup is here. Rawk. Good times. Am now thoroughly psyched up for the actual release of the game next month.

File under: Geekiness, Pure Ego!
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September 19, 2007

Woo

Have finally booklogged Harry Potter 7.

File under: Pure Ego!
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September 18, 2007

Heh. Careers!

EDITED TO ADD: Turns out this meme is using a nonprofit's login for the site. I've heard from friends that the login has stopped working, so hopefully the nonprofit has changed their password. Sigh. Wish I'd known sooner.

Hmmm...
1. Go to http://www.careercruising.com/
2. Log in as xxxxxx with password xxxxxx
3. Take the Career Matchmaker quiz and list the top 10 results

My results:

1. Technical Writer
   
2. Political Aide
   
3. Activist
   
4. Writer
   
5. Critic
   
6. Public Policy Analyst
   
7. Communications Specialist
   
8. Translator
   
9. Print Journalist
   
10. Market Research Analyst
    

I am already a Tech Writer, so that works. And I do writing and activism as hobbies. I write movie reviews, which combines being a critic with being a print journalist. Not bad.

Amusingly, after refining by answering questions, I got:

1. Technical Writer
   
2. Market Research Analyst
   
3. Writer
   
4. Website Designer
   
5. Web Developer
   
6. Political Aide
   
7. Artist
   
8. Video Game Developer
   
9. Archivist
   
10. Computer Programmer
    

I think this is a pretty good matchmaker, overall. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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Yay! Headache answers!

Well, as of yesterday we have a plausible explanation for my stupid headache. Yay!

Basically, I have a major case of estrogen dominance going on right now, probably because I changed my birth control methods earlier this year (going off the pill can often lead to estrogen . My estrogen levels are high and my progesterone levels are low. This may also explain why I've put on weight and been feeling fairly crummy.

So I'm on a program to raise my progesterone (via supplements) and lower my estrogen (through diet and supplements). Here's hoping I'll see results shortly.

File under: Pure Ego!
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September 10, 2007

So, Ealasaid...

...what did you do this weekend?" I hear you ask.

That's what I did this weekend. I baked cookies with the awesome mixer my hardware team coworkers bought Antwon and moi for our wedding. It is an absolutely awesome mixer (a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer, in black) and performed beautifully. And the Wilton Ultra II Cookie Press Twon and I got a few weeks ago did great (once I got used to it). I turned out five batches of spritz cookies for the bake sale we're having at work, and set aside a big plate for my team peeps. Now my back muscles are sore. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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September 04, 2007

Woooooo

Aaaaaaah. I spent Labor Day Weekend doing what the holiday was designed for: resting from my labors.

The month of August was a packed one - I spent every single weekend doing something, and two of those weekends were spent out of town. I was on my last legs. In fact, I managed to piss my body off so badly that it gave me an all-over case of hives (probably the result of an antibiotic course I'm on for H. pylori).

So, three days to laze around doing nothing were exactly what I needed. Twon and I watched down the TiVo, watched two Netflix discs (Hot Fuzz and Season 5 Disc 2 of News Radio), and generally were lazy bums. It was fantastic.

Now I'm diving back into the workaday world with a to-do list as long as my arm. Wheee! Also, it's the South Bay Blogger Meetup tonight. Excitement!

File under: Pure Ego!
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July 23, 2007

Ah, the trials of being a purist

The new Harry Potter book came out this weekend.

I don't have it yet.

Why?

Because I'm a purist, and only read the UK editions. I ordered mine from Canada (which saves me money on shipping). If I lived in Canada, they would have shipped it to arrive on the 21st. But I live here, so they shipped it ON the 21st. It should arrive by Friday, with luck.

Fingers: crossed.

File under: Pure Ego!
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July 06, 2007

z0mg

One of my photos got picked to be in the SFSchmap! Squee!

I feel like a Real Photographer (tm) now.

File under: Pure Ego!
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July 05, 2007

Fire!

Fire near work today. The excitement never ends! I took a ton of pix, starting here.

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 06, 2007

Misc

- Twon summarizes the Honeymoon

- Lesson learned: when dealing with a migraine, wait until after the meds have worn off before trying out your shiny new mandoline.

- Another lesson learned: It is possible to create a pressure bandage of sorts with two bandaids and some sports tape.

(It's not a bad cut, I just sliced my thumb so there's a flap of skin trying to hang off. It's doing a lot better already, although I'm having to learn how to use my other thumb on the spacebar because it hurts to use the cut one, grrr.)

- The Book Of Biff is a moderately amusing webcomic. I like it.

Thank you, that is all for now.

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 04, 2007

Roadtrip Retrospective

A few stats:

• Days: 16 (not counting the piddly little first day where we only drove up to Placerville).
• Miles driven: 6,161 in first car; 2,551in second car. 8,712 total.
• Lowest elevation point reached: 282 feet below sea level.
• Highest elevation point reached: 10,600 feet above sea level.
• States touched: 22 if you count CA (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Kentucky, Tennesee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona).
• Highest temperature noted: 115 F
• Mazda RX-8s seen: 7.
• Vasectomy reversal billboards seen: 7.
• Family members visited/seen: 16, in 4 cities
• Internet peeps visited: 5, in 4 cities.
• Longest day of driving: about 14.5 hours
• Shortest day of driving: about 6 hours.

I'm going to do up a map of our route, but here's a list of the cities/destinations we hit, in the order we hit 'em:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 02, 2007

Day ... aw forget it, I haven't been updating every day anyway.

Things are going great! We stayed with my grandmother last night in St. George, UT and are now at the Luxor in Las Vegas. Rawk. I'm in the process of uploading more photos, but the best ones from the Grand Canyon are a huge panorama which I'll have to paste together when we get home on Sunday. Whee!

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 30, 2007

Day Twelve: Las Cruces, NM to Albuquerque, NM

Not much to report except that the high desert is dry, dry, dry, pretty, and dry. Oh, and I uploaded a whole crapload of photos from the last few days. Check it out.

File under: Pure Ego!
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Day Eleven: Austin, TX to Las Cruces, NM

Man, we had a DAY today! We let ourselves sleep in a bit as we'd stayed up hella late last night hanging out with our host (another ScoreHero dude), then hit a Jiffy Lube before getting rolling. See, the car had been bitching a bout needings its oil changed, and we couldn't get a hold of any of the local Budget offices because of the stupid holiday weekend.

Well, all was fine and good until we were cruising along I-10 in the late afternoon and starting to think we should buy gas. A guy passed us and made weird "OMG YOU ARE BLOWING UP!" gestures. We were kind of confused - there were no weird lights, smells, etc. going on. So, we decided to stop at the next rest area - where we found the guy who'd passed us! He told us that our car had been billowing smoke from the undercarriage. We popped the hood and discovered there was oil EVERYWHERE. A quick check of our oil level revealed that while there was clearly enough oil that the car's lights and sensors hadn't gone off, there wasn't enough oil to actually, you know, show on the dipstick or anything. Oy.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 27, 2007

Day Nine: Centerville, OH to Laurel, MS 766 mi.

Woo. After crashing for a night with the guy from ScoreHero, we made it successfully down to Mississippi. We're going to have lunch in New Orleans tomorrow, so we drove as far South as we could, and then found an Econolodge. We were just going to get a normal room but they were out of Non-Smoking regular rooms, so we got a King suite for the same price. Yay.

I finally got my act together and pulled all the photos off the camera from the last couple days, yay. Check it out.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 26, 2007

Day ... um. Eight? Philly, PA to Centerville, OH

Man. I'm getting slack about updating, largely because there isn't a lot to tell. Yesterday we drove all over the place - Lafayette, NJ to Wilmington, DE; then to North Brunswick; NJ, then to Philly. In Wilmington we saw my Mom's cousin, then in Brunswick we saw Twon's godmother, then we crashed with one of Twon's friends from teh intarwebs. It was pretty sweet.

Then today we drove down to Centerville, where a guy from the forums at ScoreHero.com is giving us crash space. Rawk.

Since I have time while watching the guys play Guitar Hero, I'm gonna update about the Daily Show taping I mentioned.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 24, 2007

Day Five: NEW YORK! 124 mi

OMG WE WENT TO A DAILY SHOW TAPING AND AL GORE WAS THE GUEST! IT WAS FREAKIN AWESOME!

Also, saw Times Square, survived driving in the city, and verified that I am NOT an urban dweller at heart. Gah. I could never live in a City. Bah.

Will add more to this when I am rested.

ETA: OK, am now rested and am hanging out whilte Twon and our host rock out on GH2, so I'm gonna update in more detail about how the taping worked.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 23, 2007

Day Four: Aurora, OH to Lafayette, NJ. 413 mi.

Still not dead. Staying in a trailer in the driveway of my aunt and uncle, who are cool. As I type this, I am in the trailer using their wireless internet to update and upload photos, chatting with Twon and my cousin Becca who has miraculously morphed from an annoying eleven year old into a nifty college student. WTF. I feel old.

BTW: Have added photos to previous entries, just a few samples in each case. See the Flickr Collection for the full set of photos. Not all of them have captions or anything yet, but they're all up and set to "public."

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 22, 2007

Day Three: Winona, MN to Aurora, OH. 682 mi.

Still not dead. Very tired, no real time for a proper update.

ETA: no photos today. Newsflash: Plains states are dulllllll.

File under: Pure Ego!
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Day Two: Keystone, SD to Winona, MN 669 mi.

I'm writing this on my laptop in the car as the sun is setting and we are speeding past apparently endless fields. Some of the fields are crops, some are grass for cows or sheep. We've been busy today, and are (yet again) racing the sun toward our crashspace.

Stupid time zones, messing with how long it takes to get places.

Today's been busy. We started the day by hitting Mt. Rushmore - we were among the first people there, I think - our level of the parking garage had about three other vehicles in it. Heh. The mountain isn't quite as aewsome as one might be led to believe by photos - for one thing, it's a lot smaller. But it was still neat. I took photos of Twon crushing the heads of various presidents on the mountains (KitH shoutout!), we wandered around the various giftshops, and then we headed off to I-90E.

Next up: Wall Drug. We'd been seeing billboards for it for miles and miles (including a few yesterday!) and Twon had told me stories about it before, so we had to go. Wall Drug is one of those places that's famous for being famous. If you've never been there, it started out as a little drugstore and now has grown to encompass the entire building of storefronts it occupies as well as a building behind it. Good grief. It has loads and loads of kitch for sale, plus food (I had pumpkin ice cream!) and various drugstore-type-stuff.

SD-240 splits off of I-90 in Wall and loops through the Badlands, so we took that (when Twon came through there on his grand circle roadtrip, he wound up doing so at night and thus missing the Badlands, so we had to see them). They're spectacular - the rolling green prairie gives way to bizarre rock formations and gulches for quite a while.

Apparently rivers in the area millions of years ago deposited oodles of volcanic ash there and then it got compacted into sedementary rock, so the erosion looks really bizarre. So cool. I took a ton of photos.

After that, it was time to head down the highway to Winona, where our friends Annie and Nate are feeding us and giving us crashspace in their spiffy new house. Yay.

Of course we hit plenty of construction, dammit. I swear, it is impossible to drive more than a few hundred miles in any one direction on semi-major roadways without hitting construction. Grrr.

O Well.

That's about it. Time to sort through the day's photographs so I can just upload these entries and the photos when we get to Annie and Nate's. Yay.

ETA: By the time we arrived at Annie and Nate's, I was in the throes of what appeared to be food poisoning. I'm better this morning, yay.

ETA: Photos!

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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Day One: Salina UT to Keystone, SD 843mi

I'm writing this in Notepad because our hotel (Econolodge in Keystone, SD) doesn't have a real internet connection (I can get to livejournal and google, but not ealasaid.com or twitter. WTF). I'll post it tomorrow as soon as I find a place with internet connectivity.

Today has been the day of INSANE WEATHER OMG. Our route was roughly: leave Salina UT on US-50. Head for Denver. Hang a left in Denver, head for Cheyenne. Head for Keystone.

Not bad, right?

Well, the weather hated us. On the passage through the rockies, we hit a thunderstorm which was raining so hard we were hydroplaning down a 6% grade at one point. Water was thrown at us by semis on our side of the road and anything bigger than a Hummer H3 on the other side of the road. At one point, it rained slush. OMG SCARY.

Then we spent a big chunk of the afternoon watching AMAZING lightening displays in the distance. OMG SCARY. Fortunately, we never actually ran into the thunderstorm. Phew.

But between the nasty weather outside Denver and some road construction we ran into, we didn't actually reach Keystone until after 10pm local time. We left at 8am local time in UT, which means we spent 15 or so hours on the road. D'oh. So much for our 12.5 hour schedule. Stupid weather.

I took a ton of photos which I'll have to sort through tomorrow as I am currently exhausted.

ETA: Photos!

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 18, 2007

Heading out!

...and they're off!

We're heading out on our honeymoon as soon as we pick up the rental car. Wooooo! Placerville, CA tonight, then tomorrow off on our first long day of driving. Watch this space for updates!

And if you haven't already, check youhaas.com for wedding pix and video.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 15, 2007

Video!

The first set of vids is up from the handfasting! Yay! They were shot by my pal Shannon. The pro video is still being edited, and won't be ready for a couple weeks, most likely. These should tide y'all over until then. :)

Check it out!

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 14, 2007

Ch-ch-ch-changes?

People keep asking me if I feel different now that I'm married.

Aside from the feel of an additional ring on my left ring finger, I don't, really. Twon and I have "felt" married for ... gosh, at least a year now. We moved in together in May 2006 and Twon often says that once we merged our DVD collection, we were hitched in all but the legal sense.

There's a wisp of something - formality? closure? - since the wedding, but not the big "omg, everything is different!" sensation some folks talk about. I'm just relieved that the wedding went so well and intensely happy and grateful for all the wonderful people who helped make it such a fantastic day.

Photos are trickling in over at the Youhaas Global Formal Merger Flickr Pool and once I have the official photos from the spiffy pro photographers back I'll post the cream of the crop (they were threatening to take 32Gb of pix... no idea how many they actually shot, but I am sure it was a ton).

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 13, 2007

Whee!

We're back from our night at the B&B, after a wonderful, awesome wedding day. Great huge heaping piles of THANK YOU to everyone who made our day so awesome!

• Mom and Dad, who wrangled RVs up to the site so we'd have somewhere to change and headed up the decorations team
• My aunt Laurie and uncle Rolf, who provided amazing awesome food
• Lupe, who helped massively with schlepping and serving alcohol
• My sister-in-law Julia, who baked absolutely GORGEOUS cakes for us
• Our awesome photographers, Sarah and Brian of Dancing Photographers (no site at the moment, but I hope to rectify that when I get back from the honeymoon as a way of thanking them)
• Genaro Meza, our videographer, and our buddy Oren Arieli who recommended him, shot bonus footage, and will be editing it all together
• My awesome attendants who made sure I ate, put up with my neuroses, and were amazingly helpful and supportive in spite of having very hectic lives of their own
• My mother-in-law and father-in-law, who hosted and organized the rehearsal dinner. Tasty goodness!
• All our guests, who made the reception a totally awesome party. ROCK ON!

