We were supposed to leave on time today

But it's past time to go, and Brett hasn't even written to say that he's left work. I've tried emailing him and calling, but I'm not getting any response, which means he's probably stuck in some stupid, unexpected meeting. It takes him 20-30 minutes to get here. We're both exhausted, and we keep eating out because we're too tired and short on time to make dinner ourselves. We don't have the energy to work out or do ANYTHING productive once we get home, and we usually only have a couple of hours there before we have to go to sleep anyway. We've barely started working on our Christmas presents, our cards are still in the boxes, our house is a mess, and at this point we'll be VERY lucky if we get home before 5pm, and in order to get 8 hours of sleep (which we haven't gotten in I don't even know how long) we should be going to bed at 8:30. We have nothing at home to eat for dinner, which means we'll either have to go to the grocery store (further delaying our arrival at home) or we'll eat out again (making us even fatter and once again spending way more money than is necessary). Bitch, bitch, bitch.

A Post From Work

Okay, so on my lunch break today someone had me take this test because I'm always talking about what a geek I am, and how nerdy I am, and how my friends and I like to "geek it up" or "nerd around" (sorry, friends). And I love nerds. I'd take Jeff Goldblum over Patrick Swayze ANY day. But apparently (according to this test) I'm only a "Level 0 Geek (wannabe)." That's GHETTO. I AM A FULL-BLOODED GEEK. Well, my purity test score says otherwise I suppose, but have you talked to a Physicist or mathematician lately? 'Cause for the most part, their lives haven't exactly been all Cheetos and Mountain Dew either.

I worked almost ten hours today.

And NO ONE wrote to tell me to fix this thing. So I just uploaded our Halloween party pics to flickr and now I'm going to bed. Granted, there's no way to contact me THROUGH my website right now (I just realized this) but many people (Jon, Alison, etc) should know my other, secret email addresses by heart and should be checking my website every day for updates, despite the fact that before yesterday I hadn't updated it in over a month. Maybe I'll work on it tomorrow, but in the meantime, click my flickr banner and look at our Halloween pictures! And my spider pictures too if you want, but not if you're going to complain about them.

I'm tired, and I'm going to bed.

But I've been making an effort! See! Things look different! Well, in a shitty way, I guess, but whatevs. My old html wasn't "RSS compatible" or something, even though almost all of it was hand-coded by yours truly. But I guess it was a little over complicated. and VERY old school. Anyway, so instead of having to figure out how to do it myself in a newer, fancier, cleaner way, AND try to come up with a new layout (because I never finished making everything blue before because I hated the way it looked) I just used a BLOGGER TEMPLATE. Is that cheating, since technically all of this falls within my major? I guess I don't care, even if it does. AND I've started putting my photos on flickr, like the rest of the world. Anyway, I know most of my pages don't have a link from here yet, but I'll probably fix that after work tomorrow. Depending on how many people email me throughout the day to tell me that they've noticed this post and want me to hurry up and fix things, I might actually finish. If we get home from work at a reasonable time. For now though, I'M GOING TO BED.

Cocoasplosion

I'm taking my last break at work today. I wasn't going to take it yet, I was just going to run to the kitchen, make a cup of cocoa, and keep working for awhile, but that plan has changed. I made my cocoa, and then I tried to get the plastic lid to fit onto my disposable paper-ish cup, it wouldn't go. Instead of taking a step back and rethinking things, I elected to keep pushing at it in order to force it on. Instead what I succeeded in doing was getting my cup to do a sort of odd bendy trick and fling cocoa ALL OVER our kitchen. I swear, and grab for a paper towel. No paper towels on the holder. I grunt, looking behind me to see if anyone's seen my horrible mess yet (they hadn't) and dive for the cabinet where we keep EXTRA paper towel rolls. No paper towels in the cabinet. Thinking fast, I then lean up to reach into the cabinet we keep extra kleenex boxes. No kleenex boxes (WHAT'S THE DEAL?!?). Finally I grab a handful of coffee filters (what do I care, I don't drink coffee) and start to pathetically smear the mess around with them. Then I notice the gross community sponge by the sink. After like, 10,000 wipes, rinses and squeezes, I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. I still have splatters on my shirt though. And now my break is almost over, but I'll write the things I decided to write about, while trying vainly to clean my shirt in the bathroom:

1) I need to start writing in this thing more frequently again.

2) I need to start replying to the like, 2 months of personal emails I've been ignoring, and then set some sort of schedule for myself so that I KEEP replying to my personal emails, so they don't get this bad again.

3) I need to start working out or SOMETHING, because I'm way too fat.

and lastly, as promised,

4) Ai Uchida was not the only one to tell me that my contact form wasn't working. Aaron Burkhalter told me in an email he actually sent me BEFORE Ai's email, but it was a longer email than hers, and I didn't finish it, and he mentioned it at the bottom. (Oops!) When he pointed this out to me later, I promised to post a correction. :)

Sigh.

Now that my site is back up, I'm not posting. I WAS in the habit of posting all the time, but I've gotten out of that habit, and I choose not to blame my internship (which makes it nearly impossible to post from work, since this position is a little more challenging than my last one), but instead I blame Splice, because if my server hadn't been down for SO FRELLING LONG I would've maybe still kept up my routine of frequent posts. And yes, that's right, I said frelling. I love Farscape. A lot. We just finished the series and the Peacekeeper Wars, and we're watching the bonus features this weekend. It's like, Buffy good, and it makes Star Trek look pathetic and frigid. FARSCAPE RULES!!!

Hargle.

Ai is the only one of you who thought to email me at my normal address to let me know that the contact form on my site wasn't working. Thanks, Ai! Poop on the rest of you that have my email address! I spent a whole lot of time trying different things to get it to work, feeling both stupid and crazy because nothing was working, and I'm not retarded, so I know I was doing it right in the first place. After I spent part of my lunch today reviewing cgi stuff online like a damn kindergartener I KNEW I had it right, and was baffled as to why it wasn't working. So I tried it again, and it worked, for no apparent reason other than Splice must have fixed something on their end that wasn't set right before. Stupid Splice.

