So 5 years ago….

While trying to fill my continuously waning hours at work I came across this lovely Gawker write up about email:

http://gawker.com/5031423/140-of-our-waking-hours-now-spent-on-email

Didn’t email go ‘out’ back in ‘05? I thought we all used blogs, myspace, and twitter to communicate nowadays!

My bad!

note to self: make a Gawker account

To The Baracades

There are less than 100 days until the election and sometimes I wonder if I can make it that long.

Last night, while watching I Survived a Japanese Gameshow of course,  I caught one of McCain’s newer political ads. I wanted to vomit.

They’ve been getting some (very very negative) press and I couldn’t agree more. The ad I caught blames the current gas price problem on Obama.

Yes, of course! Because we all know, as McCain has always been quick to point out, that a man who has  been in the senate for one whole term is the only one wholly responsible for the oil crisis which has been coming since the 70’s due to improper response and legislation.

Why didn’t I realize it before! Oh McCain! You’ve shown me the light! Obama is evil! Democrats hate America! LET’S GO BUY SUVS AND DRILL IN ALASKA!

Alright, I’ll stop being sarcastic for now. McCain’s ads have relied more on trying to tear down Obama than to market McCain.

The man has decades of experience to draw on! HOW IS THIS DIFFICULT? Pick a year! Talk about the military service!  Show lots of America Flags and soldiers! While those things add up to a lot of propagandist crap it’s a hell of a lot better than lying about your opponent for shits and giggles. Obama has said from the beging that he wants a cleaner brand of politics. He’s (mostly) stuck to it. McCain needs to get rid of the negativity and show us his intelligence and strength of character.

Now, I want Obama too win, and part of me is enjoying seeing McCain falter but while I don’t agree with his politics I think McCain was the best republican out of the primary bunch and that he is a much better man and politician than many others.  Why is he allowing such base and outlandish attack ads to be made in his name? In the coming months I only think these ads will hurt his campaign.

I should probably stop trying to help McCain since I do want him to lose. But I’m sick of politicians lying about each other to get votes. I don’t like seeing Obama slandered and I don’t like seeing people lower their standards.

On the lighter side, I love giggling with my friends who work for the DNC as they hope McCain shoots himself in the foot by picking Romney as his running mate. Whom they lovingly call ‘Mittens’. Huckabee would also make them happy, though I don’t think he has a cute nickname.

Falling prey

I’ve been abnormally focused on my looks this summer, my weight, skin, hair etc etc.

It’s making me horribly unhappy.

I am making myself unhappy.

I either need to really change how I’m living and get healthier or I need to find the place again where I was happy with myself before.

I further feel like shit because a lot of this has stemmed from my failings with men in the past year. I shouldn’t allow myself to be so affected by it. Summer has given me plenty of time to dwell and work doesn’t keep me occupied the way college does. I’ve barely drawn at all this summer and it’s taking its toll.

in summary?

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

mondaymondaymonday

All of my breakfast bars were gone.

Not enough time to make anything.

Water and gum must tide me over until lunch.

I am dumb and should check these things ahead of time.

p.s. Dark Knight was beyond awesome.  So much love for it.

Books Again

So, all the books I’ve finished since last book post…

The Time Traveller’s Wife: thoroughly adorable and sad. Nothing brilliant but it was sweet and well written, and it was long!  I kept coming back to it whenever I had a second free. And really, any book about time travel is instantly pretty awesome.

Snuff: I was disappointed to be honest but I think I may like it better on a second read. Everything felt heavy handed and it was impossibly short.  I loved the premise but I wasn’t thrilled about how Palanuik went about it. It was like he lost any subtlety he  possessed in laying out the story.

Rant: I read Rant to console myself after Snuff failed me. It worked wonderfully. I had actually started it in June and put it down because I wasn’t getting into it.  This time around I didn’t want to put it down at the end. Ahhhhhhh. No, I was really surprised how much I liked it. I’ve also stopped reading Palanuik expecting his twists to surprise me which I think helped.

Choke: More Palanuik! Read this before Snuff and Rant. Loved it, sent me into a small moral crisis and everything. This is why I read Palaniuk.

Lolita: OK, so I’m still reading Lolita. The prose is so gorgeous I want to die and it lulls me into the most beautiful state of complete oblivion that I really can’t read it everyday. It’s like a desert overdose.   Also I hatehatehatehatehate the cover of my copy and I can’t stand looking at it. It’s tucked in my work desk drawer for when I feel up to it.

