Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Aiiiiiiiii *snort*

You really don't think how much you breathe while eating until you can't do it through you nose. And I hate it. Not only does breathing while chewing look awful to anyone watching you eat, but it's also not fun to do, and definately increases the risk of choking on your food my accident because you're inhaling through your mouth with food in there.

I'm eating some cold fried rice right now and trust me, I'm being very careful with those little rice kernals. My only other option is to hold my breath until I swallow and then take a breath. Which really isn't much better because as soon as I swallow I'm gasping for air.

At least I feel like I'm getting better. The frequency at which I have blow my nose has reduced, and it doesn't feel like Moo is reaching her tiny paw down my throat and diddling with my tonsils. Hopefully I'll be better by tomorrow, I need to go to some event at school to meet the new director the IAD department and I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate snot in a handshake.

In other news, I'm almost done with this online course! Just a few more days and I'll be done, done, done! Woot! And Moo's been sleeping up a storm (that's really not news I guess).



Ohhhh rolled up so tight!

I don't know if you can see her little eyes, but she is soooo awake.

Cleaning herself is top priority, doncha know.
And the first shot I've ever gotten of her tongue out! I'm hoping to get one of the top, so you can see the little crazy cat cilia!

Monday, January 22, 2007

Today...

So I have been floating in and out of conciousness all day today.

In fact, I've been floating in and out of conciousness all my life, but everyone I hang out with already knows that.

It's especially apparent today, because I've got a cold, not a particularly bad one, just stuffy yet snotty nose, with a precurser of three days of inflamed tonsils and pain swallowing, I honestly can't say which one is worse, my nose is runny but dry and painful, but at least now I can swallow without having to look down to see who's stabbing me with a small, sharp knife.

So I woke up this morning wondering:

Q1. Why is it so dark?
A1. Because I still haven't gotten used to my curtains actually blocking out light.

Q2. Why is someone stabbing me in the shoulder?
A2. Because I slept with three pillows under me so I don't suffocate in my sleep.

Q3. Why do I get sick so often?
A3. Because mother nature hates me for eating her children and therefore covers everything in dust, my archnemisis.

Then I checked my online class, took a shower and took my place in the living room armchair and zoned, popped out of zone, checked the class, surfed a bit and then meandered back into zoning. I popped out suddenly a few hours ago, only to hear the commotion going on in my neighbor's apartment:

"Oh yeah baby..." *smack* "Oooh!"

Delightful. He's watching porn and I can't move because I'm in the middle of writing a paper and my body has seized up with ache. Oh well, I continue typing my paper with the moans and groans in the background, hoping upon hope that I won't subconciously type "smack me" while comparing my art to Baudrillard's "Death of Reality" theory.

I'm thinking it's a death in reality that this guy is playing porn on his huge sound system uninhibited. And I just heard the T.V. guy on my T.V. say "sucking on a lollipop" and my head snaps up. Oh, it's "How It's Made" and he's talking about how lollipops are made, not quite as weird as I thought.

Oh, speaking of porn, there's this huge imposing building on 14th and Mission, I pass it on my way downtown, it looks pretty run down, broken windows, graffiti everywhere. It used to be an armory, but what is it going to be now? Kink.com just bought it, and it's going to be where they film their bondage films from now on, click here for the story at sfgate.com. Apparently hardly any renovations are needed, being run down and old as it is, things like dark, dirty hallways filled with rats are the perfect accent to an S&M film.

I need to blow my nose, so I'll leave you with this thought:
If I get sick today, touch something, get better and touch that thing again, will I get infected again?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Great Flickr Batman!

Usually I don't go look at FlickrStreams that are featured on cuteoverload.com but yesterday I made an exception and got greeted with some absolutely gorgeous photos from the French Alps full of dogs sheep and cows and beautiful, beautiful landscapes. Her name (I assume) is Ingrid and her blog is ingrid_brandt's photos and here's just a taste!


I love how the cow's just so "Baroo?" with the gorg mountains in the back.