The rest of my site is still pretty messed up though, and I'll start working on that and doing some other online-type things asap. Here is why I have not done these things yet:

Sunday day (last weekend): painted primer in bar (including the lofted ceiling)
Sunday night (also last weekend): I don't remember.
Monday & Tuesday day: worked worked worked! In my new internship.
Monday & Tuesday night: painted and crashed.
Wednesday day: Offsite team building including a scavenger hunt that went EVERYWHERE, like ALL OVER downtown, then a Mariner's game with food and booze
Wednesday night: Tony and Nicolle's for hanging out
Thursday & Friday day: working in my super cool new internship, sore legs and all!
Thursday night: Curled up in a ball and did not do anything but watch tv because of sore legs and pms
Friday night: knitted scarf
Saturday day: errands and chores
Saturday night: dinner at Chris & Sarah's (sans Sarah, but with Maria, Indra, mom, and Brian)
Sunday day: errands, then the FOURTH COAT of paint in the bar (not counting the primer)
Sunday night: fell asleep on the couch
Monday day: working again, except my lunch is over so I'd better get back to it. :)

Okay...

So at least I can post again. But I still want to switch servers I think, because that was crappy. What do you think? (Note: That question is directed toward the 2 f'ing people who still read my blog after it was down for so long). Any suggestions on someone cheap but good to go through? Tony, I know you have some ideas, and I'll talk to YOU later. Anyway, I have to get back to work, because my break is over. But yay! My index is back online, and the rest should follow shortly!

FINALLY!

My stupid fucking server has been down for FOREVER. And contrary to the implications of the "suspended.page" folder they put up when they made my site available again, it is NOT because I didn't pay my freaking bill. That's done on an annual basis every February or March or something like that. Just to let you know. I'm glad to have the space back up, but I'm still really mad at them, because this was ghetto and in turn makes me look ghetto. Here's our communication through ActiveTicket, starting with my inquiry on Sept. 6th (after we got home from our Labour Day weekend at dad's, which I will post about when I have more time).

Website & Control Panel Unavailable

I'm unable to view any of the pages or folders of my website online (they time out), and I'm unable to access my control panel (it acts as if my pswd is incorrect, but I'm using the correct pswd). I have been unable to get through to either my site or my control panel for a few days now...could this have anything to do with you transferring my information to a different server? Can this problem be resolved asap? Thanks.

User/Staff Follow-ups

SpliceHOST Inc. Support 7-9-2005-06:26

Hi, We regret to inform you that the server spice4.splice1.com has met with a severe hardware issue. The server has been down for the last 2 days due to this. Since this is an unexpected hardware breakdown, we could not do much about preventing it. The server is currently under close examination of on-site engineers and they will ensure that the server will back as fast as humanly possible. However we are not yet able to give you an ETA on this. As we were deeply involved with recovery actions regarding this issue, we were not able to get back to you at the earliest. Your understanding and further co-operation in this matter will be highly appreciated. Thanks for your recent request for information . Best Regards, Sam ActiveTicket.com Support Team ----------- No File Attached

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Cat Jackson 9-9-2005-2:22 EDIT

Do you have an ETA yet? I'm sure you're very aware of how this is affecting your clients, but my site has been unavailable for almost a week, and I'm obviously very upset by this. I currently have three websites hosted through SpliceHOST (fortunately only one has been effected) but because of this I'm now researching other hosting options for all of my sites. Please make more of an effort to communicate to us any information you have about the status of the server, so that your clients can at least have some assurance that you're actually working on getting things back up. Also, my site is fully backed up, so if it would help you give me access to it sooner, please just make it available to me without recovering my old data. Thank you for your efforts.

SpliceHOST Inc. Support 10-9-2005-11:44	Hello, We have setup the new server for all the accounts. The data recovery operations are still going on in the old server. If you have the latest backup of your account, please upload it to the server. Thanks for your recent request for information . Best Regards, Sam ActiveTicket.com Support Team ----------- No File Attached
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Cat Jackson 11-9-2005-1:16 EDIT

My site now has a directory listed (including a suspended.page folder, which I don't appriciate) but even though I uploaded my index page again, it does not pull up as the default page for my site, nor does it pull up when you actually key in /index.html at the end of the URL. Please fix this problem immediately.

SpliceHOST Inc. Support 13-9-2005-04:52	Hello There was some misconfiguration for the domain catjackson.net in apache and i have fixed it. Please try to access the domain now. Thanks for your recent request for information . Best Regards, Sam ActiveTicket.com Support Team ----------- No File Attached
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testing...

Inflatable Sheep!

This title makes reference to a post in someone else's blog, but I'm not allowed to openly share the link yet, so you'll just have to WAIT. Anyway, I'm beat. My shoulders are sore, my jaw is tired (from non-stop gum chewing), and my face feels dirty. I just finished my first day in my new internship! I LOVE this department. I think I'll have a really fun time doing this job, and I really like the people. All day I've been absorbing new information; sitting with other people (hence the gum chewing, to avoid blasting them with stink-mouth), watching ppt presentations, practicing DOING the stuff I've been watching and reading about, etc. And after my healthy breakfast&lunch of hot pocket, cheetos, and pop tarts, I'm feeling up to an evening meal of [insert name of fast food restaurant here]. I know I shouldn't eat this garbage, but I'm so tired, and I don't want to a) go to the store, b) cook anything, or c) wait for anything to be cooked by Brett. Brett, who is now 20 minutes late to pick me up and hasn't even left the office yet. Something. And we're supposed to go visit dad this weekend but I have no flight info. Something else. Did I mention I was tired? I'm also getting kind of cranky. I wanted to go to Old Navy tonight to look for some things (since their site was down Sunday and now we're going away for the weekend), but it's getting late and I bet it'll be crowded if we get there any later than this. I HATE shopping with other people around...I'm the kind of person who goes shopping just as the store opens, on a day that no one ELSE would want to be there that early, just so I can avoid the people. Oh! My Sephora package was supposed to arrive this afternoon. I'm glad we're leaving late, now it can have more time hanging out in the rain.
Anyway, Brett just wrote me to say that he's ready to go, so woohoo! I'm outta here.

Thursday through Sunday

Thursday
We got a message from dad saying that Jacob (my youngest brother, who took GOLD at nationals this year) is most likely leaving home two years early to train with the coach of the national gymnastics team, at the coach's request. Jacob is brilliant at tramopoline (as Brett and I prefer to call it) and is a little young to be moving out, but is definitely deserving of the opportunity.

Friday
I interviewed for an internship position in the scheduling department at WaMu and was asked to start MONDAY. So I'll be working M-F for at least a few months, and Brett and I will be able to carpool again, because I won't be able to start at 4:30am anymore, since I'll be in a regular job in a department that's NOT open 24hrs. Yay!

After work, we went to Jon's house for his very fun birthday party, and had Thai food, wine, and cake. We also marveled at his nephew's mad skillz at reciting lines from Napoleon Dynamite, and played Outburst! Then we slept over (as planned) because...