No doubt I've forgotten folks in that list (all our friends and family pitched in one way or another, we were so lucky!) so I'd like to send out a general "THANK YOU SO MUCH! YOU GUYS ROCK!" to everyone. Twon and I are so very very happy and grateful to have such generous, kind, and thoughtful people surrounding us. You all rock.

We leave on the honeymoon on Friday. Rawk.

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 12, 2007

ZOMG!

Today's the Day!

File under: Pure Ego!
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May 07, 2007

Happy Fun Time Wedding Post

Man! I am so busy and distracted that I only seem to post here when I have something that sufficiently piques my interest... which makes for very uneven reading.

Let me see. What is there to update about?

I'm gettin' hitched on Saturday! EEEK! Details here.

It seems like there are a milion and one things still to do ... and at the same time it feels like there's nothing left to do but coast to the finish line. It's odd.

A bunch of my friends are coming into town for it, which rocks.

We lucked into both professional photographers AND a videographer at prices we could afford, which is utterly amazing. I have some of the awesomest friends EVAR.

There are a bunch of photos here of stuff like my dress and the location.

We're going on a HUGE roadtrip for our honeymoon (shoutout to my peeps on the East Coast! Not sure yet when we'll be out there to hang with y'all but Twon will be contacting you shortly! He's in charge of planning the trip) from 5/18-6/3. It will rule. I will be blogging and uploading pix as much as I can -- but I'll be depending on my laptop and folks' wireless connections, so my updating may be spotty. I'll do my best.

More later if I think of something brilliant to say beyond, "OMG WE'RE GETTING MARRIED EEEEEEEEEEE!"

File under: Pure Ego!
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April 13, 2007

Yo! Where you at, dawg?

So I've been busy lately. Wedding planning, even for a non-matrimonial-complex wedding like ours, is a massive undertaking. There are a million little things to consider. What kind of cups should we have at the reception? Should we get tablecloths to cover the probably skuzzy picnic tables in the park? What color/type of cord should we use for the handfasting part of the ceremony?

I'm finding myself paring things out of my schedule that aren't wedding-related, and while it's understandable it is also really really annoying. I like blogging. I like hanging out with my friends. Grrr. But this weekend alone, for example, I have to get laced into my corset and get the alterations measurements done on my dress, which is a huge undertaking; go shopping with the fiance for his clothes, which will be fun but is still time-consuming; handle the tablecloth rental; look into renting tents; and get a final quote from the florist. Oh, and I have an appointment to tutor my one remaining student. I'm starting to understand why my friend Jen started getting tension headaches whenever she did wedding stuff. I admire her - she had a huge, very matrimonial-complex wedding and managed to do it without going insane.

Maybe wedding stress is just one of those things that is big no matter what the wedding is like.

Anyway. Questions about the wedding? All the info is here.

File under: Pure Ego!
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April 05, 2007

Squee!

I am such a dork. But look! I won a prize!

Check out the other winnars.

File under: Pure Ego!
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April 03, 2007

Angels and Camouflage

It's no real secret that I am adamantly against the war in Iraq. It pulled resources from the actually reasonable war in Afghanistan and has turned into an utter mess.

However, I am NOT against the troops. They are brave, hardworking folks doing a job that I myself would run screaming from even though I know it's a necessary one.

So.

About a month ago, I signed up at Angels'n'Camouflage and adopted me a deployed soldier. I've been sending her stuff every week or so, either cards or little care packages. I haven't heard back from her, but hope that she's okay and that my things are reaching her okay.

One thing that fascinates me is the response I get from people I tell about this. Almost invariably, they are impressed. I get praised, told I'm a saint, you name it. The thing is, I don't see it as a big deal. It's a little bit of a hassle to send care packages - you have to fill out a customs form, so I have to take them to the post office instead of mailing them at work - but cards? That's a cinch, and it's cheap to boot. This is a lot less work than going to a rally or protest or writing my congressfolks. And it makes a bigger difference, even if it's just to one person.

For me, that's what counts. This war is a huge issue, but every soldier out there is just one person. They're people, doing a horrible job a long, long way from home and friends and family. Sending a few snacks and some magazines is the least I can do.

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 14, 2007

Hippo birdie two me!

Well, I'm 29. My last year of being a twenty-something. Let's see how I'm doing on my 25 Things To Do In The Next 25 Years:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 09, 2007

Rough day

Today I did three things:

1. Euthanized my beloved pony, Shane.
2. Scanned a ton of family photos, including several of Shane and other pets I've loved and had to let go.
3. Reorganized my books.

There's nothing like semi-mindless, organized labor to soothe me when I'm upset.

I'm going to miss Shane, he was a wonderful pony.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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March 05, 2007

Liver? I hardly knew 'er!

My nutritionist has decided that my liver might benefit from detoxing.

Now, my immediate reaction was "What? No way." But the procedure consists largely of eating a lot of weird veggies, so I figured it couldn't hurt. Plus, all the staff there did it, and liked it.

Details for the curious:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 19, 2007

LibraryThing

I have surrendered and signed up on LibraryThing. My profile is here. Woo. I'm going to play around with it a little and possibly use it to catalog my books. I sort of dig it so far, though I'm leery of relying on a website to catalog everything. I mean, what if it goes down? I don't see a way to export my catalog. On the other hand, it does have a lot of really awesome functionality that isn't available in the catalog programs I've seen.

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 15, 2007

Misc.

Item the First: I've sort of given up on the Morale-O-Meter - not enough data input available for me. I'm now using a thrilling spreadsheet in Open Office Calc, which so far is going great. Yay. If'n y'all are interested, I could post the template for you folks to check out. It tracks everything from sleep to allergen consumption. Rock.

Item the Second: Just a reminder that I'm posting loads of links over at My del.icio.us. Check it out if you like the kinds of links I often blog about here.

Item the Third: Cinequest is coming, and that means that the Cineblog is active! Check it out for news and reviews of movies and whatnot coming up at Cinequest. I love cinequest, even though it frequently causes me to collapse of exhaustion right before my birthday each year.

Item the Fourth: I've been reading a lot lately, FINALLY, so check my booklog, A Perpetual Orgy, for minireviews.

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 12, 2007

Taking a Break

I've decided to take a break from reading websites that up my stress level. There are a lot more of these on my daily reading rounds than I thought, and I think it's taking a toll on me. I have a lot on my plate (work, Cinequest, Aikido, health problems, wedding planning...) and somehow riling myself up every day over how people I don't know are being terrible human beings seems like a poor use of my personal energy.

I acknowledge that sexism exists. I acknowledge that homophobia exists. I acknowledge that injustice exists.

I also acknowledge that there is only so much I can do about these things.

For a while, I feel that the best thing I can do about these things is to go about my tasks with focus and dedicate my personal energy to accomplishing my tasks to the very best of my ability. So I am removing items from my blogroll and recording them here, so that I do not lose the links. Some day soon I hope I will be ready to take up the mantle of righteous anger again, but for now I need to rest and refocus.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 29, 2007

DAMN YOU FAIRFIELD CHICK-FIL-A!

So, Antwon loves going to chain restaurants that aren't found right around where we live. This has led him to eat everywhere from Steak-and-Shake to Sonic Burger.

Well, every time we drive through Fairfield, we mutter that we should hit the Chick-Fil-A that's in the mall there. Every time we've tried, it hasn't worked. Either we're in a rush, we're not hungry, or it's so late at night the mall is closed.

Over the weekend we were in Sacramento, and on the way home the stars seemed aligned and we decided to take a stab at it again, only to be foiled yet again! It turns out that Chick-fil-A is always closed on Sundays. All of them. Dig it:

I guess we're just fated never to hit that stupid restaurant. *shakes fist*

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 25, 2007

E = Grownup

I set up a Roth IRA today through INGDirect. I have a savings account there already, and now every month they'll take a little out of there and put it in my IRA. I am psyched.

BTW: if I refer you to ING, you get $25 and I get $10. Anybody want a referral? Their savings accounts are really easy to set up and have a variable interest rate that knuckleballs around 4.5%. Pretty schweet.

File under: Pure Ego!
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End-of-year mix

My buddy Rich has gotten me into the habit of making mix CDs at the end of the year. He explains how he does it here, and he gets as many friends as he can to join in. He used to do two CDs - one of music that came out in the year in question and one of music that he found in that year, but so many of us are too lazy to do that (or don't have enough music to do that) that he seems to have given up on that and now just says to pick songs that "mean" the year in question to you.

I've collected about 30 songs that were new to me in 2006, and am now fiddling with their order on the mix CD (I'm going to burn 2 audio CDs for those who insist on that format; everyone else gets a CD with MP3s and a playlist on it).

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 24, 2007

ARGH!

I AM AGGRAVATED!

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!, Rantings
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January 15, 2007

Any astrology geeks in my readership?

Apparently, I have sun in Pisces, moon in Gemini, Ascendant in Virgo, Mercury in the Seventh House, Sun in the seventh house, sun opposition ascendant, venus in the seventh house, moon in the ninth house, and saturn in the twelfth. Gnarly. (Courtesy of astro.com)

Wanna do my chart? Email me for my birth details. :)

I am not a total believer in astrology, but I do find that in general it is accurate for me.

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 10, 2007

Yeesh. Also, links.

My left nav bar is getting a little scary, nu?

I just added links to my pages on YouTube and del.icio.us.

What is del.icio.us, you may ask? It's a link-sharing site. It's sort of like... having the ability to share and tag your bookmarks. Yeah. Go check it out. Hell, you can subscribe to my links if you want, and get a little note whenever I add a link to my collection. I'm trying to be better about adding commentary and whatnot instead of just tags, and to link things with del.icio.us instead of blogging them here. I think doing link-roundup posts and having a del.icio.us page is a little redundant.

My YouTube profile contains two scintillating videos about... my cats.

I am such a typical blogger. Goddammit.

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 04, 2007

A little more New Year's stuff

I don't make resolutions anymore.

This is for two reasons:

1. I usually don't manage to keep resolutions, so they are pointless.
2. Not keeping the resolutions makes me feel shitty.

I figure that's reasonable. Hell, the fiancé and I started our new workout regimen the week before New Years, and have been keeping it pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. So. No resolutions from me.

On the New Years humor front, check out this entry from Naamah. She is awesome and hilarious, if somewhat... er ... vulgar. :D

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 03, 2007

The flames, boss! The flames!

Scene: My cubicle, yesterday. My phone rings.

Me: Hello?

Antwon: Are you near a window?

Me: Yeah, why?

Antwon: Are you looking out it?

Me: Yeah, well, I can be.

Antwon: See that big plume of smoke?

Me: OMG.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 02, 2007

Hello, 2007! Now, where's my silver suit and jetcar?

Happy New Year, readers! I hope you all had very happy holidays.

It's hard to imagine living in 2007. It sounds like the kind of year a cheesy sci-fi film might be set in, doesn't it? Not the kind of year you write on your checks. So surreal.

2006 was the year of the wedding for us here at Youhaas Global. We got engaged, attended four weddings, and started the process of planning our own. Yikes. So, 2006 was incredibly busy but also really fun. Actually, that's a pretty good summary of the year as a whole. I'm hoping to put some discardian principles into effect and have a quieter 2007.

There's a meme floating around the blogosphere of taking the first sentence of the first entry of each month for a year, so I might as well give it a shot:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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December 14, 2006

ARGH

Whining:

So, I finished my MP3 sorting project

But somehow I am having a lot of trouble stanadardizing my tags, and a lot of songs don't have track numbers or albums or ANYTHING.

After spending entirely too long trying to fix things by hand, I have decided to use the ever-awesome Music Brainz Tagger instead. Basically, it compares your MP3 to its database of songs other people have tagged and takes a guess at what your MP3 is. I have found it's usually pretty damn good.

This is going to delay my ability to get the newly-sorted MP3s onto my player, but I can't do that at the moment anyway because my desktop's power supply is dead. Wheee. I've replaced just about every part of that poor old computer over the years. New motherboard, new hard drives, new CD drives (so I could write CDs and DVDs), etc. Whee! If I were less brave, I would no doubt have caved by now and just bought a new system. But yanno, the parts are a lot cheaper. I can get a new power supply for a LOT less than a new system. So there.

File under: Pure Ego!
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December 12, 2006

Well, holy shit!

I finished my music categorizing project!

I was starting to think that this day might never come. But here I am! RAWK. And it took less than a year! Hell, it only took just under eight months. Not bad, eh? Especially considering that I only work on it in my spare time (ha ha ha).

Some stats:

Total Songs	4,247
Gb of Songs	17.0
Number of Genre Categories	54
Genre With Most Songs	Rock, 329
Genre With Least Songs	Glam Rock, 2
Category I Least Expected to See	Country
Category I Thought Would Be Bigger	Rock'n'Roll
Most Useful Category	Weirdness

So there. Anybody wanting to browse my genre categories should ask next time I am somewhere with my car - I'll be putting my freshly-sorted MP3s onto my in-car player very soon. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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December 11, 2006

Yeesh!

One of the downsides to doing NaNoWriMo every year is that it means the entire month of November is practically offlimits for anything social. The only social events the fiancé and I make it to are NaNo-related. This invariably means that the first week or so of December is packed to the gills with social engagements.

This year is no exception.

Beginning on the first and running through this weekend, we have not had two days in a row without at least one social engagement. In fact, I think we had something like seven days in a row with engagements. Yikes! Pretty heavy stuff for a guy who's practically a complete shut-in and a gal who is only judged an extrovert on occasion because of her incredible acting skills.

I realized, furthermore, while working on this year's Annual Holiday Letter, that we have had a crapload of social stuff going on all year. Check it:

• Three weddings, two out of state and one out of town.
• Two extended houseguest stays.
• Two high school reunions.
• Wedding planning.

Geez. Quite a contrast to last year, when we basically did ... nothing.

I kind of dig the whole social butterfly thing when I have enough time to recover tucked in here and there. The trick is remembering to tuck in that recovery time. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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December 01, 2006

I Am Not A Doctor, But... Issue 2: The Common Cold

First, a disclaimer:

I AM NOT A DOCTOR. IF YOU ARE ILL, SEEK ADVICE FROM YOUR MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, ETC ETC ETC!

Now. I suffered from colds a LOT during graduate school - I cought about four or five in a row, one after the other, the winter I was there. It sucked.