My wood pile? Please?

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Panoramas

So last semester I had a spa/resort/b&b project on this stupid super steep hill (real life situations suck by the way) and we were supposed to go to the site in Inverness, CA (over and hour north of SF) as a class, but I wasn't going to make it to that class the day they were going, it was W's birthday and right before Thanksgiving, so I got permission to go on my own. Turns out the class didn't go anyway, but I saw some crazy things (like a cue of 20 cows running along the side of a steep mountain because it was feeding time) and got some great pictures, the main ones being the panoramic views of Tomales bay from the west peninsula. Take a gander:




By the way, I took these pictures the old fashioned way by standing in a stop and rotating my body, snapping shots as I move, coming home and putting them in photoshop and syncing them up, so that should explain the light patches or when the ripples in the water don't match up. I'm really starting to realise that my crappy Coolpix 3100 is actually a damn good camera. Even if I overpaid for it.

Sewing Project!

So on Thursday we all hopped in truck and headed over to Ikea for my sister and broinlaw to buy a bed and for me to buy window coverings, something to put on my huge blank bedroom wall and anything else I find.

Well turns out I wasn't going to pay $60 for curtains I had to iron on the stupid things that you put the rod through to hang them, I should probably know the name for that stupid stupid thing, being an I.D. student and all, but I honestly can't be bothered to think or look it up. Figure it out people. Anyway, way overpriced, not at all cute, I was not having it, so I walked over to the fabric section and found some fabrics that I really like and ended up buying three yards of one fabric, and a yard each other three others, so I could make my own damn curtains for nothing. I thought they were pretty damn cute:




I ended up using the blue one for my curtains and they turned out as such:

I'm pretty proud of them, I did one edge on each panel in hemming tape, then ran out of it so did the other edges by hand, which took forever because I had to split it up over two days, I'm so not used to sewing and I really need to get a sewing machine. I did a really open hand stitch so that if I ever joined the local sewing place (Stitch Lounge) or actually bought a sewing machine, I could take the stitching out really easily and do it again.

And the whole time I was sewing the damn thing Moo was seriously getting into getting up my ass by attacking the cloth, or chewing up the thread, even jumping on me if the thread moved on my lap. Nothing's funner than having your cat attack (with claws no less) while you're trying to concentrate on not poking yourself with a huge ass needle.

Moo trying to lay claim on my damn curtain.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Oh Moo-ness continues...

I just found these on my camera while taking pictures of my teajarpot, I am the definition of a new cat owner, anything and everything is cute enough to take a picture of.


If Moo was a male, I'd totally say this was her "Come to me" picture, followed by her "Nevermind I'm to tired to luuuurve you" picture.


Tangled in the mess that is her former twine ball.

And tangled still.

Oh the sorrow...

Let me begin by singing this song:

I don't have a teapot,
Short or stout,
I have a jar,
With no spout.

When my tea gets steamed up,
I just pout,
I need a teapot,
Help me out!

Seriously, I am too stingy to buy a teapot, but I complain that I don't have one, I'm just good like that.

Some pictures of my jarpot:

Moo got pissed and "meowy" while I was taking pictures of my jarpot-teajar, so I retaliated by taking a picture of her.

Another sunny day in San Francisco!

Speeding through the GG!

These pictures are from November, on the way back from Big Sur speeding through the Golden Gate bridge at night, without my flash on because all I got was black void with it. Me likey.





The barrage of postages begin...

Okay, to explain, I am taking an online class. This requires me to log on every weekday until January 26th, read a lecture, take a daily quiz, answer the discussion question and respond to other people's answers. So since I have absolutely nothing else to do I will use up time by posting stuff that I've been meaning to post but haven't got around to.

FIRST UP!

Green up your life! This one of the many posters appearing around SF urging you to green up your life for the betterment of the earth. Read it, absorb it, do it.

Full service shopping...