Saturday
We went for a walk with Brett's family in Magnuson Park, and then came home and fell asleep and pretty much just lounged around for the rest of the day, trying to make up for the lack of sleep we'd experienced every night that week, since we hadn't really gotten used to my new schedule yet.

Sunday (today)
I tried to shop at Old Navy online, but their site's been down all day. How ghetto is THAT? You'd think that they'd want it to go down on a Tuesday or something, because most people have better things to do on Tuesday than shop online, but Sunday morning? Even when I'm at work I usually shop online on Sunday. As long as there's nothing else for me to do. Because work comes first, of course.

Also, my dad called again, because he's had another heart attack. I guess it was pretty big this time, but he SAYS he feels pretty good, and that he'll be fine. I don't believe him, but I guess I'll see how he's doing when we get there. We're flying to Cincinnati this weekend, I think. Numero four, I think this is. Sigh. I should get my cholesterol checked again, and I should exercise more. I'd prefer not to have any heart attacks, let alone four.

My Finger

The swelling's gone down quite a bit, and the photo doesn't make it look as bad as it feels. But it's still pretty ugly I guess. It's getting better, but typing with a bandaid on is getting a little irratating, and I bet I'll be keeping a bandaid on it for a good long while.

Muffins, Meeting, and Mucus

Costco brought us free muffins and cookies today, so since I spent most of my break pigging out I don't have time to write a big post, but let me just say this: my team (and a bunch of other people too; we're not that special) had meeting w/ a new VP here at WaMu today and he seemed really cool. Personable, smiley, and full of great ideas. I'm sure I'm not supposed to talk about any of it, but he made me pretty happy. I seldom trust people 100%, so I still want to actually see his plans in action before I'm TOTALLY happy, but things are looking up.

Also, I woke up this morning and my mouth tasted sort of like it does when I have strep. And I keep smelling this really gross smell, and I think my nose is smelling itself, and that maybe I have a sinus infection. Gross.

Back to work now, and then I get to go HOME at 1:15pm, because that's when my shift ends now!!! WOOHOO!!! :D

Mother of God.

My finger hurts. On our way to work Friday Brett and I listened to Philip Glass, and the cd was still playing when he came to pick me up again on our way home. It's nice music for a quiet drive in the dark when you're tired, but when you're more awake, it's sunny outside, and you're stuck in rush hour traffic it's a little boring. At least that's how *I* feel. So after sitting on the freeway for awhile, I turned it up from quiet-background level to not-that-easy-to-talk-over level, and said "I LOVE this melody!" (there was of course, not much of a melody going on.)
So Brett voted to listen to Gorillaz, and I certainly didn't object. But then when I went to grab the case for the Philip Glass disk (which had been thrown into the backseat), something sliced under my fingernail. I STILL don't know what it was, because Brett had a lot of crap back there that he was bringing home from work, but it felt like the corner of a plastic report cover or something. The point jammed under my fingernail, and then when I jerked my hand away from it in pain I somehow managed to slice it all the way over and through THE SIDE OF MY FINGERNAIL, instead of back out past the tip, the way it came in. So it hurt SO badly, and when I finally stopped pinching it and howling, I saw that it was bleeding UNDER the nail. Not a good sign. Brett suggested that I keep putting pressure on it so that I didn't get more blood under there, which sounded like a good idea to me, because as someone who's never lost a nail before I was hoping I could just squeeze it until it like, reconnected or something. But no.
It was really painful, but sort of okay when we got home, but the nail was definitely detached from the skin on one side, and it appeared to be ripped or split somehow, but I didn't want to mess with it, because IT'LL JUST DECIDE TO STICK ITSELF BACK TOGETHER, RIGHT?
So then later that night we get home from Megan's super fun surprise pizza birthday party and decide to snuggle up in front of an episode of Farscape, but Brett's head was smooshing me, so I tried to shove him over a little and hair from his beard went INSIDE the newly formed split between my fingernail and the skin on the side of the nail. Holy. Crap. I actually cried tears. And could hardly speak. It was like NEEDLES under my nail. UNDER my nail. And then it was really bleeding, and swollen, and throbbing. We bound it up in a tight bandaid, but when I woke up Saturday morning the end of my finger was comically swollen and red, and the nail was all oozy and bloody. It stayed that way until late yesterday, when it started to be not just a dull pain all the time and a stronger dull pain when touched, but also a SHARP pain when anything brushed against it just the right way. So a new bandaid was applied.
It still hurts just as bad this morning, so I pulled back the bandaid to take a peak, and the side of my nail is gone. I don't know when THAT happened...it almost seems like it just turned to jelly and wiped off or something, but I don't think that actually happens. It's not that big of a part that's missing; about two thirds of the length of the nail are gone from a 1mm strip on the outside edge of my left pointer finger (which sucks, because I'm left handed). But it's lame because it's not the two thirds from the tip back, it's two thirds from just above the cuticle forward. And it's all puffy and discolored, and it looks SO disgusting, and it hurts like you wouldn't believe. Maybe I'll post a picture later, if anyone wants to see. It's really gnarly.

Something

I keep not fixing my website. I should do that this weekend, but we have other stuff to do instead. Ugh. I've been so tired lately, and my new schedule hasn't even started yet. It's like my body knows it's about to start getting up at 3:45am and I'm adjusting ahead of time without even trying. I've gone to sleep at 8pm every night this week. Even if I wasn't actually in bed, I'd just fall asleep. Yesterday I fell asleep at my computer BEFORE 8pm. We'll see how well my plans tonight work out. With my luck I'll end up falling asleep at the restaurant. Anyhow, I didn't get around to posting this earlier, but Ali has a store on etsy now, and she sells the CUTEST purses. They're unique and pretty in a laid-back-cool kind of way. She'll probably hate my description, but "whatevs." They sell fast, but she seems to always have something up, so check it out here:
malisonian.etsy.com and buy your malisonian today! Also, her blog has moved to a subfolder of her website or something, so I need to update my link for that, but I'm not doing it right now. In the meantime, I'll post it here.
Now I have to get back to work, but oh yeah! One more thing: we're making plans for another halloween potluck/costume party this year, so those of you who are friends, family, or friends-of-friends should mark your calendars to come on October 29th. The rest of you can eat it, because it won't be THAT big.