House of Leaves: I’ve started it! Book Thief boy also recommended it awhile ago after finding out I was reading Lolita. While I still feel vague on the connection I’m in love with this book. Initially I was excited because of the layout and typography. I’m a sucker for inventive narrative structure. I finally bought it after seeing it recommended to someone online who had nightmares after reading Haunted(also a Palanuik ). Haunted was the first Palanuik book I read and I would not read it before bed after trying to do so a few times and getting creeped out(but no nightmares tyvm), eventually I had to move it to a spot where I couldn’t see it while in bed. Behold my wimpiness! Well, I love a dare, which was how the recommendation was phrased, and it picked it up about 48 hours later. The book itself is the massive “remastered full-color edition”.  It’s weighing my purse down so badly I’m going to get marks but I don’t care. I’m 50 pages in and I’m in love.

la la la I’m going to go read more!

Dear Employees,

If you work with a company computer then this is to you. Please do not leave hundreds of baby or vacation pictures on your computer. Do not keep music on it. Don’t bitch about what programs we aren’t installing, if we don’t have license  information you’re NOT GETTING IT until a license is issued by the appropriate higher up.  Above all PLEASE do not leave movie files of questionable legality on your computer because when I find them I have to decide whether to report you.

All of these things slow us down when we move your data, they also eat up space about ten times faster than your work documents.

You should also make sure your backup drive is actually backing up to an external location instead of ON YOUR HARD DRIVE. If it’s on your hard drive and something happens to your computer it’s no safer than the rest of your data. ( we’ve seen this, oh god, we’ve seen it)

If we ask for your password please give it to us, or be avaliable to login each time we need you. We know you should never give out your password. We know what company policy is. This is one of the only times anyone should ask for your password. We leave a little printout telling you to change it after we leave and everything. Keeping your password from us isn’t safe when you consider that we are sitting at your computer with full access for hours on end anyway. If we wanted something we could take it. We don’t want your company secrets. We work for the same company. We want to change your computer and get it back to you as soon as possible so you will never call us again.

If your company does use an outside tech team to change your computer and they ask for your password I can understand the pause. Trust me I do.  As for computer safety, you shouldquestion when your password is asked for. But we say in our preliminary email that the installer will need the password. You can temporarily change it even!  The team I work on is hired once a year and is made up of college age children of employees who have to apply and be interviewed, background checked, drug tested, etc. If we did anything wrong they have all of our information and all of our parents.  We want nothing more than to never hear from you again after we install your computer.

End rant.

Thank you for your time,
Your underpaid computer installer

Yes, I eat lunch at 10:30

My sandwich bread tastes like a cinnamon roll.

No, it’s not cinnamon bread.

Is it friday yet?

Well, since my last post I have finished World War Z and Choke, started reading Lolita and have 100 pages to go in The Time Traveller’s Wife, I missed a day of work because I was sick, have done no yoga or running but played lots of Rock Band. Well, I did go to yoga yesterday.

It also was the fourth of July, in case you missed it. Parade, fireworks, friends, family and all those exciting things, I even went to a baseball game Saturday!  One highlight of the weekend was ‘really’ meeting my friend Laura’s boyfriend. Now I’ve known Laura for 15 years at this point, and as much as I love her, I do not love her boyfriends. She’s intelligent, funny, pretty and should be dating better men.  No one is perfect, I know, I know, but her highlights include ’he’s gay and denying it’ and the ‘I will do whatever you say because I cannot form a thought of my own’.

Alright, we’re young and make dumb mistakes and date people just because they’re there but It seems like she’s gotten more than her share of losers. I’d feel better if any of us who’ve met him really like him. No one does. Not me, her roommate, my best friend, or my ex. We’ve agreed it’s fine as long as they break up eventually. She’s the type to swoon and talk of marrying the guy 3 months (or less) into the relationship so we get a little concerned. We have told her none of this because we’re trying to respect her right to make her own decisions.

In all fairness my record is terrible and I’ve got another friend who’s getting involved with a guy 12 years older who drives her nuts and has outright told her that he believes she’s going to hell. Healthy relationships don’t seem to be our strong point.  

In non-relationship news I’ve recently been seduced by Lush bath products.  I dropped $50 last week and am glad I did. I have the on-again-off-again kind of breakouts that haven’t been going away like usual since I grew my hair out, shocker.  I bought toner, cleansing bar, mask and a tin for my current shampoo bar. I started using the face products Sunday and my skin is starting to clear and feels healthier.  I woke up this morning and my skin looked better than it had in 2 weeks. We have a winner. I’m bad about taking care of my skin but a lot of things I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot, my mother is a bit obsessive about getting my skin perfect) don’t work. Or I get lazy and stop using it before it does.

Well, that’s enough vanity for now. I have computers to install!