Sgt Nicholas Angel is my Hero

I had a pretty fabulous weekend. Nothing extremely exceptional happened, but I had nothing but fun.

On Friday I went to see Hot Fuzz, a bloody brilliant little bit of comedy from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. I have to say I like the zombie flick a little better, but I also like zombie flicks better than cop movies so .... Anyway, I recomend checking out Hot Fuzz if you're looking for a good laugh. I had a final earlier on Friday so laughing was quite a nice follow up.

Saturday afternoon I saw Les Miserables with my grandma and mother. It was quite well done and, though really long and operatic, very good. I hadn't seen it before so it was a worthwile passing of the afternoon. Saturday night I went to a party and met some interesting people including a kid I actually met once way back in high school (freshman year to be precise). He was a friend of my boyfriend at the time. I'm not sure why I remembered that I had met him briefly before. Anyway, we talked about art and I'm now inspired to spend a small chunk of time wandering around the UMFA (art museum) this afternoon.

Sunday was my favorite day of the weekend. I got up early, at 7, (which was not so great, but not really that bad) and went for a 27 mile bike ride. I'm pretty damn proud of myself for that considering how I'm in terrible shape and haven't ridden my bike any major distance in years. It was a wonderful ride too - the weather was perfect and everything looked pretty and springish. That afternoon I bought some stuff for my bike at REI (I discovered after 30 miles that my saddle was not really as comfortable as I might like) and piddled around outside for a bit. I went to bed last night feeling quite tired, but in a really good way.

Today's Forcast is Blueberries

There comes a time in every girl's life when she has to ask herself, "What 5 songs would be the most tubular songs ever for karaoke?" (apparently she has to speak 80s when she asks)

I've never done karaoke myself (as a service to the planet, believe me). And I believe that the quintisential karaoke songs should be ones that most people wouldn't think of and that lend themselves to total embarassment of the singer.

This is what I would answer:

"It's the End of the World" by REM -thoroughly impossible to sing all the lyrics but it would kick ass if you could. And it would kick ass seeing the karaoke kids try to hit all the lyrics. Awesome.

"Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads - really, anything by the Talking Heads would be fun. Their songs don't make much sense, but you don't really need to be able to SING to sing them. And Psycho Killer has French bits. Anything French is fun!

"ADIDAS" by Korn - It cracks me up. And how much fun is it to sing about nothing but sex? Come on, shake those karaoke singing grandma's up a bit. It'll do them good to be a little shocked. (for those of you thinking: "how many grandma's do karaoke? I thought it was a younger people thing. Like something you 20-30 somethings do in bars." You should probably should take a moment to think before you think something.)

"Woo Hoo" by the 5 6 7 8s - for those who are extremely lyricly challenged.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen - This is actually what started it all. This was on somebody's (I don't remember who or how I heard about it) list of the best karaoke songs because it's a great song to do in a group and it has something for everyone: a little rock, a little opera, a little... Freddie Mercury. I thought: That's dumb. There's no way a human being, especially a drunk one, can hit the high notes in that. Man, this would be awesome to see.

So that is my list. I think someday I should go to a karaoke bar and fix it so that people have to sing these songs. I'm sure it would be the raddest thing ever, dude.

ZOMGWTFWBDJD?

Here's a no brainer. It turns out that text messaging (omg i nvr wooda thawt this culd happn) makes kids dumber! Ok, not dumber, just less litterate. There's a big surprise, eh?.

Devoted readers of my blog (ha ha ha omigod I'm funny) know how much I love text messages from my rant a good while back. This article just adds another item to the list of why I don't like 'em. The art of constucting a decent sentence is being distroyed by technology! I'm sure it applies to more than just Irish kids too. Maybe we don't notice it in our American youth because they're all electro-brain-washed and inarticulate/illiterate to beging with. It's all very tragic, I think I may cry.

(insert exasperated sigh here) It's really no use resisting such technology as text messaging. Yes, I did give it up for a month last year, but that didn't really do anything. My friends who communicate soley by text got a little annoyed with me. They still sent me texts messages and I called them in response. It was all very silly.

I'm tempted to give it up again, but it's kind of nice to be able to talk to friends when I'm at work and can't really gab on the phone. By no means is this a necessary diversion, but it's kind of nice. Anyway, I always practice safe texting (still HATE that word! I'm all for turning nouns into verbs on occasion, because it's fun, but this is yucky. Texted is worse). I send complete sentences with my texts; often they are long winded sentences with words that the autospell on my phone doesn't recognize. I absolutely refuse to use "i m speak" unless in mockery of people who speak completely in letters. I refuse to let my literacy slip through my fingers as they work the number keys of my phone! Not that it's likely to do so, it's pretty well ingrained in me.

It's also scary when people text and drive.

Speaking of driving, This.