I'm tired

and I really don't want to work today. It took us almost an hour to get to work again this morning because even though we left earlier than usual so Brett could make a 7am meeting, it's raining really hard outside and there was an accident on the road. A one-car accident. Good job, guy. My work schedule is supposed to change next week so I'll be coming in at *4:30am* and leaving at 1:15pm, which I'm hoping will actually end up being really nice, because I'll have much better traffic (with no traffic, it takes about 25 minutes to get here) and work is usually much slower that early in the morning. Until then though, I'm stuck with this schedule. And I bet it's going to be reeeeally busy today, because a bunch of people are on vacation. :|

My eyes! My eyes!

Okay. Last night I was sitting in the bathroom, doing sitting in the bathroom type things, and gagging my way through the current Delia's catalog. I mean, really. Please. Some things were cute, but most of it seemed like it was just ugly on purpose. I was disturbed and felt out of touch and old because I just couldn't find some of that stuff attractive AT ALL. I say again, some things were cute, but a lot of it was just repulsive. Then just now at work I was walking down the hall and passed a girl wearing horrible jeans. She was young and pulled together in a mostly uninteresting sort of way, except for the fact that she was wearing normal medium-blue denim jeans with a faded spot on her ass. Now. I understand that these are popular. I even find a lot of them cute, if it's done right. But her's was a strikingly pale circle that covered most of the lower half of her ass and a few inches of the top of her thighs. It looked like she'd sat on a cake, and it just drew my eyes right to the fact that her jeans were a little small in the butt, if you know what I mean. Ugh. I'm no fashionista, but please...anyone should know that stuff like that isn't a good idea.

Tired.

Due to some incidents of movie watching and garageband this weekend, I've yet to finish fixing up my website. I'm working on it. I'm super tired now though, so I'm going to bed, and I'll work on it more tomorrow. If there are any wealthy people out there interested in giving me enough money to quit my job, I'd love to update my html first thing in the morning, but as it stands it will have to come after I spend nine hours at work and two hours in rush hour traffic. Until then, I'll leave you with this:

AtTheGayBar.mov

The Changeling

I got my new computer! Those of you who hung out with me this weekend already know this, but we picked it up on Thursday. It's up and running just fine so far, and I'm working on changing the colors on my site a little, so sorry for the mess today...just bare with me and hopefully all the links will work (and the ones that work will match the index page) before I go to bed tonight.

I copied this quiz from Jon.

5 IMPORTANT THINGS INSIDE YOUR BAG:
1. wallet
2. keys
3. gum (*smack!*)
4. lipgloss
5. compact

5 THINGS YOU WEAR EVERYDAY:
1. ring
2. watch
3. necklace
4. earrings
5. undies (different pairs, thank you)

5 OF YOUR FAVORITE FOODS:
1. chocolate
2. babies
3. hot & sour soup
4. sushi
5. anything Brett makes

5 OF YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS:
1. Brett
2. Jon
3. Shannon
4. Lots of other people who won't all fit into two spaces (see "places to go" to the left to see some of them)

5 OF YOUR FAVE MOVIES:
1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Dawn of the Dead (newer)
3. Harry Potter (all)
4. Misc. Comedy
5. Misc. Horror

5 THINGS IN YOUR ROOM:
1. a bed
2. too much clothing
3. a bathroom
4. cat toys
5. cat o' nine tails (bought as a halloween prop, but hung on the wall to scare people all year round)

5 THINGS YOU ATE TODAY:
1. 3 squares of "The Bat Bar" from the Endangered Species Chocolate Company
2. 2 hard boiled eggs
3. 1 party cup full of jalepeno cheese puffs
4. 2 turkey sandwiches
5. 3 pieces of cheese

5 THINGS YOU COULDN'T LIVE WITHOUT:
1. air
2. food
3. a properly functioning body
4. protection from extreme weather
5. freedom of expression

The good, the bad, and the ugly?

The Good: My mac might finally arrive today. Well, it already TRIED to arrive today, but we were at work, so they might have it available for pickup when we leave work tonight. But they couldn't say for sure.
Also good, Maria and her oh-so-stylish jewelry are mentioned in the Seattle Style File on NWSource today. Check it out HERE and scroll straight to "Maria Carter Designs jewelry" to read about her work.

The Bad: Um, because I haven't had a computer, I haven't been able to help Maria with her website. Notice the lack of hyperlinkage on her name in the NWSource article. Damn.

The Ugly?: Okay, so I watched a show last night where they were debating about America's beauty obsession, and for a substantial amount of time they focused on Dove's "Real Women Have Real Curves" ad campaign. Almost everyone on the show repeatedly made reference to it as a campaign that shows "real" women INSTEAD OF BEAUTIFUL WOMEN. Now. 1) Who of the women depicted isn't totally beautiful? I've yet to find anyone who I'd categorize as anything less than very, very pretty. 2) REAL women aren't beautiful? and 3) The people on the show were trying to make "real" people feel better about themselves, like "oh, you shouldn't try to look like US, and advertisers are finally realizing that sometimes it's better to NOT use beautiful people, and that's okay." But by consistently referring to "real" people as NOT BEAUTIFUL they only succeeded in making me feel bad about myself. I mean, I thought I was alright, but if the women in the dove campaign can so easily be dismissed as not beautiful, where does that put me?

What is the sound of a thousand angels crying?

My mac mini did not come today. For reasons far beyond my understanding it was shipped from Alaska to Indiana, which is where it's been since late last night. What the butt? I know my geography is poor, but if I were to draw a line from AK to WA I don't believe IN would be a point ANYWHERE on that line. This did not bother me this morning, as my "estimated delivery date" still showed as Aug 3rd and I was operating under the assumption that FedEx would get its shit together and haul that thing back out to WA at breakneck speed, but I was wrong. Aug 3rd is now almost done with, yet SpedEx still estimates it will arrive by noon today.

FORTUNATELY, aside from not getting my computer, the rest of my day has also been crap. Work: crap. Drive home from work: crap. So-called "down" time after drive: also crap. Dinner: meh, spinach pizza, not so crappy. Nobody needs to hear WHY these things have been not so good, because probably on the scale of problems people have in the world, mine rate somewhere between an eye-roll and a sarcastically played air-violin. But I've still felt lame and depressed and angry all day. And it's not even TIME for that this month yet. What's wrong with me...a woman, feeling depressed and angry for reasons OTHER than hormones. That's an abomination. Anyway, this post is getting a little Brettesque what with all the ranting, so I'm going to bed. Good afternoon, good morning, and goodnight.

Human, Human, Human After All...

