Cheese

The glorious thing we call the internet has reached a new high. That's right, ladies and gents, you can now watch mold grow on cheese! in real time, no less. Finally something we can waste out time with that is less outdoorsy than watching grass grow and less stinky than watching paint dry.

I'm not sure what disturbs me most about this website.

At first it may be the 643,774 (and counting) hits. But it occurs to me that very few of those are probably return viewers. And I am one of them, as will be anyone who clicks on the link to the cheese page from here. So, I'm going to give at least 600,000 of those people the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure they, just like I did, had to check it out to see if it was actually real.

The cheese has a myspace page too. That is... special.

And now I'm perpetuating the success of the website. After all, fame on the web is counted by how many people know about and/or visit your site. On the other hand, very few people ever read this little blog of mine, so I'm not really making much difference at all.

And speaking of blogs (I guess this post is going to be longer than I originally intended), I was reading a Frost Bytes in this week's City Weekly and found this little bit kind of interesting:

• Heard of “ghost blogs”? They’re blogs started by briefly gung-ho writers and diarists, only to be left for dead after a few entries—there are an estimated 200 million (!) of them haunting the Internet right now. “The extraordinary failure rate of online diaries and claims that interest in blogging will soon begin a precipitous slide are sparking an intriguing debate about the future of self-expression on the Internet and whether blogs, once seen as revolutionary, are destined to become a footnote in the history of computing,” said a U.K. Sunday Times report. “Others liken the abandonment of blogs to ‘the suicide of your virtual self’ … At least one Internet writer blames the blogging culture for helping to turn the Internet into a dictatorship of idiots.’”

I find this somewhat encouraging actually. Not that I have anything against blogging, obviously, but I think it may have gotten out of hand. A few weeks ago on Talk of the Nation (NPR show) there was a discussion of the deprivitisation of our lives thanks to internet/wireless communications. People blog about little minute details of their life, and millions and millions of people can read about it. It makes things much less private. It's like airing your dirty laundry and inviting the neighbors over to take a good whiff.

There are also the super politcal blogs done by kids who think they know everything. They bother me. The amount of information available online these days is astounding without every Tom Dick and Harry having his say. And people are slowly loosing their ability to weed the good stuff from the bad stuff. That's a whole other issue though, and I don't want to go into it.

There are, of course, some good blogs. Some news orginizations have blogs which help them connect to thier readers. It's like a 'letters to the editor' page, but less formal. There are also a few blogs that do reviews (of movies, tv shows, celebrities) and those are fun.

And then there are blogs like this one that just don't give a shit. I do this thing because I want to. I don't care that very few people read it. I enjoy writing it, and it's really fun for me to go back and see what I've posted over the years. I can go on about whatever I want and I wont be impossing my little tirades on anyone who doesn't want to read them.

I wonder what the future of 'sef-expression on the internet' will bring. Certainly a continued breakdown of personal privacy. Maybe more moldy cheese?

The Inevitable Things in Life

... Or at least one of them.

I filed my taxes today. Isn't that exciting? It certainly is.

The question now is what will I do with the money? It seems such a shame to waste a perfectly good chunk of free money (yes I know it isn't really free, but it kind of feels like it is) on paying off credit cards, but that's probably where it will go. Or maybe I'll save it and spend it after I pay the little plastic devil gods. I can't truly enjoy the extra dinero until I buy my soul back, can I?

On the other hand, a pretty new pair of shoes would fill the hole that was once my soul quite nicely. Or, if I want to be somewhat practical, there's some bike stuff I could use. Oh, I need to take my bike in for a tune up (she deserves a spa day, and has never really had one). And some new running shoes might be a worth wile adventure. True, I do have the fancy New Balance shoes I got at the ORS, but they seem just a little high tech. That's silly, isn't it. I will not buy new running shoes because I don't need them.

I'll find something good to do with my refund.

Deadly UV Rays

I love the sun, but the sun does not really love me.

I spent the weekend in Moab with Scott. Yesterday we drove around on a bunch of dirt roads (beautiful scenery). The sunroof was open the whole time. I got a little sunburned.

I have drawn a self-portrait to demostrate the sunburnedness of me:



It's not a very good portrait. I don't have oddly lengthed pointy arms, My eyes are considerably more normal than that, as are my mouth and nose. Let's call it an impressionist portrait. And it does well enough to demostrate that I am a little sunburned.

My skin hurts.

Weeee FUN

Let's all play a game!

Or, to be more specific, THIS GAME.

Why am I not playing the game over at that site? Because I don't want to.

So, here are my five random i-pod songs:

First Orgasm - Dresden Dolls
Impromptu in 2 Keys - Gershwin (performed by Fazil Say and the Chicago Philharmonic)
Got To Get You Into My Life - The Beatles
Kids with Guns - Gorillaz
Burning Down the House - Talking Heads

Now, what does it all mean?????

Ta Dah!

It is officially Spring now! Horray for the days being longer than the nights (however slightly at the moment). So far here the weather has been fairly spring-like too. Last week it was sunny and quite warm- a few days we had nearly 80* weather. (there is no degree sign on my keyboard, so I must use the asterix).

In other news, I'm going down to Moab this weekend with Scott. He's going down for a little adventure race thing. I'm going down for support. Aren't I sweet?

XCIX Bottles of Wine on the Wall

Happy Ides of March Everybody!

Although I'm not entirely sure the 'ides of march' is necissarily something to be celebrated. It certainly wasn't too great for Mr. Ceasar.

I've taken to listening to NPR lately because normal radio sucks. On my way to work today somebody was on talking about the post slaying (of Julius Ceasar) party and the roman rendition of 99 bottles of beer on the wall.

Here's a link to the story. I recomend listening to it, it's much more fun if you actually hear the song.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8899367

Blood! Guts! Glass!

I just lived through a minor disaster at work. Granted, it was not very disasterous and the only one who could have possibly been hurt was me, but still.

I'm working as a receptionist now (yeah, very challenging work, but hey, it pays well and it's a fun office) so I sit at a desk and answer phones all day. I have a fairly large desk in the entrance of the building above which there are three hanging lights. These lights have about ten inch high cylidrical glass shades.

About ten minutes ago, one of these shades, specifically the one directly above my head, came off and crashed onto my desk. It missed my head by a few inches but shattered all over my desktop.

The good news is that I'm totally fine. I had a little shard of glass lodged in my hand and a few little cuts, but over all, I'm just peachy keen. It does bother me a little that it happened at all. And if I had been leaning foward at all, it would have given me a good conk on the head.

I'm a little wary now of the remaining two lights.

Click on the Blue One

You know what's not fun?

Waking up at 6 in the morning.

Not fun.




You know what IS fun?

SPACE !!!!!

Tides

I just started a new job. Actually, my first real day (not just training) is Monday. It's not that exciting really, it's just a receptionist job. But I like all the people at the office and it pays well. I'm really kind of excited about it.

Now that I have regular hours and the opportunity to start a routine, I'm going to start training for a triathlon. Wish me luck!