But I learned a lot. On at least one occasion, I was able to muscle through the nasty headcold part of the cold and into the not-so-bad chest part in only a couple days. I'm currently muscling through a cold quite nicely.

So, I now present you with Ealasaid's tips for getting over a cold!

Continued...

File under: I am not a ____, but..., Pure Ego!
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November 29, 2006

I Am Not A Doctor, But... Issue 1: Fibromyalgia

First, a disclaimer:

I AM NOT A DOCTOR. IF YOU ARE ILL, SEEK ADVICE FROM YOUR MEDICAL PRACTITIONER, ETC ETC ETC!

That said, I am a person with fibromyalgia, and I recently posted to a list I'm on about the "natural" remedies I use. I thought it might make for interesting reading, and if nothing else, I figured I might as well put it on the web, eh?

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, I am not a ____, but..., Pure Ego!
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November 23, 2006

Thanksgiving

Things I am Thankful for...

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 10, 2006

OH YEAH

I Crossed 9k today on my NaNo Novel, YAY!

That means I only have to write.... um .... 11,000 words by Sunday to get back on track by the next milestone.

Crap.

I swear, I don't think I've been this far behind EVER in NaNo. *sigh* Of course, I am really goddamn busy. And I'm trying to do NaNo as a fun activity rather than a death march, which slows me down a bit.

Anyway: 9k! YEAH!!!!

Excerpts over in my NaNoBlog. Go read. It's like my novel, but only the best bits make it in. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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November 03, 2006

Balancing act

Or, Why Ealasaid Can't Do That Thing With You Tomorrow/Next Week/Ever.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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October 30, 2006

RAWK

Well! I got good news at HealthNOW today!

It seems I have made it past the most intense phase of treatment into the "finding a regimen that works long-term" phase.

(Edited 10/31)

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

October 27, 2006

Allergies

So I got a nifty blood test for allergies done. Those as are interested in my ongoing health saga (hah!), read on!

Bonus section: musings on health blogging.

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, Musings, Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

October 26, 2006

Yipe!

NaNoWriMo is coming up. as in, I have less than a week to finish my plotline. Yikes! Good thing I already know the characters really well.

Time to dust off the ol' NaNoBlog and get crackin'. Wheee!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 18, 2006

Um, duh.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

SQUEEE!

My engagement ring is done! Yay!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

October 05, 2006

Thoughts upon reading Neil Gaiman's journal

I have got to stop comparing myself to people. I find it makes me come off badly. Furthermore, most of the comparisons are stupid.

For example:

I am not as good at computer programming as Antwon. (Somehow the fact that he has a degree and what, five years of professional experience never enters into this comparison. But then, who said comparisons were rational?)

I am not as interesting/talented/cool a writer as Neil Gaiman. (Nevermind that he's been writing for ages and ages and ages, and cheats by being British and friends with Tori Amos and other cool people.)

I am far smarter than the average American. (A statement which makes me feel like a pompous ass and then makes me depressed about the state of the country.)

As usual, the answer is that I should just be thoroughly Ealasaid, rather than feeling bad because I'm not other people.

File under: Pure Ego!
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October 04, 2006

I have succumbed

I have uploaded a video to YouTube. It's of my cats. It's stupid and short and cute. Gah. Kill me now.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

October 02, 2006

Feminist Forum still going strong

Just got another question on feminism here - I get email when people comment, so if you've got a question you're thinking of posting, fire away!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 29, 2006

My body is rebelling

Apparently going several weeks without a proper sleeping-in-on-the-weekend and then spending about a week getting only 7 hrs a night instead of 8 and then having houseguests has pushed it over the edge.

Yesterday I was so tired I took a personal day and went home and slept, nearly non-stop, from 10am until 8pm. Then I had dinner, watched a little TV, and went back to bed. Where I slept another eight hours.

The sad part?

I'm STILL TIRED!

When I blink my brain thinks maybe I might, yanno, really be lying down and in bed, and it starts shutting everything down in preparation for sleep. Even when I'm walking down the hallway. Sheesh.

So, fine. Body, you win. I won't go to the midnight showing of "Office Space" in Santa Cruz tonight. I won't set an alarm tomorrow OR Sunday. Okay? I'll even refrain from drinking much booze in celebration of Antwon's bday, so as not to mess up your precious sleep cycles.

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)

September 25, 2006

LOOKIE!

More pix here!

And before you ask, no it's not actually gonna be blue. The wax it's carved out of is blue; it's going to be cast in platinum. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
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September 21, 2006

General update, LJ style

A general update for them as are curious. I have a lot on my plate at the moment:

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 18, 2006

Back

I'm back from Minnesota. My first ever trip to the midwest! Neato!

It was a great time, but now I'm at home resting up before heading back to work tomorrow. I'm pretty beat. It's amazing how tiring having a great time can be.

Nate and Annie's wedding was beautiful. I will be getting pix up on Flickr asap.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 11, 2006

Self-centered whining

Sometimes it feels like my fibro is taking over my life.

I mean, I try to exercise 4+ times a week because it helps my fibro so much. I go to HealthNOW three times a week (which takes a total of about 1:45 out of my day each time) for treatment. I see my GP every few months for the fibro too. I have to sleep 8+ hours a day (more on weekends) because otherwise I'm really friggin' tired all the time.

It's immensely frustrating.

At the same time, I know my general health is getting better. My migraines are still just the same, but everything else has improved. I try to concentrate on the good stuff, but sometimes it's hard. It's hard to balance the things I have to do (work, treatment, exercise, day-to-day chores, wedding prep) with the stuff I want to do (movie reviews, web design work, hang with friends, watch TV, play videogames, read).

This whole being-a-grownup thing is a pain.

However: tomorrow night I leave on an airplane to go visit my friend Annie, who is getting married - and I'm officiating! YAY! So that's something good.

At any rate, if you're wondering why I post irregularly and am often hard to get a hold of, this is why.

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

September 08, 2006

Miscellanea

Damn you, Emusic! I was doing so well getting on with my music sorting project, but now I've gone and downloaded nearly a hundred more songs from you! ARGH!!!! *headdesk*

Albums downloaded today:

• PJ Harvy, Dry
  
• Burning Brides, Leave No Ashes
  
• Brain Donor, Brain Donor
  
• Clannad, Dulaman
  
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Fetish
  
• John Lee Hooker, Boom Boom
  
• Mediaeval Baebes, The Rose
  
• The Coup, Party Music
  

So now I have more music, yay, but at the same time I am a lot further from finishing the damn sorting project - which I really want to have done asap so I can have all the newly sorted music on my Neuros when I fly out for Annie's wedding next week (NEXT WEEK OMGWTF HOW DID IT GET TO BE THAT SOON AUGH!).

*sigh*

Oh, well. If all else fails, I'll use some half-assed hack to finish. Like labelling all the ones I haven't sorted yet as "uncategorized" or something. Yeah.

Continued...

File under: Geekiness, Linkage, Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 24, 2006

Update

I'm not dead, just busy.

Work has taken a turn for the busy, but at least I'm feeling productive. Yay.

On the fibro front, I have been declared amoeba-free (yay!) and tried both alcohol and gluten. I had a glass and a half of white wine over the weekend and half a pizza last night. Both were very, very yummy. Man, I have missed those flavors. Mm.

The alcohol appears to have made my innards slightly unhappy - but it might have been my busybusybusy weekend, so I will likely retest that. It's way too early to tell with the gluten, but I am feeling better today than I have in a while, so I am cautiously optimistic.

I'm also being gently weaned off my cymbalta - which is taking a very real toll on my sleep. Boy howdy. I keep waking up for no apparent reason. Here's hoping that fades away as my interna chemistry settles down.

Not much else to report. I have a ton of things I want to blog about but want to do it properly, which takes time. *shakes fist* Damn you, self-imposed high standards!

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 09, 2006

Morale!

You may have found yourself musing occasionally, "Ealasaid sure can be irregular about letting me know how she's doing. I wonder how her health is? How she's feeling?"

Well, now you can find the answer as easily as you can find this blog! New, shiny, and utterly useful, it's...

Ealasaid's Morale-O-Meter!

It's also linked in the left column. Wow!

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

August 07, 2006

Do your self a favor... READ!

via Amber

OK, as soon as the unread collection is down a bit, I gotta read these books, determined by right-wing nutjobs to be "the most harmful" of the last 100 years or so:

1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao
4. The Kinsey Report
5. Democracy and Education
6. Das Kapital
7. The Feminine Mystique
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy
9. Beyond Good and Evil
10. General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money

Would you believe I've never read any of them in their entirety? Good grief. I am pretty sure I've read most of The Communist Manifesto, but I'm not sure... which means I should reread it. If nothing else, it'll help me hone my "Communism only works if everyone is a good person" argument.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 06, 2006

Well, dayumm.

You may have said to yourself, "self, I seem to remember that Ealasaid has a bunch of unread books. I wonder how she's doing on making her way through them?"

Well, here's the answer. I got a new bookshelf today and am using it for my unread books collection. Here it is:

That doesn't include the books in my bedroom (about 4, I think) or the half dozen or so unread books over on my religious/metaphysical bookshelf. Yeesh.

OK, that's it. No more buying unread books, even with my fancy schmancy credits from my Borders credit card. NO MORE. Not until I've read at least half the books on that shelf (measured by shelf space, since I really haven't the heart to count 'em). When that bookcase is down to only three shelves of books, I can buy new books.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

July 19, 2006

Aaaaaah.

There's something pleasant about watching a bunch of smart, angry people tear a forced-birth (aka "prolife") moron to shreds.

Voila.

Warning: swearing, stupidity, and general asshatery.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 17, 2006

It's official!

I'm a Real Employee^TM now! Yay! Getting benefits, a 401K, and everything! Yay!

I even figured out enough Excel magic to make up a time-tracking worksheet for myself since I apparently don't have to fill out timesheets. Awesome.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

July 03, 2006

Miscellaneous notes

Had a fantabulous time at the huge party this weekend. I really wish I'd had a spare second to count how many people showed up at the high water mark - we had the apartment packed. Tons o' fun. Photos coming soon.

Spent yestereday knocked out with the worst migraine I have had since... I don't know when. Seriously. Three migratine and about 12 hours of sleep later, I got rid of it - only to spend the next 12 hours stoned out of my mind but unable to sleep. Geesh.

I have made the command decision to take today and tomorrow off, yay. Here's hoping it will convince my body that I really am paying attention and that bitching at me via migraines is no longer necessary.

I am vastly disappointed in Roger Ebert's Superman Returns review. Seriously. When did Ebert lose his ability to have a good time at a big summer flick? My review is here.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 29, 2006

I'm a real employee!

I am in the process of getting hired as a permanent employee at the awesome company where I've been contracting! I am so psyched.

One more thing to celebrate this weekend! (and if you are a pal of mine who lives around here and you haven't gotten an invite to my bigass housewarming/engagment/paid-off-a-student-loan party, email me! The more the merrier!)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 28, 2006

Doing better

For the curious, I'm doing better today. Saw my chiropractor and nutritionist yesterday. The chiropractor discovered I had a Hiatal Hernia and promptly pulled my stomach down where it belongs. As I told him, that definitely takes the cake as the weirdest thing he has ever done to me (and this is the guy who routinely goes all Steven Segal on my neck, then twists me into a prezel and jumps on me).

My nutritionist thinks the reason I've felt so lousy is that I'm sensitive to DHEA. See, I'm taking DHEA supplements to help my adrenal system out, but my adrenals are coming back online - so now they're producing DHEA too. My nutritionist thought they'd have to take me off the DHEA in another month or so, but apparently even having a little too much in my system is enough to make me sick. He said that some women react poorly to excess DHEA because their body transforms it too quickly into estrogen, and to stop taking it and see if I get better. Whee.

Also, my nutritionist remains convinced that I'm gluten-sensitive, and doesn't want to let me challenge my body with gluten until I'm way healthier because he's so sure I'll react. Grrrrrr. I remain unconvinced.

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

June 27, 2006

Home

I'm at home today. I feel better than I did yesterday but still not good. I'm beginning to think that (as usual) most of the cause of this instance of ill health is psychological. I haven't really had time to find my feet since the fiancé and I got engaged. We've been doing things - moving, visiting my family, etc. - and we haven't had time to just be. I don't think we've had a span of more than three or four days where we didn't have tons of things going on, and even then, those three or four days were usually in the middle of the week and included things like going to work.

I feel like I've been treading water for months so that I could watch a beautiful fireworks display. I love fireworks, and wouldn't miss them for the world... but man, I am tired of treading water. I just want to put my feet down on solid ground for a while.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 22, 2006

OH SNAP!

I just paid off one of my student loans.

I just paid off one of my student loans.

I just paid off one of my student loans!!!

RAWK!

That frees up a bunch of dough every month to throw at the next one in line. Yeah, Perkins loan, I'm looking at you. You are going down.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 13, 2006

Would I like some cheese with this whine?

Last night I had a headache by the time I got off work.

So I went home and lay down in bed. I read for a little, then fell asleep.

At 7:30pm.

Around 9pm I woke up and watched an episode of The Simpsons with the fiancé. Then I went back to bed.

At 9:45pm.

I woke up at 7am and still don't feel really awake. Freakin' sleep cycles. I miss caffeine. Freakin' nutritionist-ordered elimination diet.

(In case you're wondering, so far I'm just sensitive to corn, citrus, dairy, and chocolate. I already knew about the last two, of course. I'm still off those four plus gluten, alcohol, sweeteners, and caffeine. *sigh* I get to try alcohol as soon as we get rid of the infestation of entamoeba coli that has taken up residence in my gut. Alcohol apparently encourages the little bastards.)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

June 12, 2006

Lunch

There's something wonderfully luxurious about using one's lunch hour to go home and cook an actual meal rather than eating at one's desk or going to a local restaurant.

I love living five minutes from work.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

June 07, 2006

Aww, snap! Ealasaid: 1, Bugs: 0. Also, Dan Brown continues to suck.

I have managed to cure one of my beloved cyclamen plants of a whitefly and aphid infestation merely by being really, really persistent. My weapon? Scotch tape. I didn't want to use a ton of chemicals on it if I could get rid of them without doing so.

What I did was go over the leaves carefully each day with a piece of tape, blotting at 'em the way you would to get cat hair off something. But instead of removing cat hair, I was removing the bugs and their eggs! Rawk! I did this several times a day and in just a few days, voila! I'm only finding one or two bugs on the whole plant, whereas before the poor thing was practically covered. Yay!

In other news, Idunno has confirmed my belief that if I read the DaVinci Code it will only piss me off.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

June 02, 2006

Californian!