Okay, so I know this album is a little mechanical. Very mechanical. But still...I just love it. I really like the noises they create...like, drippy, liquidy, organic sounding noises, but also clearly inorganic and very clearly synthesized. Something. I just watched the first half of The Stand tonight...pretty good, but a far cry from the book, which I wish would come out on audio cd at some point. Even if it was like, $50 I'd still buy it. I've read it probably three or four times now, but I really hate sitting still and reading, so I'd prefer to be able to just listen to it. Since that's not an option I'm watching the miniseries again instead. Oh, and guess what?!? FedEx shipment status as of 4:29pm Aug 2, 2005: Departed FedEx location ANCHORAGE, AK!!! It might ACTUALLY get here soon! I was beginning to think it would be stuck in China forever. Let's just hope now that it's not damaged from all the "regulatory agency" shenanigans and it's long journey. Since I'll have access to photoshop and garageband and dreamweaver and all that stuff, and I'll be obligated to start both being productive again and engaging in my normal hobbies this could mean the end of my consistent posting. BUT, I don't want it to be, and it really doesn't take that long to just write a little bit each day, so I'll do my best to keep it up. Not that THAT means much. Steeeeeam Machiiiiiiine...

Mew.

Star was bugging me like crazy this morning. She kept following me around like, "mew? mewmew? mew mewmew mew mew?" I'd pick her up, hold her for awhile, and then she'd squirm away, only to be back again a few minutes later doing the same thing. Finally I decided that she was cold and using me to warm herself up, because it was rainy and overcast this morning and since we haven't needed to turn the heat on in months it WAS kind of chilly in the house. So I set up her little winter-time heating pad and she happily jumped up and fell asleep on it, not to bug me again for the rest of the day. So then just before Brett switched places with me so that I could use his computer (since mine is STILL stuck in fucking Shenzhen) I went over to give her some unwanted attention and she looked so relaxed it was comical. Her fur was all unkempt and sticking out at odd angles, and she had this droopy-eyed stoned look on her face like she wasn't getting up for aaanything. I think that if she was to get TOO hot she'd know to get up, right? Let's hope.

Anyway, so I finally saw Spencer Tunick's Naked States. It was exactly as good as I thought it would be (which was pretty good), so I'll be bumping up Naked World to the top of my queue now. Brett was funny and had no idea what I was talking about when I was trying to explain what it was, so it was tough to get him to want to watch it, but I think he liked it too. As soon as I start to explain it though I knew he wasn't in to it. "It's a documentary about this artist..." was as far as I got before he scrunched up his face and started to protest. But I made him let me finish and after I'd explained that there would be lots of naked people I knew I had a chance. In the end, the argument I used to get it on the screen was "you don't even have to pay attention." And he agreed to watch it from behind the shielding normalcy of Civilization or whatever the crap he was doing on his laptop the whole time. But he DID pay attention and did like it, so yay!

We also saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this weekend, with Shannon, who I'm happy to say will be in town for a few weeks. I knew Tim Burton's movie would be truer to the creepy, trippy vision of Roald Dahl than the old movie was, and I was correct. What a long, strange trip it was. Still suitable for children, but I'd say probably more suitable for the older kind of child, who has more candy on his sweaty wrist than in his sticky little hand. If you know what I mean. But even though none of us are any kind of child, we all three still liked it, and we'll probably buy it. We'll definitely buy The Corpse Bride though. They played a trailer for that before the Chocolate Factory and I'm already in love. Tim Burton is the coolest ever.

And last of all, while going through some of my old papers this weekend I bravely read a line of something to Brett, which he then felt I needed to post online. It's like, not related to anything else I've talked about, because I really didn't feel like talking about religion just to tie in this dumb quote of myself, but here goes:

lines drawn with human imperfection
raise mortal egos to delusions of permanence

Totally.
Fucking.
Lame.
Not a poem, not a...anything, really. But still, that's my reaction to the idea that people are just fo' sho' going to live eternally in some literal "heaven". Like being just a brief and tiny piece of this amazing universe is so ugly and unacceptable. So whatevs...it's well put I guess. And I'm going to bed.

Fahq.

My mac is shipping from Shenzhen, China, but is experiencing a "regulatory agency clearance delay" right now. Stupid FedEx. Stupid Mac. CHINA? Really. It never occurred to me that it would come from outside of North America, because it's just a computer. So grr. Those "regulatory agency" people had better not mess it up, and it'd better get here fast and in mint condition or I swear I'm getting a PC. Well, no. I'd still buy a mac. but I'd be really, really surly about it. Surly like my new photo for friendster:

My stomach hurts.

And I'm bloated. And I'm hoarse because stomach acid keeps pushing up into my throat. And sometimes I like to complain. Also, we'd better do something fun tonight, because the only interesting parts of my day so far have involved people screaming at me. TGIF.

Okay...

I posted a comment on Brett's Brogg and afterward it brought me to a page that showed my comment next to my blogger profile picture (the one where I'm eating a rolled up quesadilla) and I decided that my forehead looks hideous in that picture, and that my eyes look crossed. I did like it, but now I'm not so sure. AND I noticed that my forehead looks A LOT like Jack Blacks. Who I don't really think of as one of the great beauties of our time. Since I've already felt for awhile now that I look eerily like Bill Murray, this makes me a blend of Bill Murray and Jack Black. Sigh. At least I have a genius level IQ and I know how to make people laugh. AND I have a great rack.

Music Survey!

1. The first CD you ever bought.
Savage by Eurythmics (I was nine years old and unbeknownst to all the kids who made fun of me, I was really, really cool)

2. Musical styles that you listen to.
Less country, bluegrass, traditional, and tribal music than other things, but I listen to pretty much everything.

3. Your 1-5 favourite artists/bands.
Uh...hm. Well, going by what I have the most of, that would be The Cure, NIN, Ani DiFranco, DMB, and Aphex Twin. But I haven't really been listening to Ani or Dave much lately, and there are other things that I don't have much of but I listen to all the time. Like RJD2, and a whole bunch of other stuff along those lines.

4. What's in your CD player right now.
A mix cd made by Brett. I think it has some TMBG, Orbital, Beatles, probably Monty Python, I'm assuming Postal Service...I dont' remember. It's quite random, but still good.

5. The most recent CD that you bought.
The last cd I technically bought was With Teeth by NIN (which Brett hates but I can't stop listening to), but before our last road trip Brett bought Demon Days by Gorillaz and Human After All by Daft Punk at my request. Demon Days is kind of meh in my opinion, but I really like Human After All even though a lot of it is pretty mechanical & minimalist. But hey, Phillip Glass and Four Tet are minimalist, and they're likeable.