I'm supposed to be working on my online class, reading the lecture, taking part in the discussions, blah blah blah, but all I can think about is the full service shopping that took place on Tuesday in a store at Westfield Mall. I honestly have never been to a store where they actually care who you are, and take care of you while you shop. I walked into Forth & Towne because the window said "Sale" on it, and being the cheapie that I am, I couldn't afford not to at least check out this sale, plus I was desparate to find a dress. I had gone to numerous stores, Anthropologie, H&M, MNG, Borders (okay Borders doesn't have clothes, but it's a store and I had a coupon) and I had come up with nothing but a skirt that I defininitely could not wear to a wedding.

So in I shuffled into this huge bright store, not sure what I was in for, and started perusing (the only word to use), saw alot of people working there, dressed very nice, and one older man in a full suit walking around with a woman telling her that they really didn't have coats anymore since it's almost Spring and would she be interested in something else? On I went and some of the stuff was a little "mature lady", but some of the stuff was interesting, and I picked up a dress to try on. There's this huge cylinder in the middle of the store that turned out to be the changing rooms, as I walked towards the entrance, one, then two people started walking towards me as if to help me, one of them being the aforementioned man who seemed to have seniority because the other lady stopped short, stared at him and backed up to what she was doing.

In he took me into the "changing room area" and another lady popped out of no where and asked me if I wanted a bottle of water while I tried on my clothes. The man put my clothes in a changing room, smiled and walked away, while the other lady asked me what I was looking for. I replied a dress, for a wedding, no black, not too revealing and had to hit me at the knee, no higher, no lower. I tried on the dress I picked out, and ooh, no this won't work, too much boob, you could see my bra from basically every angle, and I do not go braless for any reason and do not have any of those specially designed bras for these kinds of dresses, I hardly wear dresses, why buy a $60 bra to wear once a year? So it was out, I heard a knock at my door and there was the changing room assistant with three other dresses, I only wanted to try one of them, so I did, and it was the one, wine colored, with an empire waist satin sash and hit me right at the knee, I opened to door the find her hovering outside, told her I wanted it and of we went to the cashier where she handed me off to someone else.

Okay, this is where I got realy happy. The original tag price was $148, then it got marked down to $74.99, then to $59.99. I could deal with a sale dress at $60, but when she priced it, it was $37.99. Woohoo. Cheap dress, happy me.

Oh yeah, and during that day I bought a CD and now I realise how much I like happy French music.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

More car-aaaazyness

Oh the insanity of 101 impressions in less than 4 minutes! I probably only know 75% of the peeps he's impressioning, and some of them aren't fabulous, but the sheer fact that he's attempting this totally kicks hiney! His name is Brock, full name at the end of movie. Full props.

Click the white box a few times and hopefully the movie will work, if not, go to: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1735369

Okay, this is getting redonkulous

It's ca-razy, I'm halfway to the point of needed to get a blog just for Moo, because between my sister and I, there are billions of photos being taken of this cat.

Here are just a few...


Moo-Raka sleeping on my bed in front of the window.

Plant-face sleeping.

Pretzel cat!


Moo in her perfect sun beam in the kitchen.


Mrrraaaaow!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

When Thinking Becomes Dangerous...

So, I am a worrier. I am actually worse than a worrier, I am a hormonal, female, guilt-ridden worrier (note: I am saying worrier, not warrior, far less cool and more likely to die an early death.)

I honestly worry about the smallest and most insignificant things. I will make lists to make sure I don't forget important tasks, because I am so absent-minded from worrying that I usually forget important things I need to do, like deposit money in my account, or do schoolwork.

When I forget said simple tasks that really are part of my daily life, I worry more. From family, to love, to living situation, to school, I am hopping from one worry paver to another on the street of my life.

W has -short of shaking it into me- told me to basically live my life in the now, worry about tomorrow, not next year, worry about an hour from now, not next week. This usually works for about two minutes after he's said this, then I'm back to my old tricks of worrying about what I'm going to do for my thesis, and if his sister likes me or not.