I had one of those "Geez, I am such a stereotypical SF Bay Area Californian" moments recently. I was driving home with a couple bags of groceries from Whole Foods and listening to NPR. Hee!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

June 01, 2006

woooo

Well, I survived the trip back East, barely. Man, it's been go-go-go around here for months, it seems like. I desperately need a weekend to just lie around and chill out with Antwon, but noooooooooooooooooooo... I have to get all my stuff moved this weekend. And the next weekend will likely be spent unpacking. Oh, well.

My folder of Things To Blog is getting frickin' huge again, so expect a lot of random posts.

In the meantime, check out my pix from the trip!

The whole set of pix

A few choice morsels:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 23, 2006

DVDs

Yep, I did it. I set up the shelves and combined our DVD collection. Youhaas Global Corporate Headquarters now has an official DVD library. Rawk.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 06:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 18, 2006

Attention span

My attention span is shortening. It's scary. I have trouble focusing on one thing for more than a few minutes unless it is something actively created to entertain me. I suspect that the solution to this is going to involve a great deal of effort and be generally unpleasant. I should probably quit checking my email so often, for one thing. And I should jot things down when I think I need to do them rather than actually doing them (frequently, when i think, "I should do X" what I really mean is "I don't want to do this thing I'm doing anymore"). I used to have a great attention span but it's gone. I find that vaguely disturbing.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

May 15, 2006

YGCHQ

So, you may have wondered what 1000+ books look like in a big pile on the floor. Here is your answer:

Eventually, that will be the den at Youhaas Global Corporate Headquarters (aka Ealasaid and Antwon's new digs). But right now, it's a mess. I've decided to organize my nonfiction books in the Library of Congress system, which should be fun. And I'm not going to shove them on the shelves with plans to organize them later - that didn't work last time I moved. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 10, 2006

Days until move: 1

Yikes! Tomorrow is the big day! Where did all my time go???

It will be okay, really. My only real problem is that I am short on boxes and will prolly have to make a jillion trips to get everything shifted. Plus I have a bunch of things that are going to be incredibly annoying to shift - starting with my fish tank and ending with my book collection. *sigh*

But! Once Youhaas Global Corporate Headquarters is up and running, it is going to rock.

Anybody got any boxes they need to get rid of? Smallish (2'x3'x2' or so) ones?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

May 08, 2006

Days until move: 3

We take posession of the new apartment (which the fiancé has christened Youhaas Global Corporate Headquarters) on Thursday, and are packing like fiends. I spent the weekend running around picking up and paying for all the furniture I found on Craigslist and now my trapezius muscles are killing me. You haven't lived until you've maneuvered heavy pieces of furniture down narrow, steep stairs to your double-parked Suburban in San Francisco. Yikes.

We've got almost everything lined up for the new pad except cable and renter's insurance. The fiancé is handling the former today and we're going in tomorrow to do the latter. Rawk. Go us. Thursday we begin the long process of hauling all our stuff over. 'course, we won't really be moved until the cable is all installed - I mean, we aren't really going to start living there until we can hook up our TiVos. :D

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 03, 2006

This whole grown-up thing is a drag.

So the fiancé and I found an apartment - it's really close to where we work and is a bitchin' place. Yay!

But now we have to do all those grown-up things like set up cable and phone and internet service, and get renter's insurance and all that stuff. Sheesh! What a PITA.

We move in the weekend of the 13th, wheee!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

April 27, 2006

Just what I need, another huge project

I've taken the dive and started categorizing my music. I'm doing it by shuffling the actual .mp3 files into folders, then I plan to use Tag & Rename to set the genres to the right ones. I'm adding folders as I need 'em, and listening to each song as I decide where it goes. Rawk. This is going to take forever, even if you consider that I don't have to listen to every song all the way through to know where it goes.

Some songs are really easy, but some are freakin' hard, man. Consider, for example, Gogol Bordello. I love their stuff (which is available on emusic, and if you aren't a member there, lemme know so I can send you an invite and get some free downloads myself :) ), but it's freakin' impossible to classify. Gypsy? Punk? Caberet? Rock? WTF???? *headdesk*

I may wind up shuffling stuff like that into my long-standing "Weirdness" folder that's for things I couldn't figure out how to classify the last time I tried this.

For the interested, here are the genres I have so far:

• Alternative
• blues
• Chanting
• Classical
• Comedy
• Country (I do have a little)
• Dark Alt (Depeche Mode!)
• Disco (Red Elvises, mostly)
• Drumming
• Folk
• Geek Rock
• Gregorian Chnt
• Hard Rock
• Heavy Metal
• Instrumental
• Jazz
• Mashup
• Nerdcore
• Parody
• Pop
• Punk
• Rap
• Reggae
• Rock
• Rock'n'Roll (the classic stuff!)
• Shakuhachi (Japanese flute music)
• Ska
• Spoken
• Surf ROck
• Techno
• Themes (famous movie/soundtrack themes)
• Trance

So be warned: if I think you know anything about music, I may be pestering you for advice in the next few days/weeks when I run into a tricky track. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

April 25, 2006

Gah

Well, I survived being Maid of Honor at my oldest friend's wedding (by which I mean the wedding of the person who has been my friend longest of all my friends, not the oldest person who is my friend). Aggravatingly enough, I have managed to utterly exhaust myself in the process - I fell asleep waiting for the fiance to call last night and barely woke up when he did call, then had a heck of a time waking up this morning. I think I got about ten hours of sleep but it doesn't feel like it at all. Good grief.

In other news, my "Stuff to Blog" bookmarks folder is overflowing with an utterly random collection of stuff, so here are a few links:

• Tomatoes are Evil
• Flickr: Arborophilia - a beautiful set of tree photos on Flickr.
• Kitty and Rooster: Weird Friendship
• Flickr pool: Amusing Place Names
• Migaloo - a white humpback whale! So cool.

The rest of them are things I actually want to Write About(tm), so they'll have to wait until I feel ,more like a human and less like a zombie.

File under: Linkage, Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 18, 2006

More good news!

Firstly, my car is finally repaired after that accident.

"But Ealasaid," I hear you cry, "that was two months ago!"

Yes, yes it was. But the body shop kept ifnding more and more things that were wrong with it, and kept revising their date on when it would be done. Lucky for me they also agreed to cover my rental car after the insurance stopped and waived my deductible. Hooray.

So that's good.

Also in the good category, I met with my nutritionist today and starting Thursday I get to reintroduce foods to my diet! It works like this...

Continued...

File under: Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 13, 2006

The big question

After three years of serious dating, it happened.

The bf asked me to marry him.

I said yes.

I'm engaged!

He took me out to "our" place, Scopazzi's, and asked after a fantastic meal. He had the stones, now we will go in together to get them set. Here are a couple pix:

The one on the left was taken with my friend Rich's camera, the one on the right with my friend Peter's camera. Peter took both shots. (The bf fiancee has our camera at the moment.)

So pretty!

The middle stone is Alexandrite, the other two are Moissanite.

I am so happy right now. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (21) | TrackBack (0)

April 10, 2006

I hate Mondays

So far today, I have:

1. ...utterly failed to leave for work early because the alpha testing stuff for work I am doing at home took about ten times longer than I expected,
2. ...taken three tries to leave the house because I kept realizing I'd forgotten something,
3. ...discovered that my fibro is flaring for no apparent reason,
4. ...nearly fallen asleep in a meeting,
5. ...learned that no, really, honest, my car will totally be ready tomorrow, honest,
6. ...and been stood up for lunch.

And it's not even 3pm yet. Good grief. Can I go home now?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

April 09, 2006

Miscellaneous Notes

1) Doing my taxes is really annoying this year. I keep finding deductions I missed. Now, on the one hand, this is awesome because it means I save money (for every $400 of deduction I find, I save about $100 in taxes and so far I've found almost $2000 of deductions). On the downside, I was dumb enough to do my taxes in pen and thus keep whiting out because I don't want to rewrite the whole thing. Somehow this makes sense to me. I'm too lazy to recopy my taxes, but not lazy enough to use a program instead of doing them by hand. *headdesk*

2) Reading childfree and feminist communities/blogs is awesome on one hand but a bad idea on the other. It's awesome because I like reading news and opinions from people whose philosophies jibe with mine in important ways. It's a bad idea in that it makes me depressed and cranky. Modern society really harshes on the childfree and the feminist in a lot of ways. Sure, there have been major strides on both fronts in the last 50 years or so, but still. There's plenty of stuff going on all the time to piss me off. I can't decide if I should quit reading them altogether or just really, really, really pare down the ones I read. *sigh*

3) Even with all my attempts to pare my schedule down to a manageable level of chaos, I am still tragically busy. WTF?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 27, 2006

Whee!

So, it's Discardia. And it's spring. That means... time for spring cleaning! My roommate and I cleaned out our garage over the weekend. It went from being so packed with crap that you could barely walk from the front to the back to being quite organized and spacious. Yay!

I'm still kinda sore, but not as sore as I'd expected. Even better, once I got into that cleaning/clearing headspace, it stuck around, so I have gotten a bunch done in my room too! Yay.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 24, 2006

Curling!

Man!

I got to go curling as an offsite from work yesterday. Photos here, courtesy of Earthdog.

Curling is a lot harder than it looks. I only fell down twice, but that was because I was being really, really careful. It's hard to scamper ahead of a stone and sweep the ice in front of it when the stone is moving at a good clip. It's also hard to do the weird stone-sliding thing - you have to push off a little footrest stuck in the ice and let go of the stone just right to send it down the ice. Boy howdy.

Today, I'm really sore - my thighs and arms in particular. On the bright side, I didn't bruise where I fell on the ice. So that's good. If I had more free time, I would totally join the rookie curling leage. But, as Earthdog said when I mentioned that to him, "when was the last time you actually had any free time?" I gave it some thought and realized that the last time I regularly had any sort of free time (other than the occasional evening set aside for mental health) was in college. Specifically, my freshman year. And, well, technically I had a lot of free time during my semester abroad, but I spent it all learning about my surroundings and reading Terry Pratchett, so it's not like I didn't have projects to fill the time that wasn't spent in class.

Anyway, in conclusion: curling is awesome, but holy crap is it hard.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 19, 2006

Yay!

Ealasaid's 28th birthday party, a photoset on Flickr.

Yay, birthday!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 16, 2006

Good grief

Man. I always think of awesome things to blog about when I'm commuting, then forget them when I am actually in a position to blog.

My life continues to be insanely busy even without Cinequest. I am currently dealing with:

• Preparations for my birthday party this weekend (cleaning, figuring out what munchies to get, etc)
• Training in Aikido so I can hopefully test some time in the next decade
• Coping with a change in my fibro meds which is making my sleep weird while I acclimate to the new dose
• Dealing with my knees, which have gotten so bad this week that I'm looking into buying a cane (which, for one thing, will aid my curmudgeonly crazy aunt thing I have going on... or would, if I had any neices/nephews)
• Working full time at my awesome "real" job
• Figuring out when to see a movie this weekend since I didn't have a screening on Tuesday (I instead spent the evening watching the final three eps of this season of Battlestar Galactica and all I can say is you sadistic bastards, why do I have to wait until October for the new season goddammit)
• Wishing the freakin' weather would warm up (SNOW? IN MARCH? IN CALIFONIA? WTF???) so I can go back to gardening properly
• Trying to get everything in order so I can move my web clients to a new hosting service
• Resurrecting The Foresite because there's a Foremen "best of" album coming out this month.
• Trying to get my daily meditation practice going again so I don't lose my mind
• Figuring out when I will have time to do my taxes

I think that's everything. Geez. No wonder I'm so tired all the time. At least this weekend will be fun.

File under: Chondromalacia, Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 14, 2006

Finally

Man, I am tired.

But I survived another Cinequest. Go me. I saw 20 films (if you count the short programs as single films), which is less than last year by a fair whack, but I was also working full time this year. Last year I didn't work full time during Cinequest. I also kept up with Aikido this year, unlike last year when I stopped training for two weeks. So go me.

I am so ready for a vacation now. Wheeee!

In other news, I have officially survived another year outside the womb. Happy birthday to me. :D

File under: Movies, Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 08, 2006

Wooo! Also, a general update.

Now all my friends who are using LiveJournal can put my blogs in their friends list. See My LJ Profile for details. (Thanks, Jeff)

In other news, sorry I haven't been blogging much. Between Cinequest, work (which is awesome), and trying to take care of myself (*shakes fist at fibromyalgia*) I have very little free time. On the bright side, I am still feeling good in spite of how many movies I've seen in the last couple weeks.

It never ceases to amaze me how counterintuitive it is for me to take care of myself. Taking long, hot baths and getting plenty of sleep are really good for my fibro, but I always feel vaguely guilty shirking other things (like Cinequest coverage) in order to do them. I know that taking care of myself keeps me from having a major flare but even so... we are so conditioned by modern society (especially here in Silicon Valley) to take pride in not taking care of ourselves that it's very difficult for me not to feel like a slacker. I'm working on it, though.

File under: Linkage, Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 02, 2006

Whoa. I'm famous!

Check it out. One of my reviews got quoted alongside a review from the BOSTON GLOBE.

I am teh sch1zn1t!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

February 24, 2006

Checking in

Hey, all! I'm not dead, just really really really loving my new job. Seriously. My coworkers are awesome, my cube is awesome, and I'm in those early stages where all things seem possible on all my projects. ...So that's why I haven't been posting. I'm too busy working. And enjoying it. Wow.

So... yeah. Here are some links to keep you busy! These are things I've been looking at lately when I'm taking a quick break from working.
Count Your Sheep - Cute and surreal webcomic.
Internet Sacred Text Archive
Tomato Nation - If you don't read it, you should.
Abi-Station - An avatar (personal icon for IM, LJ, whatever) maker. Has some awesome stuff and some hilarious Engrish to boot.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 13, 2006

I'm okay...

... but my car? Not so much. *sigh* At least AAA is being awesome. And the guy who hit me was nice.

UPDATE:
OK, here's what happened, in a nutshell.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

February 07, 2006

Collecting

I'm a collector.

I know this. I've known it since I started giving in to my compulsion to gather all the hubcaps I saw lying on the side of the road I biked along to get to Junior High. I gather things and hang onto them, regardless of whether I might need them later. Then, if I do need them later, I can't find the damn things because they're mixed in with all my other clutter. It pisses me off. But the thought of getting rid of something totally cool and then not having it when I want it bothers me.

So I've subscribed to the Discardian blog. I'm not actually doing any of the things she suggests, mind you, but just reading them regularly is helping to get me acclimatized to the Discardian way (that's Discardian, not Discordian, by the way).

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 02, 2006

Well, holy schlamoly

I just got a new job. I start there in two weeks. So I'm finishing stuff at my current job superfast so that it's all ready when I leave. Then I'll be at a new job, where I'll be super busy learning everything.

So, long story short, posting will be light for a while. I was enjoying trying to come up with random stuff to post about for sweeps week, but now I don't really have time. Poopie.