6. You're stuck on a deserted island with a solar powered CD player. You can only have 1 album. What album do you take?
What ever it is, it'd better be LONG, because I wouldn't even want to listen to With Teeth anymore after the like, 9,000th time in a row, so those 9,000 times had better take as long as possible to play.

7. Song you think has the most beautiful lyrics.
A lot of them. But I think "Beautiful" (which was SUNG by Christina Aguilera but written by Linda Perry) was exceptionally nice.

8. Your favourite music video.
Um, also a tough one, but I really like Tool's music videos, and Bjork's. And a lot of other people's too.

9. A song that reminds you of summer.
Ugh. Will Smith's "Summertime"

10. Your favourite song with the name of a city in the title or lyrics.
I really don't know...the only things I can think of are "New York, New York" by Sinatra and "Shadow of Seattle" and "Vampires of New York" by Marcy Playground, but I don't really like any of those songs. Wait, "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce Springsteen is alright though.

11. A song you've listened to repeatedly when you were depressed at some point in your life.
Lots of things, because being depressed and listening to music is what being a teen is all about. For the most part though, I would've been listening to pretty much anything by The Cure or NIN. But especially the albums Staring at the Sea and Mixed Up by The Cure and Pretty Hate Machine by NIN. Oh, and Permanent by Joy Division. Because nothing says "I love life" like the works of Ian Curtis.

12. Ever bought an entire album just for one song and winded up disliking everything but that song?
Not that I recall. I've bought a lot of albums for one song and wound up hating the rest of it though. But now thanks to itunes that won't happen as much! :D

13. A song whose lyrics you thought you knew in the past, but about which you later learned you were incorrect.
Ha...Pearl Jam's "Glorified G" - I thought for FOREVER that it went "glorified version of a pelican..." but no. It's "glorified version of a PELLET GUN." Der. That's what I get for liking animals more than guns. And also, if I'd actually paid attention to the REST of the song, the pelican thing makes no sense at all.

14. Your least favourite song on one of your favourite albums.
I'm gonna go with...um...wow, it's tough to do this without access to my music collection (after I imported all of my cds onto my now crapped out hard drive, I boxed up the disks/cases). Um...okay, here's one: "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" on The White Stripes' Elephant.

15. A song you like by someone you find physically attractive.
"Let's Call The Whole Thing Off" by Harry Connick Jr. Wait, no, he totally didn't WRITE that, so I wouldn't say it's "by" him. But he's certainly easy on the eyes. Also I would say um...hmm...I've found lots of musicians attractive but I'm not sure if I would call them *physically* attractive. David Bowie & Robert Smith for example. They're not exactly runway-ready, but I've been swooning over them since middle school. Most of the presently phsically attractive musicians I can think of are responsible for the audio PUKE on MTV that I don't like. But you know what? Even though I'm sick of it I *do* like that "Mr. Brightside" song by The Killers. And their lead singer is really cute.

16. A song you like by someone you find physically unattractive or otherwise repellent.
"Bucephalus Bouncing Ball" by Aphex Twin

17. Your favourite song that has expletives in it.
NIN's "Closer" was the first thing to come to mind, but that hasn't been my *favourite* song for about ten years now. Next I thought of "The Bad Touch" by Bloodhound Gang, but then it dawned on me that though I would consider it an explicit song, it doesn't actually contain any "expletives." Then I realized that so many songs that aren't really ABOUT something explicit contain expletives, that it kind of makes this a boring question.

18. A song you like that sounds as if it's by someone British but isn't.
Green Day's "Longview"

19. A song you like that took you forever to finally locate a copy of.
A lot of the music Wieden + Kennedy uses for their commercials is really good, and it's often very hard for me to find information on it.

20. A song that sounds to you like what being happy feels.
Telepopmusik's "Breathe" and the last half of "Les Fleurs Me Paraissent Plus Belles" from Delibes' Lakme, though I know nothing of the story behind it, so with my luck it's about killing babies.

21. Your favourite song that is not and has never been a radio single.
I don't know what's been on the radio and what hasn't, because I hate listening to the radio.

22. Your favourite song from a soundtrack compilation album.
"Rue St. Vincent" from Rushmore's soundtrack and "Perfect Drug" from Lost Highway.

23. A song that reminds you of high school.
Elastica's "Connection"

24. A song from the past that would be considered politically incorrect now (and possibly was then).
Um, probably anything by NWA.

25. A song you like sung by an overweight person.
"When I Fall" by the Barenaked Ladies. I'm pretty sure their lead singer is fat. Also, anything by The Cure, because Robert Smith isn't exactly starving lately either.

26. A song you actually like by an artist you otherwise hate.
Okay, so I really, really don't hate Eminem. I think he's brilliant and hugely talented, I just don't usually like the things he has to say, and sometimes I find him surprisingly offensive. But "Mosh" I totally love.

27. One of the earliest songs to which you can remember listening to.
According to my dad, my first words were "Doobie Brothers," so probably "Black Water" or something along those lines, though it's a little blurry now.

28. A song you've been mocked by friends for liking.
I don't even know where to begin. With a collection as massive as ours, you're always going to find something to mock. I think Tony put it best when he said, "I hate your music."

29. A cover song that you like.
"Maybe I'm Amazed" as covered by Jem, "Across the Universe" as covered by Fiona Apple, and "Blackbird" as covered by Sarah McLachlan are three favorites of many, because I like new covers of old songs, and I like The Beatles.

30. A song that has helped cheer you up (or empowered you somehow) after a breakup or otherwise difficult situation.
"Cabaret" from well, Cabaret. Also, "I Will Survive" as covered by Cake.

Um...

I had something to post about but I can't remember what it was. But I want to post anyway because not having a computer at home makes me want to use the one I have at work, but I can't use it to play in photoshop or dreamweaver or anything, so all I can think of to do is either read the news (which I'm not interested in doing right now) or post to my blog. I can't even download things or turn the sound up, so no itunes or H*R either. Bloop. This post is going nowhere fast. Oh! Speaking of going nowhere fast, I'm not going to go anywhere fast now, since they've changed our speed limit down to 60mph (it WAS 70). I really don't know why they did it, because I don't think an accident at 60 is probably much less dangerous than an accident at 70, but it'll probably be 60 for a long time now. Yay! I found something to say!

Le Sigh.

We went to the Apple store last night to swap mac minis, but because I wanted the new one slightly customized they said I had to order it online. Son. Of. A. Bitch. But whatever, it's not that big of a deal in the scheme of things, I guess. I won't have it over the weekend, or tonight for that matter, while Brett is at the clinic all evening with his laptop. And the things that we have coming tonight from Netflix are two Farscapes and TAXI. Taxi, Brett? Um...why?