The thesis thing is actually pretty valid, because for it I have to find an existing building or site and work on it for a year. Sounds simple enough, except that I'm working on it for a year. I am very good at burning out on a project fast. Last semester I had a class in which we worked on conceptual projects for three or four weeks at a time. We did a home office (1 week), a freestanding exhibit (3 weeks), a home remodel (3 weeks), a b&b/resort spa (4 weeks) and a store window (2 weeks). Every single time I was burned out before the project was done, I basically stopped caring and did enough to get me by. Luckily in these cases I did the bulk of the work in the beginning so I really was formatting and drawing perspective (ack) towards the end. I'll post pictures of them at some point, now that I'm done with that class, but that's for later tonight. Or tomorrow, if I remember and if I stop worrying long enough to actually do it.

Huh. Right. Thesis.

So, I'm trying to think of a project that I can work on for a year, not have to do massive amounts of architecture, but is still big enough that the board will approve me working on it. Maybe a museum/hotel/city square thing. I've considered doing a meditation center that exists in North Fork, but the whole "site owners not wanting to contact me" thing is kind of getting in the way. Also, I need to not want to stab myself in the face after three months because I'm sick of working on it. I wonder if it's healthy to want to stab myself in the face, hand or foot when I'm stressed, I tend to think that when I'm at the brink, but of course I never actually consider doing it, I'm stressed, but I know and hate pain (hellooo, why the lack of piercings and tattoos), but the thought is there, maybe I need to go to counselor, I think I've scared W once or twice with talk like that.

Uh. Right. Worrying.

So I worry alot, which kind of starts a snowballing in my mind (I'm worried, then I'm worried about worrying, then I'm worried about people finding out that I'm worried, kind of a Who's on first style situation), and then I'm basically two worries away from an anxiety attack. Many-a-time I have called W in a panic, crying because I haven't gotten my I-20 signed, or I forgot to do a part of an assignment, or I cut myself with my x-acto by accident and I'm bleeding all over my materials boards (okay, that hasn't happened, but it could, yet another worry, I'll be sure to wear gloves the next time I need to cut anything), and W's the sweetest and tells me that everything is okay, that I'm fine, I'll get it done like I always do, and that he really can't do anything about it, and how he wish I wouldn't worry so much, and after some time I'm usually fine, get the thing done and I've moved onto my next worry.

This is why I don't go outside whenever possible, there's too much out there that could be bad, bad, bad. Plus, it's cold, I'll spend money, and I like wearing my pajamas.

So yeeeeeeees (said in Simpson's maitre'd voice), I'm kind of in a big pot-hole sized rut because I've been living in San Francisco for, oh, six months now and I've yet to really explore. Today was the first time I ever went to Castro district, I didn't even wander there on my own, my sister and brother in law had to go and I was just along for the ride. To understate it, it's CUTE. Lots of little stores all next to each other, tons of eateries, cute dogs and pedestrians. Now although I have stated I'm not a fan of pedestrians, mostly the thronging tourist let-me-get-in-your-way-and-dawdle-in-the-middle-of-the-steep-uphill-sidewalk kind, I'm also not a fan of the deserted risk-of-tumbleweeding streets that are also found around SF. Luckily I don't live too far from Castro, so it's pretty easy for me to get there and it's better shopping than the Mission.

But my main point, I've been living in SF for six months and this was the first time I went to Castro. Hello-o, SF is apparently gay town, and during the pride parade weekend they had a whole special on PBS (yes PBS, I love education and Lawrence Welk, fuck you) dedicated to how the Castro district came to be. So if I were to say that Castro is kind of important here, I'm risking being hit with the "duh" stick.

Since I've been in SF I have ventured (on my own accord) to: Union Square (barf, but shopping), Pier 39 (barf, but school), the admin & library building on Mission & New Montgomery, past the Transamerica pyramid (on the bus), Dolores park, Potrero hill and up and down Van Ness.