In keeping with my determination not to get Dooced, I am not going to blog the details of either job or my transition or anything. If you want those details, call or email or whatever. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

January 31, 2006

OMGCUTE

Sweeps week continues!

My friend TrenchWench works at the aquarium where that ball of fluff lives. I am so envious.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 12, 2006

Miscellaneous

A few items of note, about which I would blog in depth if I had any energy at all:

I now have Das Keyboard installed on my work computer. I am somewhat bummed that it's not ergonomic - time to start actually taking those little breaks that my break reminder software dings about - but hot damn does it make me feel totally awesome. I luff my new keyboard.

My bestest 'net pal Annie left last night. I am bummed about that. Oh, well. I've still got a bunch of photos to put up from her visit, so that'll be fun. Some are up already.

I am totall exhausted, but it's the fun kind of exhausted - a week of running around like a madwoman with Annie has utterly drained me but we had a blast. Check out what all we did:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 06, 2006

Day One Running 'round with Annie

Man. Yesterday rocked. After my morning at work, I picked up Annie and we had lunch at Cathay House (my favorite local Chinese place), drove up to the Mystery Spot, found our way to Felton Cemetery, took a short hike in Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, wandered Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, and had dinner at Shogun (a Japanese restaurant on Pacific Ave.). It was exhausting, but awesome.

I had never been to the Mystery Spot before, so that was cool. Even knowing how they did most of the illusions, I had fun. Took some awesome pix, which I shall put up on Flickr forthwith.

Today we are hitting San Francisco. Wheee!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 04, 2006

Ealasaid's vocabulary explained, part #162

Ealasaid says...	The Average American says...	Ealasaid's friends say...
_____ is a boring person.	_____ is a sane person.	_____ is kinda lame.
_____ is a sane/normal person.	_____ is a crazy person.	_____ is cool, but maybe a little crazy.
_____ is a weird person!	*head explodes*	Wow, ______ is really weird.

File under: Pure Ego!
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January 01, 2006

Miscellaneous news

The new merch from Orange Penny Loafers is tres funny. I totally want one. One of what? Not sure. Probably the tshirt. Not that I need more tshirts.

In other news, I've been caught up in a hamster fit for several days now.

What is a hamster fit? Well, it's when you suddenly feel the urgent need to clean/rearrange your living space, and is named for the way hamsters willl sometimes freak out and completely rearrange their cage/nest. For me, it means I've put away more stuff in the last few days than I have all year long. I'm discovering floor space I haven't seen in ages. I'm actually able to get at the books in my bookshelves (partly because I've moved everything that was on the floor in front of them onto my bed so it's higher up and easier to get to).

I suspect that this has been brought on by the fact that Rave is coming to visit me on Wednesday. WEDNESDAY OH MY GODS THAT IS ONLY FOUR DAYS FROM NOW THE HOUSE IS A STY WHAT WILL I DO OMGWTFBBQ!!!!111one!!eleven!

OK, back to cleaning.

Oh, and if anybody has a CD shelf that holds upwards of 300 CDs that they want to get rid of, I would love to have it. My CD tower is woefully overfull. Seriously. It's overflowing. I discovered this when I tried to put all my CDs that had been sitting around my desk to be ripped for my MP3 player back in the unit. Oops.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I am typing this entry from my fresh, new laptop, which arrived Friday (although I didn't blog its arrival, because, well, I didn't want to jinx anything by mentioning it until I had it up and running and had all the programs installed on it). It runs like a charm, and while it will take some getting used to the new keyboard, I think it will be just fine. Now I have to come up with a name for it. Hmmmm.

I've decided not to make any resolutions this year because resolutions invariably lead to me beating myself up sometime between the second of January and the first of June (or whenever I fail utterly to achieve any of my resolutions). I have a habit of setting insane goals for myself and then being convinced that I am a terrible human being when I fail to follow through.

So: no resolutions. Just the same stuff I try to do every day: be as good a person as I can, do what I can to fulfill my obligations and help folks. Failing that, just try to make it through the day.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 28, 2005

Blerk

I have a cold. I hate being sick on vacation (although since, as a contractor, I don't get sick days, I guess it's better than being sick and having to go in to the office anyway).

It's all in my throat with an outpost in my sinuses. I'm losing my voice, coughing (unproductively) occasionally, and trying to keep from getting a sinus headache.

Thank heaven for my set of cold-busting measures:

Drinking echinacea tea
Taking lots of Vitamin C (in tablet or orange juice form)
Dressing VERY WARMLY
Getting lots of rest

I developed this system back in grad school when I had something like four colds in a row with about a week of health between each. Mind you, I am very low on echinacea - it's almost all in at the office because, hey, that's where I spend most of my waking hours. Dammit. I may have to go try to get in tomorrow to get it. Bleah. (My favorite echinacea tea of all time isn't available in stores anymore, grr)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

As promised!

As promised, here's my review of the Diva Cup and Lunapads I bought from Lunapads. If frank discussion of menstrual matter bugs ya, don't keep reading.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 27, 2005

Wow.

Man. Christmas has been crazy. First there was all the chaos getting ready, then there was all the aftermath-chaos (read: recovering from eating too much and having tons of fun, trying to find places to put away all my new gifties, and working on my thank-you notes list).

Things are settling down, and I have a long list of Stuff To Blog. Wheee. Hopefully I will get through a good chunk of it today and tomorrow. In the meantime, I have to brag: My wonderful, awesome, totally cool geek boyfriend got me Das Keyboard! HOORAY!

I can't wait to install it at work and freak out my coworkers. Wheeeeeeee!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 02, 2005

'Tis the season...

...to make wishlists! I have loads. For them as are toying with the idea of buying me shtuff for the holidays, here they are!

• ThinkGeek Wishlist
• Amazon.com main list
• Amazon expensive crazy list
• Wishlist.com Wishlist (for stuff from sites that don't have their own wishlists)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Phew.

Well, NaNo is finally over.

I have a zillion links I have been meaning to post, but every spare iota of typing time has been going to my novel. Heh. So, here are some links!

• Susanna Clarke Seminar - an awesome collection of essays about the kickass fantasy novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
• Privilege - A lamentation - An absolutely amazing post about societal sexism and how difficult establish a true equality between the genders is going to be. The analogy here is awesome.
• Prisoner of Narnia - A very interesting piece in the New Yorker about C.S. Lewis. Found via Neil Gaiman's Journal. (My only serious quibble with it is that it botches some of the Tolkien references.)
• "Not so polite" time saving tips — that work. - Blunt and to the point.
• BlogHer 2006 - Conference for women bloggers. I totally want to go!
• Be True To Your Blog - A very interesting piece about why it's better to have one big blog rather than several blogs about different things. An interesting piece, and one which gives me yet another reason to incorporate my NaNo blog and possibly even my Booklog back into this one.
• Time for Plan Brat - Best. Response. To anti-Plan-B-Pharmacists. EVAR.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 30, 2005

In case you missed it...

If you haven't been reading my NaNoWriMo blog, you should know that I finished NaNo a winner again this year! Go me! This is my fifth time. I feel awesome. There are excerpts and stuff over in my NaNo blog.

My brain is now mush. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 22, 2005

Unmentionables

I almost filed this under "Political Shtuff", it being right next to "Pure Ego", and yanno, that category kinda fits too.

Today I ordered a DivaCup from Luna Pads. It came in a pack deal with two of their Luna MiniPads.

(Immature or grossed out by bodily functions? Stop reading now!)

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 16, 2005

Decisions, decisions...

I have a problem. Here is the situation:

1. Black Friday (the awesome day of sales after Thanksgiving) is coming.
2. I really, really need a new laptop. (my current one is a '95 Thinkpad on its very last legs.)
3. Rumor has it that a certain retailer will be selling awesome laptops for about $400.
4. That retailer is Wal*Mart.
5. I hate Wal*Mart with a burning flame of passion. Seriously. Hate Hate Hate Hate.

So now I have to decide what to do. Set foot in the dreaded stronghold of all that is evil in corporate America or continue bitching about the fact that I can't afford a new laptop. A few things that I have figured out:

Reasons to buy	Reasons not to
I need a new laptop. Apparently these laptops are Wal*Mart's loss-leader, so I'd be costing the bastards money. It'd be nice to have a new laptop -- yanno, one that booted in less than 10 minutes, ran WindowsXP, and had a USB port.	I'd get Wal*Mart cooties by going in the store. I'd be tacitly supporting Wal*Mart by purchasing something there. I can get by without a new laptop. Shopping on Black Friday is INSANE.

I am having a LOT of trouble deciding what to do. On the one hand, I don't want to compromise my principles. On the other hand, I really want a new laptop.

Arrrrrgh.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

November 07, 2005

D'oh

I mentioned it in my NaNo Blog but forgot to mention it here; I have a confirmed diagnosis of fibromyalgia. My doc is good, and we're trying some meds, so hopefully that will work out.

I'm debating how much to write about it here; on the one hand, I try to keep the personal stuff to a minimum (this is a blog, after all, not a journal!) but on the other hand, I think it's valuable to have info out there about fibro. I appear to have a fairly low key case compared to some folks out there, so that's another reason it might be good to talk about it here.

We'll see. I gotta ponder it some more. What are my readers' thoughts on the subject?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

October 20, 2005

Hm.

I can't decide whether to keep up a separate blog for NaNoWriMo or not. I mean, on one hand it seems silly to have a separate blog which lies fallow 11 months out of the year. But on the other hand, I like being able to have the sidebar and all that. Every time I decide I should merge my NaNo blog into this blog, I waver before I actually do it and think of lots of reasons NOT to merge them.

Gah.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 19, 2005

Holy moly.

Well, over lunch I finally scanned the last of my books into my book cataloging program.

I have 1,023 books, not counting the ones from my childhood, which I have just remembered are boxed up in the garage. Damn. I gotta find the time to dig them out and scan them in, since they're the ones that are left AFTER I went through andweeded out all but the ones I couldn't bear to get rid of.

No wonder I never seem to have enough shelf space.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

October 18, 2005

The first ever Ego! Ego! Ego! giveaway!

Yep, I've decided to join the crowd of bloggers who try to lure in readers by offering free stuff.

What am I offering?

A chance to see the film "Doom" before it hits theaters this Friday.

Specifically, a chance to see it with me tonight at an advance screening.

Good things: chance to see a movie with Ealasaid, chance to see what will probably be a lame movie for free, get to sit in the press section at the screening.

Bad things: you only have until 5pm PDT to contact me. Well, and the movie may be totally crappy. And I can only take one person.

You can email me or ping me on IM (EalasaidH, EalasaidH@hotmail.com - I'm on Yahoo, MSN, AIM, and ICQ pretty much all day).

At 5pm I will tally the replies and the person who gives me the most creative reason why I should take them to see the movie gets to come with.

But Ealasaid, I hear you cry, you never do this. What gives?

The answer: I don't really feel like doing the last-minute-round-of-phone-calls-to-find-a-movie-going-partner routine. The bf had something come up at the last minute, and I have too much going on today to deal with trying to figure out who among my vast network of pals wants to see this movie the most. Plus, I figure it will be interesting to see who (if anyone) replies. :)

---Edited to add:---

We have a winner! He sent me cat photos and other distractions. Hooray.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 17, 2005

Miscellaneous

A few random notes:

• I am beginning to seriously consider begging all my friends/family to get me gift certificates to IKEA for Christmas so that I can get enough Billy bookshelves to store my books and CDs. I have a shelf for DVDs, but only an awkward CD tower (which doesn't fit nicely ANYWHERE IN MY ROOM) for my CDs. The Billy like (of which I have two bookshelves already) is simple, functional, and holds up well. The problem is that I have my eyes on something like $200 worth of furniture and am having trouble justifying spending that much when I can fit all my books on my current shelving... double-stacked.
  
• The internet is definitely a distraction from getting things accomplished. It is way too interesting compared with the things I should actually be doing. I am winning the war, but only just (and only by giving myself the occasional break to give in to temptation).
  
• "Domino" is a totally insane movie. Seriously. I really enjoyed it, but I suspect that indicates something terrible about me. In my defense, Roger Ebert liked it too. Don't worry, my review will be up later so you can read it.
  
• 43Folders.com is an interesting site I found through this NYTimes article on Life Hacks. I find the idea of life hacking to be utterly fascinating, especially as I am terribly prone to suffering not only from interruptions and trouble re-focusing but from interrupting myself all the time (usually to do stupid things like answer an email message that can wait or find that webpage I meant to visit).
  

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 13, 2005

Irony

Tuesday, my doctor tells me to "take it easy" and not over-exert myself until we get a diagnosis/drug regimen worked out for me.

Wednesday, I get a very polite letter from the Red Cross, begging me to sign up for apherisis because I am one of the 50% of donors who test negative for some antibody I have never heard of. They desperately need me to do apherisis, and to do it soon, before I get exposed to the virus and develop those antibodies. (You can be exposed without getting sick, apparenlty.)

But I can't, because I'm supposed to be "taking it easy."

What will be even more ironic is if, in a couple weeks, I get permission from my doc to do the donation and then it turns out I've been exposed to the virus in question and developed those antibodies.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 07, 2005

How to make my day

I was chatting with a guy I met via the THUD forum, and when I sent him a link to my site, he said to me, "You're the ealasaid of ealasaid.com!" Turns out he reads my movie reviews and likes them!

It totally made my day. Maybe my whole week.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 05, 2005

You know you drink a lot of Diet Coke when...

...you find yourself educating someone who has been at the company longer than you about the foibles of the soda machine in the break room. "It doesn't take dimes... and sometimes it rejects state quarters. You have to put those in with the head facing up so it will take them."

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Irony

I find it incredibly ironic that the new drug my doc put me on to help me sleep better (among other things) actually makes me groggy. So... basically, I sleep better but feel just as tired all day as before because of the side effect.

Oh, and I have the added bonus of an upset stomach, not being able to take my beloved crutch ibuprofen much if at all (for fear of causing gastric bleeding), and... it's not doing any of the other good things it was supposed to.

Here endeth the whining.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 04, 2005

Good for me!

Quoth my aunt, via email, to me, in an attempt to reassure me that I am not out of my mind for being very upset by "Serenity":

I think you've got a pretty decent grip on reality.

And yeah, I will probably post my reaction to "Serenity" in full at some point, but I'm working up my nerve. So far, most of my friends seem to think I am being melodramatic about it.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

September 26, 2005

Irony

I am making a bunch of calls today trying to find my favorite knee brace.

I was on hold for quite a while as a guy checked for me, just now, and the hold music had a refrain: "Baby, I can't please you, I can't please you, I can't please you."

How apropos.

I can find the brace I want online but I was hoping to find it at an actual store where I could walk in and buy it rather than having to wait while it's shipped. Curses.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 20, 2005

Hm...