Since I'm not allowed to watch the Farscape DVDs until Brett gets home, it looks like I'll be sitting in silence for a few hours. Ha! I was going to say "Maybe I'll use it to work on a website." But I HAVE NO HOME COMPUTER. On Saturday I was hanging out at the 'rent's house down the street because we were having a yard sale, and I went home for a minute to look for some information I needed, but it was on my G4, which was dead. It's so weird to be without it. Since it's not a huge emotional loss (except for the photos of Sasha, who's also dead), I keep forgetting that it's not there, and then I have to remember again. I'm glad I don't often have those moments with dead people/animals, because remembering that someONE is dead would rip me apart much more than remembering that someTHING is dead.

I could work on the sites on paper though. I guess most of the thinking it out parts are done on paper anyway. Right now I'm (supposed to be) working on Brett's acupuncture site, a site for my little Politely Undead illustrations to reside, and Maria's jewelry site. I'd also like to change up this place a bit, because I'm really sick of looking at it. I want to use other colors, but I don't know what I'll use. I like strange designs and colored backgrounds on OTHER people's sites, but when it comes to my own I'd prefer it be fairly simple and understated. Maybe I'll just...I don't know. There are some thoughts rolling around, but I don't really feel like articulating anything right now. Oh! Except that I want to change my title image to reflect just "catjackson" instead of "catjackson.net" and I wanted to change the "a different kind of self-love." sub-title because I'm also sick of that, and *I* think it's funny but so far no one else has said anything about it. Here are some ideas I've come up with for replacements so far, while being grumpy at work today (note: it's very hard to come up with something non-cynical while feeling unhappy)...

hating the world one person at a time.

she's dot com. wait no...she's dot net.

quietly disapproving of your stupidity since 1978.

a danger to all that is holy.

i heart spiders.

now with added cynicism!

i heart carbs.

sporadically updating her websites since 1997.

geekin' it up since turbo pascal.

I'm sure more ideas will come, but they'll probably be just as lame. Though I think the handful of people who know me well will probably agree that the third one is spot-on. Do you have any better ideas? Aside from super funny quips like, "the ugly one!" or "i'm boring!" Because I can handle self-deprecation on my own, thanks. :D

Seaside and More!

Um...I forgot to actually post last week, but I uploaded some photos from our trip to mom's new condo at the beach (complete with captions, for those of you who have been complaining about the lack of captions) and a separate slideshow of the fantabulous fireworks display (sans captions). The day after I uploaded them, my computer died. Like, died. It was working just fine and dandy, except for Illustrator, which I haven't been able to open at ALL since a software update I tried to do a few months ago, when it started making those scratchy "your hard drive needs to be replaced" sorts of noises, so I rushrushrushed to back up my files (but still wasn't able to get some of my music and ALL of the last year's worth of photos from my old camera) which I should've done BEFORE I was worried that my hard drive was going to crash (but whatev), and then all of the sudden it stopped burning disks right so I decided to turn it off and restart, and now it won't even start up (all I get is a blank grey screen that sometimes flickers black, while the hard drive sings it's lovely song of "errrrrrrr eeeee er er er er eeeeee errrr." Brett thinks his friend Rob (who should really try making it over to our house someday) might be able to recover my files still, but I'm skeptical, since it appears to be SO far gone.

Anyway, so I looked online at my options for new macs and picked both a PowerBook and a G5 that I liked, but they are both um, a little pricey, so I wanted to hash my plans over with a few tech-savvy people before deciding on what to buy. WELL!!! Our friend Tony mentioned that I should look at Mac Minis and I didn't say anything, but I was thinking, "Pssh! Those are crap compared to what I want." Then Ali's husband Corey said that Mac is going to change around/upgrade a lot of their stuff in the next year or so, so maybe I don't want to go all out and spend a lot of money on a G5. Then Brett's mom said the same thing, and I started thinking, "Hmm...I know! Maybe I should get a Mac Mini!"

They are definitely not as good as a G5, that's fo' sho', but guess what? THEY'RE STILL FASTER THAT MY G4. AND I was going to upgrade to Tiger anyway, AND I wanted to buy a dvd drive. So I bought one LAST SATURDAY. And guess what? After I spent my whole Saturday night setting it up and poking around with iLife and the widgets and stuff, and spent all day Sunday at work fantasizing about coming home and working on it some more, Ali called to say that NEW Mac Minis were going to be coming out today. I was so pissed I almost puked, but I called the Apple store and asked what I could do, and they (of course) didn't know anything at all about any upgraded models coming out on Tuesday, but said that I could bring mine back & exchange it if it DID happen. Well it did. And the new ones come standard with airport extreme and bluetooth (which I did NOT get on mine) and the high-end version comes standard with a superdrive, which has DVD write capabilities, and that I was regretting not having added on to my current model.

EVERYTHING Ali said Corey said was true. So he's a man who knows his stuff. Anyhow, we're going to the Apple store tonight after work to exchange the old one for a new one, so yay! And yay for dad as well, because when he read my post about our microwave he sent us money for a new bed (which was a wedding present from him we'd never cashed in on), a new microwave, AND extra money to help with our taxes! So some of that extra money was used to buy this computer, and without it I'd have needed to buy it with store credit through Apple, which would've been weak. So thank you EVERYONE who helped me spend way less than I would've, had I been left alone to make this decision, and thank you DAD for the extra cash. :D

Ugh.

My photos are uploading, but I'm going to bed. All the slideshows but Black Butte should be uploaded when I wake up, and if I get to work early enough tomorrow morning, I'll be able to put links to them on the photographs page to view. GOOD NIGHT! :)

Dag, Yo.

Guess what? I'M STILL ALIVE. I didn't even post once in May, and it was my birthday month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME!!! It feels good to be 27. I'm young, but solidly an adult, I know how to behave responsibly, but still don't enjoy televised fishing. (Note to anyone young who likes televised fishing: please don't send me defensive emails about your twisted interests; I really don't care.) Anyway, so let me take a walk down memory lane and recount some things from this past month...