I feel very unhappy for this world of ours. I would feel much worse, I'm sure, if I hadn't ridden my bike to work today. Especially since my gas tank is empty and I would have had to spend 40 some odd dollars to fill it up if I drove it today. Yay bike!

Tis a Blustery Sort of Day

Last night I had vegan pizza. It was good, but it wasn't really what I would call pizza. The consensus was that it should be called "weird shit on bread." But that doesn't make it sound very appetizing. Of course neither does "vegan pizza" really. Oh well, it was actually quite good.

Over the weekend I got a new pair of shoes for $2.50. They're gold and strappy and I'm probably not going to wear them more than a couple times in my life, but they were only $2.50.

You know what would be fun? If a tornado hit downtown and I had to go home. I guess it would probably be more scary than fun, at least in the traditional sense. Oh but it would be exciting. And I sort of don't feel like working today. It's not so bad really. Just on days like this when it's stormy and crazy outside, I want to be either out in the weather or watching it from the comfort of a big armchair with a nice cup of tea. Actually here at my desk I have a very decent view of the rampaging winds. I'm just missing the tea.


Update: There was no tornado. :( And now it's snowing. The really fun part of all this is that my dad, my brother and my brother's girlfriend are all going to a double-header Real Salt Lake soccer (would it be footer because it's soccer?) game tonight. In the snow. Fun for them!

Let's Boogie

It's Friday!

It's Spring!

Yay!

Let's party, old school:

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!

Big Guns

I feel like I should post something about the shootings at Trolley Square on Monday.

I honestly don't have much to say about it. I'm glad no one I know was hurt, and I feel bad for those who do know people who were. But ... it seems like there's so much violence in the world that I'm kind of numb to it all. And I feel bad about that, because I really shouldn't be. As a human being I should be scared or shocked or compelled to do something. But I'm not. I feel like it's just another random act of senseless violence. It really sucks, but the world will keep moving. I even have a friend who works at Trolley. I was briefly worried about him, but only briefly (he's ok). I really don't care much about the whole incident. And that makes me kind of sick.

la la la la laaaaaaaaa

I'm sure it's something that has crossed many a mind before, but I can't help but wonder why people feel compelled to applaud at the end of a movie. Unless you are attending the actual Hollywood premier, no one who had anything to do with the movie is there to appreciate it. Unless you count the pimply kid who runs the projector. These days, I suppose, it's all digital anyway so all said kid has to do is push a button.

I went to the sneak preview of Amazing Grace last night. Good movie, very good story, though the film did seem to be lacking something. Still, very entertaining. Not only did the entire audience (myself excluded) applaud at the end, but they gave it a standing ovation. Had it been a play and not a film, I would have quite agreed with the crowd, but it wasn't.

In other news, I'm single again and have been for... a bit over a week. It's all very tragic, but not really. (ex) Boyfriend and I are still friends. No, really, we actually are. It's a bit strange, but in a good way. Our relationship has basically stayed the same only minus all the fun kissy bits. I suppose I can't really refer to him as 'boyfriend' anymore. I suppose a name is in order. Well, if he ever comes up again in the course of my ramblings, I shall name him.

Crazy Celebs

I'm sure everyone has heard by now about Anna Nicole Smith. It's all very tragic. Especially for Courtney Love. There's no one around now to make her look less crazy.

Here are my predictions for who will step up to the plate:

Sharon Stone - she's almost there. But she's still kind of trying to be classy... sometimes

Lindsey Lohan - just give her a year or two. As long as she doesn't make some miraculous recovery and start acting a like a normal human being. The problem is that she's young-crazy so all her hyjinks can be written off as youthful indescretions (or something).

One (or both) of the Olsen twins - Ok, so relatively they're both pretty wholesome, but wouldn't it be fun if Mary Kate flew off the handle into crazy town. Of course you have the same youth problem you get with Lindsey.

Lara Flynn Boyle - Ok, so she's already a little crazy. She's different crazy though. We need to get her a little more drug-hazed.

Da Bears

What a sad game that was. The first quarter was pretty decent but then the Bears just really started sucking it up. The last half of the game was almost boring. The Colts just killed.

Oh, and the Garmin map monster rocked my world:

In Passing

On my way home from work this afternoon I stopped at a red light behind a Jetta with a license plate that read "ADIDAS"

Now, I know it could be the car of a major brand whore, or a company/team/whatever car. That is to say that it could easily be referring to the shoe/clothing brand.

I like to think it's actually a reference to the Korn song. Sing it with me:

"All day I dream about sex..."

Goings On

I'm serving at work now. Tips are fun. I'm making a very decent amount of money, but I still need to get a real job. By real I mean full time.

This weekend I'm going to the Outdoor Retailer Show. I'm quite excited. It's going to thrilling.

I've been craving chocolate cake for 2 weeks now. Haven't had any.

That last one was very important, eh?