This is my second day in a row home sick from work with The Cold From Hell. I am running a fever, hence the staying home. However, I have some observations now about staying home - I think this is my longest sick leave from a job ever. When I was in school, I went to class unless I was throwing up.

1. Being home sick is a great way to catch up on the stuff stored on your TiVo.
2. Having a fever is really goddamn annoying. You've heard of "cold hands, warm heart"? Try "cold feet, freaking HOT everything else".
3. Vitamin C is a water-solumble vitamin, so any excess flushes out of your body quickly. This means taking two Vitamin C tablets over breakfast can indeed leave you needing more by dinner.
4. "Supernatural" sure as heck looks like yet another crappy WB show.
5. "Bones" was cheesy but funny. I think it may wind up as a double feature with "House", another cheesy show I love anyway.
6. "Threshold" kicks ass. I dig that they have a little person in the cast playing a part that clearly could have been played by someone of average stature. The only reference to his height was a cute little pause in his line "Oh, so you don't like men who are (pause) smarter than you?" Also, Brent Spiner is awesome.
7. I am almost caught up on "Battlestar Galactica" and still enjoying it. At least the Cylons haven't had as many "OMG, we are SO EVIL! SERIOUSLY!" moments as they did for a while there.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 19, 2005

Wow. I totally adore Lands' End.

Lands' End. Not only do they make custom jeans but they still have my measurements and everything in my profile so I can just reorder my last pair.

What makes this even cooler is that I ordered that pair of jeans two years ago. (which gives you a hint how long they last, since I wear them all the time)

Man. I <3 Lands' End.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2005

w00t

Proof that some benevolent force is out there:

I am going to LA this weekend to see a Dodgers' game with my Aunt.

I learned yesterday that there is a Red Elvises concert in LA this weekend.

The game is in the early afternoon, so there is plenty of time for me to go.

I get to see Red Elvises the day after tomorrow! By sheer luck! HOORAY!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 05, 2005

Wow.

Man. I've cold-called 27 papers so far in my big "call as many weeklies as humanly possible and get 'em to run my reviews" project. Of those, right now, about half a dozen are signed up to receive regular reviews from me. Not bad, eh?

I'm out of the A's on my big list o' California weeklies, and I'm heading into the B's. Go me.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 03, 2005

Well, damn.

As some of my friends know, I have been having some trouble with joint pain lately (beyond the usual Chondromalacia and Carpal Tunnel pain, I mean).

Today, the rhumatologist told me I have fibromyalgia.

Now, I went through too much crap with my knees to take any doctor's word as OMG TEH TRUTH, so I am going to get a second opinion (hopefully from Kerlan-Jobe, who are awesome).

But it's still depressing. Fibro sucks. I mean, at least she doesn't think it's Lupus, which sucks more, but still.

Feh.

File under: Chondromalacia, Fibromyalgia, Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 26, 2005

Harry Potter

I have posted a long, VERY SPOILERY blurb about the new Harry Potter book in my booklog.

Please comment over there to keep this post spoiler-free. Yeah, the book came out a week ago, but some folks are slow readers. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 21, 2005

Dear Amazon.ca,

I pre-ordered the new Harry Potter book from you. You said it shipped last week.

WHY ISN'T IT HERE YET?!?!?!!??!!??!

It seems like all my friends have already finished reading it.

AUGH!

Desperately,
Ealasaid

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

Sprint con't.

Well, I got a letter of apology from Sprint PCS in reply to my nastygram. I will type it up when I actually remember to get the letter, myself, and a computer together.

In the meantime, check this out - another angry Sprint customer who switched to Cingular!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 13, 2005

Pincushion

I just got back from my first acupuncture appointment.

It wasn't at all what I expected.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 12, 2005

bleah

Yesterday I bought some Nag Champa incense so I can see if I like it.

I left it in its box, in the bag, on the floor near my closet (about as far as you can get from the head of my bed and still be inside my room). Then I went to sleep.

This morning, I woke up with one of those sinus headaches that wants to be a migraine when it grows up.

Excedrin Migraine has not shaken it. I'm fine as long as I don't move. If I move? A very large sumo wrestler does his stomping routine on my head.

Inhalatory allergies suck.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 16, 2005

*sigh*

Right now, I am desperately craving a quiet room, a cup of tea, some biscuits, a purring cat, and a good book.

Sadly, I am going out to dinner and a play tonight and will, in all probability, return home significantly past my bedtime, leaving me no time for the above.

In fact, the forseeable future includes no time for the above.

Maybe I can schedule something in next week. God, my schedule is way too crazy these days.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

June 14, 2005

Wow. I feel old. And young. And flattered.

I went to my 5-year college reunion over the weekend. It was awesome! I got to see my pals and party hearty and generally have a great time. I also got a ton of compliments, which was nice. :) Apparently I now look like Alanis Morrisette (so saith one of my former classmates, anyway).

I'm slowly getting photos from the weekend up on my Flickr account, so hooray. The reunion set is here.

There's a bunch of other stuff up there now too - I met Bruce Campbell at a signing last night, which was awesome, and I've taken some pix of my cube at work too. Yay.

I need to blog about the Bruce Campbell event but am too busy at work right now. I'll try to do it justice later. Meanwhile, you can read my review of his new movie.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

May 17, 2005

It's official

I am a great big gardening dork.

Today I am taking home coffee grounds from work to add to my compost pile at the house. They add nitrogen to the mix, which is always good. I am learning (slowly) about organic fertilizer and composting and stuff, and it totally killed me to realize how much coffee we go through here at work -- and all those grounds just get thrown away!!! So I talked to the gal who keeps our coffee pots stocked, and she's now saving the grounds for me to take home. I don't know how much I'll use, though - gotta do some research and make sure I don't overdo it. But even if I don't use 'em all for compost, I can save 'em in a bin or something for when I start making my own fertilizer.

Oh, and there are some pix of my gardening work up on my Flickr account.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

May 03, 2005

Sad

My grandpa passed away in his sleep this weekend.

I am really sad that he's gone, but at the same time I know it was a good way to go. He didn't linger in his confused and failing state, and he died peacefully in his sleep. That's how I would want to die.

I find myself sort of carrying on, on autopilot. I doubt anybody I haven't specifically told knows that I'm really shaken up and sad. I know I will really start to miss him once we have a family get-together without him. My grandpa was a great guy, a fantastic grandpa, and a blast to talk to.

He will be sorely missed.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

April 29, 2005

Allia Postem in Tres Partes Est

Well, I have three items of business:

Damn!

I can't install SpamLookup for some reason. It's not working.

Yay!

I successfully ordered an 80-hour TiVo for $99 (after mail-in rebate) via their website. For a minute it looked like they were out of stock, but then it went through. Yay! I will soon have my very own God's Machine!

Harumph

My Terry Pratchett Meetup tonight got cancelled - the only other people who were going are sick. However, this gave me time to finally move it off meetup! The two places to go:

Yahoo! Groups

Upcoming.org (keyword: pratchett)

I hope we can rustle up more people. I also ordered some free business cards through VistaPrint to advertise it, and will scatter them liberally around. Huzzah.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 22, 2005

I'm a mommy!

Well, by proxy.

I almost forgot to mention that I adopted a bat today! His name is Little E, and you can read all about him here. I can't wait to get my bat package so I can have a photo of him to show off.

I wish I could adopt all of those bats. Some of their stories made me all sniffly. Seriously. If there were a bat sanctuary around here, I would totally volunteer. Bats rule.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 18, 2005

Cute Cat Photos!

Cute cat photos ahoy!

These are all of Mauser, my older cat. My roomie caught him being cute on her bed. Hee!

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 11, 2005

Material Girl

Wow.

I just updated my Amazon Wishlist. It has 113 items on it. Now, admittedly I do use my wishlist as a way to make notes of stuff I want to buy myself at some point -- but still, that number is somehow daunting.

I guess I'm just greedy. ;)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 07, 2005

This is just a test.

If this were a real entry, I would have written something interesting here.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 29, 2005

Holy crap, this working thing is tiring.

Well, I'm working short hours. Here's my schedule this week:

Monday: 9am-2pm Tech Writing Gig, 3pm-6pm Learning Center
Tuesday: 9am-2pm Tech Writing Gig, 3pm-6pm Learning Center
Wedday: 9am-2pm Tech Writing Gig, 3pm-6pm Learning Center, 7-8pm Aikido
Thursday: 9am-2pm Tech Writing Gig, 3pm-6pm Learning Center, 7:30pm-9pm Tutoring
Friday: 9am-2pm Tech Writing Gig, 3pm-6pm Learning Center, 7-8pm Aikido

It's only Tues. night and I am BEAT! I am FRICKIN TIRED, y'all! What is up with this? I'm working fewer hours than when I'm subbing full time, but I'm exhausted. and it's not like the tech writing has been really hard, 'cos it hasn't. I'm still ramping up, learning how to use everything and so on.

Man, I'm going to bed early tonight.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 24, 2005

Aw, yeah. I am rockin'!

I got me a tech writing contract! Full time, about six months long, at a company a ways up the peninsula. Starts Monday -- part time for a couple weeks while they hunt down a replacement for me at Success! Learning Center, then full time through the fall.

However, I have NO intention of being dooced, so I will not be blogging much about work, if at all.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 22, 2005

Question

I'm considering rehauling my site - it's been several years since I weeded out the old bits I no longer use and refurbed the bits I wanted to keep. I'm figuring to delete any section I don't have a major emotional investment in.

I'm curious what y'all think about that sort of thing. Should one archive things like The OHMIGOD? I mean, they're not pages I put much effort into. Things like my honors thesis will stay, of course, and my current blogs and whatnot, but most of my fan stuff is way old and out of date.

Thoughts?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 20, 2005

CatFight

I like watching my cats playfight. They frequently pause to stare at each other while posing, motionless. Zephyr tends to hold one paw up about an inch from Mauser's head, ready to pop him, and then freeze. They will stare at each other, and sometimes one will yowl, and then they'll both bap each other a little, then go back to posing. They rarely do the tumbling-ball-of-flying-fur thing, they're much more into the pose-bap-pose-whap thing, with some tearing around the house mixed in.

I have got to get a photo of this at some point.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2005

Weirdness

Well, with Cinequest over, my schedule is a lot more freed up. Unfortunately, this gives me time to fuss about:

1. taxes
2. job stuff
3. going out for my brown belt in Aikido
4. my work as a movie reviewer
5. spring cleaning
6. the backlog of Stuff To Do and Email Messages To Answer

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 14, 2005

Wow

Well, it's official. I'm a grown up.

I turn 27 today.

I'm not sure why, but somehow 27 has been the magic number for me - the birthday when you stop being a young adult and are just an adult.

It's a little scary, especially considering that I don't have a full-time job or a place of my own (although I have moved out of my parents' place, and that's something).

To console myself, I took a look back at the 100 Things meme I did and the 25 things I want to do before I turn 50. I'm doing okay so far, I think.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

March 07, 2005

Aw YEAH!

I am awesome.

Since I got up this morning, I have done the following:

1. caught up on my capsule reviews for Cinequest. (4 capsules)
2. written a piece on Harold Lloyd
3. written a piece on the Maverick Spirit Awards
4. pitched a story about KFJC's upcoming film festival and had it accepted.
5. written a profile on a couple of Cinequest regular attendees
6. written a review of "Be Cool"
7. vacuumed the house
8. taken a short lunch break

Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. I am all about the multitasking.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

Gratuitous photos of my cats!

They are so cute! You'd never know it from these shots that they frequently fight and leave tufts of hair everywhere.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 13, 2005

Gah!

Why is it that it's so hard to take care of one's self? It may just be me, but I have a lot of trouble taking good care of myself these days. I don't get enough sleep, don't always eat properly, etc. etc. Now, part of it's stress - when I'm exhausted, I don't feel as badly about how little progress I've made in my chosen career - but part of it is that I'm just having difficulty making the time to take good care of myself.

I gotta work on this.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 09, 2005

I'm famous!

Well, sort of.

This morning I read an excerpt from my Johnny Theremin NaNo novel on KFJC 89.7 fm, a local radio station! An MP3 of the event will be posted at http://www.lunacow.com/audio This is part of a series of readings by fellow local NaNoWriMo writers, and you can hear the others' contributions on the MP3s page too. Spiffy, nu?

It was a lot of fun, and I'm totally stoked. The host of the program, Ann Arbor, was nice and seemed enthused about my story. She thinks we Thereminians should get Neil Gaiman to approve an anthology of Theremin stories! Yikes!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 01, 2005

Well, no wonder!

I figured out why I'm so frickin' tired all the time.

My schedule has me working 8:30 am-6pm on Mondays and Wednesdays (10.5 hour days), 8:30 am - 9:30 pm Tuesdays (13 hour day), 8:30 am - 9:00 pm Thursdays (12.5 hour day), 8:30 am - 5:30 pm Fridays (9 hour day), and 4:30 pm - 9:00 pm Sundays (only 5 hours!). This adds up to 60.5 hours. Plus, I do Aikido Monday/Wednesday/Friday (in theory), which turns all three into 12.5 hour days and brings my grand total to 68 hours a week. It's worse when I sub, 'cos then my workday starst at 7:45 instead of 8:30 and I have commute time so I have to leave the house around 7:15 instead of ambling over to my computer at 8:30. Gah.

On top of that, I maintain my websites, try to keep up with email, watch my favorite TV shows, and do my best to have a social life.

Maybe I need to find ways to cut back a little, hey?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

January 18, 2005

Phew

There's something about finding out that one does have enough money to pay all the bills after all that is remarkably soothing... and at the same time, remarkably invigorating! I feel like partying now.

Yay!

One month at a time...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

January 07, 2005

Boooks!

Got my booklog looking more like its old self again. Yay!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 05, 2005

Book log!

I have decided to try the 50 book challenge (see livejournal community). I will read 50 books this year, and blog them over in my Book Blog.

Maybe I should look into readoing my book blog's template while I'm at it - I never redid it after I lost the old one, and that boring old template is kind of depressing.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

*yawn*

Man, I just cannot wake up this morning! Gah!

I reposted my resume on Monster and Dice this morning, plus posted it fresh on JournalismJobs. I updated my profile on LinkedIn too. Very exciting.

Time to start calling editors, I guess. Then I gotta take my car to the body shop - my dealership says it looks ine to them but that a bodyshop will know for sure. Wheeeeeeee.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 26, 2004

Bragging time!

Best. Christmas. Evar.

I got so much totally awesome stuff that I've been wanting but couldn't afford! The bf gave me a Neuros MP3 Player, among other things. My grandfather got me the UK editions of the four most recent Terry Pratchett books (the ones I didn't have yet 'cos I was too broke). My parents gave me Dragon Naturally Speaking software and lovely work shirts, among other things. My roommate got me two awesome books I've been wanting for a while now - Lapsing into a Comma and Good In Bed.