Places I haven't been to, either because I'm too lazy, it's too crowded, or I have no reason to go there except to go there: China town (I've been on visits, but not since moving, all I remember is lots of tourist and uphill walking), North Beach (I love Italian food, but where the hell can I just plop down and start walking around? More research is required), Golden Gate park, and every other neighborhood that I didn't list in the above paragraph. I mean, I haven't even been to Fisherman's Wharf, and that five minutes away from my school building.

So what is wrong with me, I mean, since high school I haven't really been able to "mingle" with people, at Fresno State I pretty much kept to myself except for a few people, I didn't drink, smoke or party, I don't have hobbies (besides sleeping and lazing around in my pajamas), so I'm left with the people that I meet at random (whom I love dearly, remember that). I'm not quite sure why I'm so anti-social when it comes to people, I do like having friends, and being around people, but I feel like I have so much to do, and not enough time and energy to spend on maintaining relationships. And then it turns out I do have the time, and I just over thought what I had to do over what I wanted to do.

So it all comes back to worrying. My sense of worrying keeps me from actually living my life, I think way too much for my own good, and that's not only affecting my existing relationships, but potential relationships as well. Also, I have this inane idea that when I meet someone I'm going to be friends with, I'll "know" and it'll just "click". But I'm starting to realise that I need to invest something, time, emotions, awareness, before any clicking can take place.

Huh. So I guess I learned something while pouring my heart out today, I've gotta get in there and start actively making friends. Or risk living the next two years without any. So I've unwittingly figured out my new year's resolution. Make friends.

Good night.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Carter-Bear at play!

My friend Sarah in Fresno has one of the sweetest cats I've ever met. Carter is a little chubster that wriggled his way into my heart with his constant "marking" of me, which consists of me walking through the door and him rubbing his body all over my jeans. Well this last time I went down, I saw Carter playing for the very first time with my Christmas gift paper and I just couldn't take it.



Friday, January 05, 2007

Cats, cats, cats!

You'd think it was the year of the cat.

Over the next few days I will be posting pictures and photos of cats (and a dog) that I find amusing. Keep in mind, I find them amusing.

Here are a few pictures to tide you over:


Moo (our apt's darling) is hypnotized by her first experience with the printer actually printing.

Carter (Sarah's) is caught with his hands on my purse.


Moo: "No no no no noooooo, I don't wanna get up!"

Have a great weekend everyone.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year!

I just spent the last two days playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (for Xbox 360), which is an awesome game to play, very simple, two buttons attack, one jumps, one action and one jiggly stick moves and there are other assorted that add to the game but you'll find out more of that when you play it! Stills stolen from Gamespot.com

I usually play as Captain America (guy with the shield)!

Another still.



And how did I ring in the new year? Practically asleep. I was pulled from slumber five mintues before the countdown and said "yay!" at new year, then went back to sleep very soon after. Woohoo! So happy new year to you all!

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Funk City!

Once I get started, I just can't stop...

Remy Shand, more funk, more awesomeness. First song I heard was "Take A Message" that played pretty often on what is now VH1 on UBC in Thailand in 2001. He released a few since, but not much after that.

Remy Shand "Take A Message"



Nikka Costa, all I saw was this music video in 2001 (guess 2001 was a big year for me musically) and except for the screeching, it was pretty interesting, I mostly the clapping.

Nikka Costa "Like A Feather"



Okay, okay, I'm done for the day.

Compact Disc-Mania

One Christmas present I got last week was the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson (and friends), which was a wonderful gift, except I already had it. So I had to take the task of going to Borders to exchange it. All I can say is, music has gotten hard to buy in CD format for me. I'm used to gettings songs one by one, so having to buy a whole 12-16 songs at a time is alot harder than I thought it would be, it took all of an hour.

So what did I end up getting instead? After much perusing, picking up and putting down of CD's I found two that I thought I might dig for a while before I got sick of them, the first one being:

Gin Blossoms "Major Lodge Victory"



Did you ever watch Empire Records with Liv Tyler and other assorted actors that played constantly on UBC HBO in Thailand seven or eight years ago? It was about the people working at this record store, drama, funny and a classic pop/rock song that was sweet, kind of happy and had a sad tinge on it called "Til I Hear It From You". This is a CD with basically that kind of music. More pop than emo, but still good to have a sad little croon to.


Gin Blossoms: Til I Hear It From You

Robin Thicke "The Evolution of Robin Thicke"

Did you watch Growing Pains? This is the (real) son of father (Alan Thicke) in the show. Now that we've got that out of the way, I like this CD, one because it was $10 for 16 songs, and two because it's got nice funk, r'n'b and he's talented. When I listen, do think Justin Timberlake once in a while, but at least I can listen to Thicke without cringing, not so much for former N'Sync-er. The reason I looked at this CD was because I loved a song from a while ago by him, "When I Get You Alone" which samples (let me quote some Amazon.com reviewer) "classical disco instrumental "Fifth Of Beethoven"..." That song was really cool, the music video got me going and I still listen and want to bike all over the city. The first song I actually skip becuase I can't be bothered to listen to it, but after that, it's so smooth and easy to sing along to. I haven't actually gotten through all of it yet, it's sitting in the rental car.

Track 4: Lost Without You


When I Get You Alone

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Mission Accomplished

Okay. So when I lived in Fresno, I never really played CD's in my car, it was mostly the radio, because 1. I didn't have a CD player and 2. I didn't have many cassette tapes, and the ones I had sucked because they were free.

So I used to listen to the Fresno State radio station KFSR (FM 90.7), classic American music station KJEWL (FM 99.3) and oldies station KMGV (FM 97.9). Well, there was this instrumental song that they played on KJEWL practically daily, and I absolutely loved the steel guitar on it, but I never ever caught the name of the song, since they usually play three or more in a row and I have a very short attention span. Well, I was watching Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle yesterday and what comes on when Dylan walks into the bar in Mexico? THE SONG! So I wait until the credits, go through and note down songs that it could be and run to the computer to investigate. I go through each one on Amazon.com so I can listen to preview and I still can't find it. Go to imdb.com and look through soundtrack listings and keep trying and finally, I find Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny, look them up in wikipedia.com and they have a video. Sweetness.



And since then I've been searching for better versions of the song, even the original recording, and the best I could find is a Final Fantasy video with two animated people making out and falling love in water. Kind of weird when its out of context, but don't let that affect your opinion of the song.



And then, there's this guy with a ukelele that's just cool.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Happy Festus Kwanmaskah!

Whew, the holiday season was hard this year, what with all the buying of the presents and the shopping with the christmas-mad people at Target. And you know that if Target was crazy in Fresno, Fashion Fair Mall must have been the epitome of insanity. Which was why I kept a 3 mile radius from it. I shudder at the thought. *huuugh*

Anyway, I wanted to post these two videos because I thought they were great, Tim from Ctrlaltdel-online.com posted him drawing his filler art for his comic, from pencil to finish, it's long, and in two videos, but it's pretty damn interesting if you're into that stuff. Like me.

Happy Holidays!



Wednesday, December 20, 2006

AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

So happy so relieved so gooooood. I'm so glad I lived through finals, yesterday I honestly didn't think I was going to make it through the day. And today, I was worried that my professor wasn't going to like the quality of work I did, I was first to present (which I like, I like getting things over and done with and no one is comparing me to anyone else, yet) and I blasted through (yet again) and he loved it. Woo hoo, I'm done, now time to chill for a bit and then clean the apartment.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Finals!

URGH. In case you didn't know, that's my unhappy noise.

I have one more final left, ONE, which I'm completely happy about, except for the fact that it's a presentation final and I have huge zits covering my face, and it's pretty hard for me to concentrate on getting my words out to talk about my project when I know people are thinking why I still suffer from acne. And on top of that, since we're winding down to the end of the semester, we're learning more about each other (I know, weird, but it takes me a whole semester to get to the nerve to talk to people I haven't already talked to during the semester) and then everyone that finds out that I'm 22 is in complete shock. Fun to know people think you look like you're in your late 20's/early 30's.