AWESOME.

I can't wait to get the Neuros installed and full of music - it holds 30Gb of songs. Also, it is really cute. AND has a built-in FM transmitter. YAY!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 16, 2004

Gah!

Well, the interview yesterday went great, I thought, although it was weird to do a "techie" interview rather than a "fuzzie" interview. The bf and I have discussed the differences in interview styles several times and it was neat to actually be in the hot seat for a techie interview.

What's the difference, you say?

Well, fuzzy interviews are informal, chatty, and don't usually have wacky questions. The interviews I did with the City of Milpitas and The San Mateo County Times were pretty simple. "Tell us more about this thing on your resume. What kinds of things did you do there?"

Whereas a techie interview involves talking with a series of people, getting asked "do you have any questions for us?" a lot, and, ironically, much more touchy-feely questions about one's resume ("how does it make you feel when you have to really chase down information?").

I did feel like I have much more techie cred than I usually give myself credit for - apparently teaching myself CSS and HTML with almost no help, tackling Visual Basic at the age of 8, and trying to learn Perl alone from a book is unusual. Who knew?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 14, 2004

changes

Well, one of my seven jobs is gone - lost the contract due to lack of funding on the employer's part. Another of my seven jobs has dried up temporarily, at least until mid-January. Gah.

But I have a job interview tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

December 10, 2004

feh

Sorry for the lack of postings. What with the whole "winter" thing going on I am doing my standard "vaguely depressed, asocial, and introverted" schtick. yeah, I know, I do it every year. booooooring.

Well, not so much for the last three or so years, because I had Lord of the Rings movies to cheer me up (and/or energize me by sucking in some ways, thus inspiring hatred and rage).

But no new LotR this year, not to mention the events of Nov. 2. So ... yeah. Not feeling like doing much these days. *sigh* I gotta get out more. I know that sunshine helps. Maybe I'll go for a walk.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 28, 2004

Numbers

Messages awaiting answers/filing/dealing with in my inbox, not counting email lists: 333

Words left to write for NaNoWriMo: ~3,000 (gotta get a few words over the limit in case my word counter is different from the official one)

Gatherings (party/concert/write-in) scheduled for this week: 4

Hours of work scheduled for this week: 40ish (depends on when I get myself out of bed after the Thank God It's Over NaNoWriMo party)

Jobs I will work at this week in some capacity: 7

Diet Cokes left in my fridge: 1 (AIE!)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 23, 2004

Argh!

I love blogging. I love the opportunity to express myself and know it can be read by the half dozen readers I like to think I have, and then be shuffled into the archives and never read again except by search engine spiderbots and people googling on random-ass stuff.

But my blogs are (obviously!) taking a hit, what with NaNoWriMo taking up all my time.

I feel bad. I have hundreds of links I've been meaning to post, I'm behind on my memes, and I haven't done a Word of the Day in ages! ARGH!

To make me feel even worse, one of the people whose blog I adore (*waves* at Marn) said some really nice things about my blog today in an email message.

BTW, if you haven't given thanks that Marn's cancer surgery went really well, you should. And you should start wearing more sunscreen. And hats. And all that.

Anyway.

I'm sorry, faithful readers, that I've been slacking. But I have a lot of writing to do. I have to write 15k words in the next week. Yikes.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

November 21, 2004

eek.

My horoscope for today (from Tarot.com) says:

Gathering with friends can bring you much joy, but there is also a price to pay. You can overdo it now and find yourself too tired to do what you really need. If you limit your activities just a little, you can conserve the energy that you'll otherwise be wishing you had.

Boy howdy is that accurate. Holidays are a pain sometimes. I had a great early Turkeyday with my relatives and family friends yesterday but am beat today (and further behind on my NaNo wordcount, to boot). *sigh*

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 11, 2004

Cripes.

Today's the first day in what, over a week that I've written?

Geez. That's kind of pathetic.

Sorry, kids. As I mentioned over on my NaNo blog, I have seven jobs right now so my blogging is sort of taking a hit right now. It doesn't help that I subbed 4 days in 5 last week. Yikes.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

October 03, 2004

I did it.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. I even have a plot, provided I don't get told I'm not allowed to use it - I'm doing a Johnny Theremin novel. Hooray!

This is what happens when I don't have any good plots to work with. I have a couple but they're offlimits to me for various reasons (a sequel to last years', which I don't consider done because I never finished editing it, so I shouldn't be writing a sequel, dammit; rewriting my Jaspa novel, which is lame because it was my 2002 NaNo book; etc). I'm having trouble coming up with something new, and that weird Johnny Theremin outline just hit the spot. I knew about it before but it suddenly sprang into my mind when I was talking to a friend about how I didn't know what to write about for this year.

Voila.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 27, 2004

New Shakespeare Class about to start

Well, all, Othello has concluded and my Shakespeare class is taking a week off before starting up again on October 10. If you were thinking about signing up, now's the time! Email me or leave a comment if you're interested in joining up. We haven't picked a new play yet, and if you join soon you can be part of choosing what we'll read next.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 22, 2004

I'm baaaaack

Well, kids, I have returned. Once I've had a chance to go through the tons of pix I took, I'll post some here. I had a fantastic time and am now all tired and ready for a break. Why do I always come back from vacation feeling like I need a vacation? Sheesh.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 14, 2004

Bye-Byeeeee

Well, folks, I'm flying back East tonight to visit my mom's younger brother and his kids. My next-to-oldest cousin from that lot is getting married this Friday! I haven't seen these guys in AGES although we've kept in touch via email. I'm staying with the oldest cousin of the batch. It will be GREAT to see them all again!

Assuming, that is, that I don't have a nervous breakdown before takeoff. I swear, if I lose one more thing I am going to go insane. On the bright side, while digging around for the stuff I want to find, I keep finding things I had misplaced and was looking for a while ago. Clearly I just need to muddle through without on this trip and then in a month or two when I'm looking for something else, I will find the things I'm missing now.

Sheesh.

Ain't stress grand?

Anyway, I doubt I'll be able to post while I'm there, but I should have pix and stories when I get back. Besides the wedding we're going to a Mets game and visiting the Gorey House, and the Dadster loaned me his supercool digital camera. Hooray!

While I'm gone, feel free to catch up on my Movie Reviews (THX-1138 and Cellular recently added). :D

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 09, 2004

Oh, my Gods!

Last night was FAR more entertaining than it needed to be.

Short version:

1. Antwon came over.
2. We smelled something burning.
3. We heard sirens.
4. We went outside.
5. His dad's van was on fire.
6. The firefighters arrived and put it out.
7. The firefighters told us it looks like an electrical thing.
8. Everything from inside the van was damp but okay.
9. The fire didn't spread.
10. Everyone and everything but the van is all right.

We were too rattled last night to take pix, but it was amazing. We did get photos this morning, though.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

September 07, 2004

Kitty!

I swear, Zephyr must be the neediest cat ever. He cries at me to be petted all the time and is even now sitting on my lap and purring and rubbing at my hands. He just needs so much love! Geez!

I thought cats were supposed to be all aloof and stuff. I guess nobody told Zephyr. ;)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 05, 2004

Shakespeare!

Well, all y'all who didn't sign up for my Shakespeare class or couldn't make it or whatever totally missed out. We had a great time! Snacks, good reading, lively discussion, the works. Hooray!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

September 02, 2004

Propertius

One of the great things about cataloging my books is finding old gems I'd nearly forgotten. Like this great poem from Propertius:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Public Service Announcement

I just got word that another family member has type II Diabetes (adult-onset).

That makes four people I know who have it. Three of them are family members.

This is scary stuff, people. Our fantabulous American lifestyle leads right to it, too. Sedentary living and high-sugar foods will bite you in the ass eventually.

So exercise, dammit. Cut back a little on the surgariness. This latest relative of mine with it always seemed to be in decent shape - but was a bit of a sugar fiend in his own way.

Watch out. Diabetes is nasty stuff.

File under: Pure Ego!
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August 27, 2004

Weirdness from my trip

I'm hoping some of y'all can help me with this.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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August 26, 2004

Creativity is my bane.

DFilm lets you make your own flash movies. I am sure I've posted about it before - it was big on the Antwon.com BBS at one point.

I LOVE this site! It rules!

But I can never think of anything clever to do with it.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Shakespeare Class Part Deux

I've moved the old entry back to the 23rd so it will stop clogging the top of my blog. :)

I've got four people who are definitely interested, so I'm going to contact them via email and try to nail down a time. Anybody else who's interested, speak up now!!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 23, 2004

The Bottom Line has a new home!

I'm in the process of moving my movie reviews archive over into Movable Type, and am posting new reviews at the new location. Hooray! Go check it out. There's even an RSS feed there now!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

OK, Bloggers.

I mentioned at a Weblogger Meetup a while back that my Shakespeare Class at the Learning Center had fallen through. Several people said they'd have been interested if I'd told them.

So here we go:

I am considering putting together a once-a-week Shakespeare class this fall.

Anybody interested, leave a comment here. I'm going to change the date on this post (today's the 15th of August) to keep it at the top of the page for a while. Click the continue link for my thoughts on how the class would work.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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August 22, 2004

I'm tired already.

Man. Come September 13, I will have 7 jobs unless something major changes.

1. Lead teacher at Success! Learning Center.
2. Substitute teacher for MUSD
3. Private tutor with 3 students (maybe more if that Shakespeare class comes together!)
4. Freelance web designer with 1 client.
5. Movie Reviewer for local papers.
6. Writer for the City of Milpitas newsletter. (available online here in PDF format.
7. Synopsis writer for NetFlix.com.

Good lord. No wonder I'm so beat.

On the bright side, I have an unprecedented 3 paying writing gigs! Go me!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Livejournal, yay.

I did it. I made me a LiveJournal. Hooray. Feel free to friend me at will.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Well, damn.

I have come to the conclusion that I really ought to have a profile on LiveJournal, of only so I can have a cool icon and whatnot when I post comments on my friends' LiveJournals.

Do I need an invite or something? How does this work?

File under: Pure Ego!
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August 17, 2004

Singing

Earthdog asked what songs his readers would sing if we were in a cover band. Mine:

• "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex ("
• "Kitty" by the Presidents of the United States of America
• "Tommy the Cat" by Primus
• "Treat me Right" as sung by Elvis
• "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult
• "Bad Habit" by the Offspring
• "Boogie on the Beach" by Red Elvises
• "Sex in Paradise" by Red Elvises
• "Oh" by Sleater Kinney
• "Karate" by Tenacious D
• "Istanbul" by They Might be Giants
• "Don't Vote" by the Foremen
• "TMI" by Roy Zimmerman

I'm sure there are more. I have an extensive music collection and love to sing. It's been a recurring fantasy of mine to be lead singer for a cover band.

File under: Pure Ego!
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August 15, 2004

Ramblings

I survived, hooray! Made deadline with half an hour to spare, and would actually have been earlier but I was puttering around waiting in case some of the folks I was waiting for actually got back to me.

Yay. I did it.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 09, 2004

I am not dead...

... I just wish I were. I'm working a jillion hours a day trying to make a horrible deadline this Friday.

Gah.

So... yeah. that's why posting has been weird lately. I haven't got the brainpower to post properly.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 06, 2004

Things that make me go "yay!"

1. I got a freelance gig with NetFlix.
2. A college buddy of mine (who I used to have a crush on) saw the photos from the wedding and said I look hot.

Nothing like a sweet little job and an ego stroke to make an overworked, overtired gal feel better.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

August 03, 2004

Nulla Salus Sine the Hives

Well, I managed to see The Hives over the weekend. Yay! Looked for a bit like I might not get tickets, then the friend I was going to go with got sick and I had to cast about for a buddy at the last minute, but it all worked out well.

Also, I touched Pelle Almqvist's hand! At the risk of sounding like a teenaged livejournal lamer, OMG!!! It was so COOL!

Great concert. Got the new album, which is cool. I think I may prefer their last album, Veni Vidi Vicious, but the new one (Tyrannosaurus Hives) is good too.

File under: Pure Ego!
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July 28, 2004

Wedding!

I'm not dead. Honest. Just working a LOT. Had a deadline moved up way further than expected and so am busy.

But here are pix from the wedding. no pix OF the wedding, because my Dad couldn't take any during the ceremony (house rules), but shots of me getting ready and being pretty and whatnot. Check it out.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

July 22, 2004

Another exciting thing...

My first major freelance gig is now online! Check it out!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The day approacheth

Yikes! My best friend's wedding is approaching at a terrifying pace.

Things left to do:

1. Figure out what the hell to wear to the rehearsal dinner
2. Pack (we're staying the night up in SF)
3. Figure out what to say for my toast
4. Wrap the wedding gift
5. Not die of nervousness

Not too bad, but I have a bunch of other stuff to do - work, eat, sleep, that kind of thing. Yeesh. Oh, and Aikido, too. GAH! not to mention that I haven't made any calls for the several queries I sent out last week (forgot to post about that, d'oh) because I've been running around doing last minute wedding stuff (figuring out my hair style! Getting a fancy hair clip! Tracking down wedding gifts!).

On the bright side, my hair is going to be neato.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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July 16, 2004

Good grief.

I suppose I might as well give up and admit that I'm turning into a girly girl now. But I keep fighting against it.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 13, 2004

You know you're desperate for a different job when...

...you call up the IPIU and ask for an application to be placed as a trainee private investigator.

Or maybe I just think being a PI would be totally cool. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

July 02, 2004

Half.com

I'm selling stuff over at Half.com. Go check out my inventory!

Some of these books are mine and some are my roomie's. None of 'em sold at the yard sale, so I'm using Half.com. Check it out!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 29, 2004

Good grief.

Geez, has it really been that long since I posted?! This is pathetic! Argh! Sorry, kids.

The summer session is in full swing at Success! Learning Center, where I work full time in the summer, so I've been superuberbusy.

Recent news: I saw "Spiderman 2" last night at a press screening and boy were my socks rocked! It is SO COOL! I got all squealy and practically crushed the bf's hand during the exciting bits because I was so worked up. All this even though I was in the process of developing a horrible migraine. THAT is how much I liked it. Is it cheesy? Yes. Is the science utterly moronic? Yes. But Doc Ock is just too cool for words and even all of Peter's angsty stoicism couldn't make me turn against the movie.

Much fun. Go see it when it opens, folks. Seriously.

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 18, 2004

Aw, crap.

All 764 emails I got while I was gone have been deleted by a malevolent (or confused) email program.

If you have emailed me in the last week (ie, since Friday, June 11) please re-send the email. Grrr.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Welcome Back!

Well, I'm back. Had an absolutely fantastic trip, too! Yay! There are too many stories to tell to even begin trying here. :) If you're one of the folks coming to my housewarming this weekend, ask me then. (And if you didn't get an evite, dood, lemme know and I'll send you the info.)

One highlight of the trip: Through extensive experimentation, the bf and I figured out that the reason I react so badly to some beers is that I'm allergic to at least some varieties of hops. Too much hops or the wrong kind of hops and beer tastes like death (and makes me feel sick). Low-hops or good-hops beers are okay. For example, Full Sail brewery's Switchback is fine by me. :)

Now to get the house ready for my housewarming this weekend, aieeeee....

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 10, 2004

Nobody appreciates the Bard anymore.

Dood!

I'm teaching a class on Shakespeare this summer at Success! Learning Center and we need more people to sign up. If you know anybody in grades 9-12 (or who's in 7-8 but REALLY good at reading), tell them to sign up!

We're going to do A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard III (one of my favorites). We're going to do essays and vocab and watch the movies and read the plays aloud (no struggling through the reading at home, man!).

Tell people to sign up, the forms are online.

Time to head out soon...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Woot!

Well, kids, I doubt I'll be posting much in the next week or so, if at all. The bf and I are going on a roadtrip up to Canada and back. Should be a blast!

And I really, really, really need a vacation, so the timing is excellent.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

June 06, 2004

What a weekend.

I've structured my weekends this way:

Saturday: MY DAY! MINE, GODDAMMIT!

Sunday: Chores around the house and misc other work.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 03, 2004

Random moving updates

My aquarium sprung a leak some time in the wee hours of yesterday morning. I went to feed the fish as I headed out the door to work yesterday and discoverd that the tank was dripping.

A trip to the pet store and a lot of work later, I have a new aquarium. Note to self: my roomie is a saint and I should treat her to dinner or something asap. She helped me with the whole empty-out-the-old-aquarium-and-net-the-fish-and-whatnot thing, then spent a couple hours moving things around while I ran off to work (substitute teaching) late. Gah.

I'm getting closer to being entirely unpacked. Not there yet (my books still need sorting/cataloging/shelving and I haven't touched my files at all) but getting there.

Mom told me today that Tabitha, the psycho orange cat my wonderful cousin gave us years ago, is lonely. She has taken to curling up in front of the washing machine in the garage and looking depressed. This is hilarious to me because she always loathed my cats (which I've taken to the new place, they're adjusting fairly well so far).

File under: Pure Ego!
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June 01, 2004

More moving photos

Well, all my stuff is at the new place. Yippee!

Now I'm unpacking. Yargh.

Anyway, here are more pix of the move.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 31, 2004

Hah!

I'm unpacking today.

My daily fortune at MyWay is "Decorate your workspace."

*snicker*

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 23, 2004

Movin' on...

In case you've been wondering where I've been, the answer is "moving." Yeesh. It's amazing how much effort it is to move things. Today I moved two bookcases, two file cabinets, and half a dozen boxes of random STUFF to the new digs.

Behold their glory:

Here we have a charming shot of my bed, along with numerous boxes of books, the TV my roomie has kindly let me use for the duration of my stay (or until I get a better one) and my "unread books" bookshelf. Huzzah. The bed, which as you can see totally kicks butt, is also my roomie's. She's letting me use it while I live there as she's gotten a better/smaller one. Yay! It totally rocks!

And on your right, you can see another angle of my room. The TV is now it its rightful place, atop the killer VCR/DVD player my grandpa gave me. Yay! The bookshelves, of course, don't have all their books on 'em yet. That's a MAJOR project involving a UPC scanner and an internet connection (yes, I'm going to catalog my books. The thoroughly cool Kylar is giving me a hand with that). Woo. And behind all those boxes in the corner is a brick-and-board bookshelf with SOME books on it. :) Cool, eh?

all pix by my roomie, Kay

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

May 18, 2004

Moving update

Lemme see... so far I have moved:

1. Everything from the storage unit (about 7 or 8 boxes)
2. Everything from the garage I could find (probably about 18 or 20 boxes - a lot of it was given away)
3. Two bookshelves
4. ~20 boxes of books.

Yes, that last figure is an estimate. I moved 12 boxes over the weekend and the rest I didn' tremember to count. Grr. On the bright side, I've moved all my books now, except the few scattered through the house (there are always some) and the half-dozen or so I kept home to read. Whee!

Two more weeks...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 08, 2004

Another reason being up early on Saturday sucks.

Almost nobody is online. Nobody's emailing me and nobody's online on AIM, ICQ, et al.

*sigh*

This is good for productivity but bad for my mental health. Gah!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Work hard, play hard.

I figured I should post to demonstrate that yes, I really am up and at my system at 7:30 in the morning. On a Saturday.

Gah.

Why am I up at this gawdawful hour on a weekend? Because I have a load of work to do this weekend but also want to go to a party today and a play tomorrow. So here I am.

I need coffee.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 07:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

May 04, 2004

Geez!

OK, I know I've been busy, but when I only have a couple entries on my blog main page, you can tell I've been busy.

Busy working, busy getting ready to move, busy cleaning, busy working some more... yeesh. The list goes on. I apologize for apparantly having abandoned my handful of faithful readers. But hey, I'm not the only one who's busy.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2004

Note to self

Do not read other people's blogs before updating your own because they will invariably be funnier, wittier, and generally cooler than anything you have to say yourself.

*sigh*

THat's what I get for bloglining people like Wil Wheaton, Cassie Claire, Teasel, and Neil Gaiman. (Bloglines, for them as don't know, is an RSS service. I hardly pay any attention to my blogroll anymore; I really ought to look into using the blogrolling feature Bloglines has).

So anyway, yeah. Not much to say. I've been really, really goddamned busy. Saw my old friend Sarah and finally got to meet Brian today - it was Sarah's way early birthday party. Got sunburned sitting in the shade (I really wish I were joking about that). Had a good time.

Am going to see SJ Taiko tomorrow with the bf and my friend-and-soon-to-be-housemate Kay. Should be fun. Will also do my first real load of Stuff for the move - gonna get everything out of storage and take it to the new place. Cool!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 12, 2004

Whew!

Well, fair readers, I have a busy week lined up for myself. I'm on vacation from my school-related jobs (yay!) which means it's time to work on freelancing/self-syndication and start getting ready to move out! I have so very, very much to get done. Yikes.

On the bright side, I had a fantastic weekend. Hiked 11.5 mi of the Skyline To the Sea trail up in the Santa Cruz Mountains. My legs are tired but I'm otherwise doing okay. Had a great Easter with both the bf's family and my family. (two Easter dinners = happy Ealasaid!) Finally saw "Hidalgo" and liked it, even if it was kinda cheesy.

File under: Pure Ego!
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April 03, 2004

ANNOUNCEMENT

I am not dead.

Thank you. That is all.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

March 25, 2004

Accckkkkkkk!

Ack! I've turned into a real girly-girl.

Not only did I buy a tackle box to hold my nailpolish and makeup, but...

... I have so much it didn't fit.

And this is not a small tackle box.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

*tap* *tap* is this thing on?

Just testing to make sure the upgrade to MT 2.661 worked...

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

March 23, 2004

Signs you live in Silicon Valley...

Remember that tech writing gig I had?

The company folded today. Geez.

Guess I'm not destined to be a tech writer, eh?

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 18, 2004

Bloggish Tripe

Yeesh. Busybusybusy is me, as whined about previously.

But I managed to make it to the last 90 minutes of the Blogger meet last night. Yay! it's always fun to see the folks, although it bums me out that I missed so many people. By the time I got there, half the folks had left.

This weekend I'm driving to LA (first roadtrip in my new car!) to see the Lord of the Rings costumes at The FIDM. Hooray! However, I suspect it will not exactly be a super-restful weekend. *sigh*

And... yeah. That's about it. I'm really annoyed that I've been too busy to do NaNoEdMo like I'd planned. But I'm currently too busy to do a decent job on the homework for the freelance writing class Mom gave me for my birthday, so I don't think I have time for Edmo at all. :( Am v. sad about that. Maybe I'll do it all by myself this summer or something. I do want to edit my novel, since I finished it and it's not too bad.

Thank you, that is all.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

March 15, 2004

Oy veh

Busybusybusy is me!

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

March 13, 2004

Snicket!

Just got back from seeing Lemony Snicket. Er, I mean, from not seeing Lemony Snicket. Mr. Snicket apparently had an unfortunate event happen to him (he was attacked by an alligator and paralyzed by its venom, according to Mr. Handler). Mr. Daniel Handler appeared in his stead and taught us three moral lessons:

1. Never raise your hand, because it exposes your armpit to marauding alligators.
2. When you see Count Olaf, scream and run away.
3. If you squeeze something hard enough, eventually it will make a noise.

Clearly, these are all useful lessons.

For those of you not familiar with Mr. Snicket, I heartily recommend his series of books, unless you have a sensitive nature and can't stand tales of orphans in danger, kitchen work, dangerous climbs, and friendly snakes.

I'm very tired. I am going to go to bed now.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

February 29, 2004

Misc. Notices

• I am not dead.
• I am sick, however - with a headcold.
• If I had a dime for each time someone asked if / assumed that I was gonna review The Passion of Christ, I'd be well on my way to having enough change for a latte.
• I'm really excited about Cinequest.
• Having an outdated BIOS is a big drag when you want to install a 200Gb harddrive.
• Having a bf whose dad is a computer hardware whiz is a big plus when you want to install a 200Gb harddrive on an outdated BIOS system.

Thank you, that is all.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

February 26, 2004

Writing

Wow. My life is really revolving around writing these days. Check it out:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 19, 2004

QueerScribe

I realized today that I hadn't checked to see if QueerScribe ever returned to Diaryland.

I learned that not only has he returned to Diaryland, but he did so ages ago, after being horribly attacked in his own home. Jeezus. Good lord. I can't believe I missed Marn's post about it. Good lord.

Anyway, so now I'm catching up, rereading all the stuff he's posted since coming back, and I found this in one of his entries:

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
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February 16, 2004

Valentinedictory

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I had an absolutely, positively fantastic Valentine's Day. After years of imagining what it would be like to have both A Real Boyfriend (tm) and time to be with him on the 14th of February, I got to actually have a proper Valentine's Day.

It totally rocked.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 14, 2004

How did that happen?

I'm actually looking forward to Valentine's Day.

Wow.

Cool! Creepy, but cool.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

February 06, 2004

Jeepers

Can I just say that Tarot.com is starting to really creep me out? I've been cruising around there off and on all week, and checking out my horoscopes and getting cheapy readings done, and they've all been disturbingly accurate.

More so than any of the other horoscope/onlinefortunetelling sites I've checked out.

Neato, eh? I'm not gonna start using it as my stock-buying-oracle or anything, but still. Pretty cool. I love it when metaphysical stuff works.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 27, 2004

Bleah.

I've caught whatever the latest flu going round is - a whole bunch of people (okay, 4 in my immediate circle) have shown the same symptoms in the last week or so. Gack.

Also, whatever that new worm is that's mailing itself everywhere, I'd appreciate it if it stopped sending itself to me. I'm still trying to download my email - 600+ messages take a long time when most of them have attachments.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

January 22, 2004

Happy New Year!

Wow, Lunar New Year already. Pretty nifty! I got some great candy from one of my students in honor of the holiday.

Happy Year of the Monkey, everybody!

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

January 20, 2004

Three things

I got chatted up by a guy on a walking tour yesterday because of the "Talk Nerdy To Me" pin Elke gave me. Hee!

The South Bay Bloggers meeting is tonight. I'm going to be tragically late due to a press screening, as will Antwon (he's going with), but the rest of the crew should be there, so come on! What are you waiting for?

And two people have already said they're gonna send me weekly newspapers in response to my desperate pleading (well, they're responding to the virtually identically worded email message I sent out, but anyway). How cool is that? I love the internet.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

January 19, 2004

'scuse me, brother... can you spare a copy of your local paper?

So I write weekly film reviews for my local weekly newspaper, The Milpitas Post (the reviews also run in the Post's sister papers, the Fremont Bulletin and the Berryessa Sun).

I really, really want to make it as a movie reviewer, but breaking in to the big time is going to take a while. In the meantime I'm looking to self-syndicate so my reviews can take a heavier share of the bill-paying and I can cut back on some of the jobs I've taken to pay the bills while I look for an opening in the big leagues.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I'm a material girl

Geez. I've updated my Amazon wishlist and it's up to 44 items. Good grief.

I gotta make sure to update it when I finally get around to spending my various gift certificates at Barnes and Noble and Borders. :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

January 11, 2004

I've been corrupted.

Spent three hours today with my best friend, her mom, and her sister (the friend's sister, not the mom's) picking out bridesmaids' dresses for my best friend's wedding.

And I had a really good time.

She's gonna turn me into a girlygirl yet.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

January 02, 2004

Happy New Year!

Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday when it would have been ultimately timely. Oh, well. :)

2003 was a damn good year for me in a lot of ways. It's easy to whine about the negatives (I do that a lot) and forget about the positives.

Continued...

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 31, 2003

Booklog is Back!

Well, sort of. I've set it up over here and there's a new entry. I haven't redone the templates yet, though. Or uploaded the old entries. *sigh*

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 29, 2003

Well, I'm back.

... obviously. Shoulda posted this before I got into catching up on memes. :)

Had a good time camping. We just about froze our butts off in Calico - one night it was several degrees below freezing - but we had a good time. Got a bunch of great schwag for Christmas, wheee! And my gifts to others were well-received, which is always a good thing. :)

Got a bunch of stuff to get done this week, so I don't know how regularly I'll be posting, but I'll do my best. So much to catch up on! :)

And dammit, I gotta get my book log up and running again. I'll have to see if I can do that before the new year starts up.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

December 23, 2003

Wheeeee!

I'm leaving today to go camping. I'll be back the 29th.

Well, assuming I survive the sub-freezing temperatures of Calico, NV where we'll be staying.

I'm going with my parents, my Aunt and Uncle, and all their dogs - Mom's two and my Aunt and Uncle's two. Oy veh. Five people, four dogs. At least we're spread across three campsites. And I get my own dog-free tent. :) Should be fun.

Happy holidays, everyone, and try to stay out of trouble while I'm gone! I don't want a repeat of what happened when Rich left town and came back to find Cali had gone to hell while he was away!! :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 17, 2003

Gah.

I must be getting old.

Had a great time seeing RotK again last night, but somehow getting only 3 hours of sleep (had to sub today, gack) has really taken it out of me. *sigh*

Still, it was cool seeing RotK again. That movie kicks so much butt, I swear. It really does.

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

December 11, 2003

w00t!

Days when I love subbing: when I only work three periods, get to leave at lunch, but get paid for the whole day. Subbing for music teachers rocks! :)

File under: Pure Ego!
Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)