Anyway, I had to two presentations today, the first one, my green design project was so nerve wracking, right before, I was so mellow it was really weird, and then as soon as everyone was ready for me, THWACK nerves of fucking jelly. I blasted through the presentation, talking about as much as I could meanwhile sweating up a storm with my heart about to pop out of my chest to say hi, and didn't do too badly. My professor didn't seem pissed and the client was happy so woohoo.

Then my next final was sacred geometry and I had to talk about my final design of my sacred space using elements of sacred geometry, lots of golden sections, theta rectangles and root 2 rectangles. He seemed impressed, good so far.

I'll update tomorrow when I get through the last final and can start cleaning the explosion that went off in my room.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Jack Johnson

I don't know when this song came out, I'm so not with the times, I assume it was sometime recently since it was on the MSN front page, but here's Jack Johnson with Matt Costa and Zach Gill "Let It Be Sung" from "A Brokedown Melody"



So dug the Hawaiianess in the beginning.

Even though it doesn't appear in this song, I though it might be notable that I LOVE the sound of a steel guitar, especially in this song that I kept hearing on the oldies station in Fresno, but I never got the name and since it has no lyrics it's even harder to find. FOILED AGAIN!

Monday, December 11, 2006

Funny what you can do with 8 treadmills...



"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go

So simple, so wonderful, so entertaining.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Attack of the Atom Massager

Honestly, if you had a cat this cutalicious wouldn't you take endless pictures of her? Plus, she's totally photogenic (silent envy streams from me) and everyone must experience the fuzzy ball that is Moo. Honestly, besides school, eating, sleeping and sporadic trips, I have nothing to do but assault this cat poparazzi style.

Here's what happened last week:

Moo finds out the wonders of lying in my crinkly flimsy. Luckily I didn't need them anymore.


Moo's annoyed face after being disturbed during her mid-morning sun beam time.


I just got an Atom Massager, and found that Moo is unamused by it.
Her ears perk when it's turned on, and she shies away from it when it's within her "personal bubble".

The aftermath of trying to push the atom on Moo. Definition of the calm before the storm.

Post-Freakout Post

Whew. What washing your face and brushing your teeth can do to your mood.

So:
-Call bank to tell them that I'm a moron and cancel cards [check]
-Make appointment with DMV to get a new license [check]
-Get mad at myself for losing yet a another thing [check]

Well got my checklist done for the night.

Now onto CityCarShare (CCS). It's pretty easy to understand, and there's alot of these companies around, which I will not name, since I think that CCS is da bomb. Anyway, CCS has cars all over the city, and across on the east bay, that you pay a $10 monthly fee to rent. That $10 covers insurance, gas and maintenence. There's a $300 refundable deposit when you start, you pay an hourly rate of $4/hr and a mileage rate of 44c/mile. And if you're just travelling in the city, you don't really rack up the mileage too easily. It's really good for running errands, like when we go to Trader Joe's or when we want to do laundry at Brainwash (Folsom near 7th - laundromat/diner).

So that was pretty easy, no? Oh, and the best part. If you've got more than one person living under your roof that meet the requirements, you can all register as the same household and pay one monthly fee for all of you, and the deposit works the same.

When you register and are approved, you get a FOB, I have no idea what it stands for, I'm sure its in the manual, and that little remote allows you access to parking garages and the cars themselves. You make a reservation online or call and you go to the car when you reserved it, FOB in, and start driving. If it's not there, there's numbers to call. "FOB in?" you ask? You hold your FOB over the little mechanism on the dash and the car doors unlock. The mechanism records whose FOB that was and how much mileage you're rackin' up.

I'm done for the night. Good night, good riddence.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Lost. Fo' reals.

I just lost my wallet for the third time in the last three months. That's an average of once a month. That doesn't seem healthy. I had it when I went to lunch at 3:05 today. I had it right before I ate my lunch, it was still open, I checked to see everything was inside. Then...I remember NOTHING. Honestly, how does this keep happening? Am I so careless that the fates will endlessly conspire to make my wallet dematerialize? (That question was so beyond rhetorical.) Honestly, the first time, I left it in the rental car and the moron that rented it after me decided to take it and call me hours later after I had panicked and cancelled all my credit cards and checked the car twice. I got it back but the only useful thing in there was my driver's license.

The second time I didn't put it in my back pocket twice and it must have popped out and ran off to spend some time with the bubblegum machine in the mall. In that situation, my wallet also dematerialized, no one turned it in, it was no where that I went, it just POOFED. What the fuck, don't people know that going through the motions of cancelling cards and waiting for new ones is a pain? And on top of that, my driver's license was gone so I had to go to the DMV people. THE DMV. I had an appointment which cut down the annoyance potential quite a bit, except that I couldn't find the damn bus stop so I basically overshot twice before I figured out where the hell I was. That pretty much evened out my annoyance.

And now. I have nothing. Nada. No debit, no credit, no license to speak of. And I must go through the whole shebang all over again. This time, I will do it right, this time I will get a fucking chain the size of my cat to hang from my belt loop to the wallet, which I will only remove at the end of the day in my apartment before I go to bed. If even that.

My feverent posting isn't helped by the fact that I just spent the last hour crying and blubbering into the phone to W. I was fine at first, a little annoyed but not super upset. And then the Amtrak lady answered my call. To put things in context, I was planning to visit Fresno and couldn't now that I didn't have any ID, couldn't drive while I was in Fresno and that would just be a pain in the ass. Plus, I have no way of paying for anything or even getting my ticket since I need a credit card to start the process going. Anyway she was a bitch. Like capital bitch, which was so confounding because whenever I have called Amtrak previously, they've been grrrrreat. But this time, she was just mean. So I cut the call short, didn't ask her to do anything for me (like cancel my trip) and hung and basically burst into tears. I hate losing things. I hate being careless. I was so good. I checked every few minutes to see if I had my wallet, phone and keys. But today was no ordinary day. Today I had my big final presentation for one my classes, and although I had finished it days ago, I was nervous because I wasn't confident about how it looked. And although I had already done my presentation at this point, I still had more to sit through and I still have more projects to do for other classes.

So somehow, between the soup eating and searching for my wallet at home, I lost my wallet. Such a damn fucking pain. I realised what happened, frantically checked everywhere in the apartment, realised where I saw it last, grabbed a CityCarShare for an hour and a half and high-tailed it to school to crawl on the ground and search for this stupid wallet. Thank goodness for CityCarShare to give me peace of mind (or something close to it) And on top of that, I'm not going down to Fresno this weekend, because of this hoo-hah and because of this hoo-hah I realised that I have way too much shit to do before the end of the semester. (Hoo-hah.) The fates have a mysterious and annoying way of telling me that I need to keep my mind on school and off flaking. You can only procrastinate on a watercolor project for so long before it gets ridonkulous.

And of course right now it's 12:07 in the AM and I am wide-fucking-awake, so its a good thing I'm not travelling because usually I wake up at 5:15 to go. I would not have survived the trip out to Richmond to catch the Amtrak must less the train itself.

I'm going to take a shower and chill and if I'm still not tuckered, I'll post about CityCarShare to explain the wonder that it is.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Superfantastic Moo

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed that Moo has a "sleepy/squinty eye". If you hadn't, well, she does, and it's not because I'm constantly poking at her and once in a while get her in that particular eye. No, it's becuase she has a virus that many cats pick up from kitten hood, I'm not sure what its called but it causes secretions heavier than normal, so once every few hours she will have a tiny little goop of eye junk in the corner of her eye, which someone invariably picks out.

In other Moo news, she has really started to settle into her life in the apartment, she understands us better as we understand her better. We like!
If a cat could "baroo?" this is what it would look like.

I keel you, with my deadly uneven eyes.

Moo discovers the outside world.
Moo enjoys the outside world from her vantage point on the heating pad.

Moo and her view.