I took a lot more photos of our yard. My parents said they really liked the other ones, and they also pointed out how they really liked the photos of tiny bugs and stuff (which is what I like shooting best) so that's what I mostly took pictures of at first. Then I took photos of our stormy weather. Then I stayed inside for awhile, because it's tent caterpillar season. Then I gave up on staying inside and took photos of Brett's parents' yard while we were house sitting for them, and then I was bitten by an ant and Brett made me stay inside because even though it wasn't a fire ant and therefore probably wasn't fatal, he was alarmed by the reminder of my mortality. Then earlier this month I took photos of our yard again, because the combo of healthy amounts of sun and rain has made everything grow all crazypants. We have weeds that are taller than Brett. Nice. So instead of pulling them up, I took embarrassing photos of them. And now here we are. Nothing to show for these little adventures online yet, but I'll post my slideshows AS SOON AS I GET HOME TODAY. This promise is being made because that way I'll actually try to do it.

Megan's wedding shenanigans have ended! At long last, Megan and Aaron have become Megaron: Legally United Force To Be Reckoned with. I mean With. Their wedding was perfect and beautiful (and Aaron really will make a lovely husband) and the whole thing rocked my socks off, and I will have photos up TONIGHT WHEN I GET HOME. :) Just a quick note because I'm not captioning the photos: Jon and I were the coordinators, so that's why we got to be in the wedding pictures but weren't dressed quite the same as the actual wedding party, and it's my understanding that ALL of the flowers for the tables, bouquets, etc came from Megan's parents' yard in Mount Vernon (a small farming town just north of Marysville), which I found totally amazing.

I made out like a bandit on my birthday. Well, maybe not a bandit, but I'm very satisfied. I got brilliant chocolates, LipFusion (which feels COMPLETELY different than Venom, so now I have two different kinds of uncomfortable lip glosses to kiss Brett with), a hand-made purse with my name stitched on it, a new printer/fax/copier/scanner machine (it even does cardstock and transparencies!), a super-fancy professional mandolin (it even does waffle cuts!), and a bunch of other stuff that was also good and cool, including money, which is always appreciated, but is especially appreciated right now because...

The man done took all our extra cash. I don't remember if I've complained about this already, but we got bumped up into a new tax bracket by a lousy $200 and instead of getting $1,000 back on our taxes like I'd thought we would, we actually had to PAY an extra $1,000. This has not made me into a Republican, but it has made me glad I was good at saving, because otherwise we'd have been screwed. So now we're living poor for awhile, to try to make up the difference again, but it's gonna take awhile, which is why we haven't had our usual huge birthday bashes this year, and why we can't get a new microwave just yet, even though our old one just stopped working all of the sudden last week. Alms...alms for the poor...oh! Speaking of which...

Check out my Wist List! I just started it, so there's not much there yet, but I think I'm gonna just list everything I want but can't buy myself just yet (including things that no one will probably buy me, but whatever) and then people who are generous and wealthy can buy them for me. At least for Christmas. Parent-type people. But maybe also for Independence Day, Labour Day, Veteran's Day, Halloween, etc.

What else has happened...um... Let's see, Brett was really sick for awhile, but he handled it like a champ, they opened a new mall in our town, Brett turned 26 and I'm sure he'll post about his birthday happenings on his OWN blog at some point so I won't bother posting about them here, and we went on a family trip to Black Butte, and I golfed through sun and rain with normal people while Brett and Sam stayed inside and waxed metaphysical for 5 hours about time travel. NERDS! That's why I love them. On that note, it's time for me to go outside and meet up with Brett so we can go home, because work is over.

Dan's Survey

Dan took a survey on his blog, and I like blogging my surveys, so I'm taking the one he took and posting my answers here. So here goes:

1. Name: Catherine Cates Jackson
2. Nicknames: Cat
3. Sex: female
4. Birthday: May 24th, 1978
5. Age: do the math.
6. Sign: Gemini
7. Place of birth: Frankfurt am Main, HES, DE
8. Current residence: Marysville, WA, US
9. Hair color: dyed brown.
10. Hair length: long.
11. Eye color: grey.
12. Height: 5'8"
13. Writing hand: left is preferred, both are capable.

Body ills & skills
14. Do you bite your nails: sometimes.
15. Can you roll your tongue: who can't?
16. Can you raise one eyebrow at a time: Only by accident.
17. Can you blow smoke rings: nope.
18. Can you blow spit bubbles: ew...yes.
19. Can you cross your eyes: ha...I can even cross them one at a time.
20. Colored hair: many times and many colors.
21. Tattoos and where: 1 that counts, on my wrist.
22. Piercings and where: 9 in my ears.
23. Do you make your bed daily: of course! oh wait, I mean of course NOT.
25. Which shoe goes on first: I really don't know.
26. Speaking of shoes, have you thrown one at someone: Probably at some point.
27. How much money is usually in your wallet: About $5.00.
28. What jewelry do you wear 24/7: 9 earrings, a toe ring and a necklace, though right now the clasp of the necklace is broken so I haven't actually worn it lately. My watch and wedding ring I wear about 16/7.
30. Whats sexiest on a girl/guy: I agree with Dan - intelligence is a must.
31. Would you rather be on time and look ok or late and look great: I always try to make myself look somewhat more human than troll when given the time, but being on time is still more important.
32. Do you twirl your spaghetti or cut it: twirl.
33. What utensils do you use eating pizza: my hands.
34. Do you cook: I'm actually not bad, but Brett cooks more often.

Grooming
35. How often do you brush your teeth: one to three times a day, depending on what I've eaten and where I'm going.
36. How often do you shower/bathe: actually...um...only a couple of times a week usually.
37. How long do these showers last: 10-20 minutes.
38. Hair drying method: usually I let it air dry, but if I have a half an hour to kill I'll blow it dry.
39. Do you paint your nails: sometimes.
40. Do you swear: no, I find profanity crass.
41. Do you mumble to yourself: all the time.
42. Do you spit in public: that's fucking gross.
43. Do you pee in the shower: only on camera, and it costs extra.
44. In the cd player: no.
45. Person you talk most on the phone with: strangers.
46. What color is your bedroom: cream.
47. Do you use an alarm clock: unfortunately, yes.
48. Name one thing or person you're obsessed with?: my camera. oh! I mean Brett.
300. Have you ever skinny dipped with the opposite sex: yep.
50. Ever sunbathed in the nude: only partially nude (top off).
51. Window seat or aisle: window on a short flight, aisle on a long (I hate squishing past people to go pee).
52. Whats your sleeping position: I'm pro-sleeping.
53. What kind of bed do you like: the kind that isn't made of hay or exposed springs.
54. In hot weather do you use a blanket: at least a sheet.
55. Do you snore: sometimes.
56. Do you sleepwalk: no.
57. Do you talk in your sleep: I don't know, actually.
58. How about the light on: dim nightlights are fine, but bright lights keep me awake unless I'm sick, and then nothing usually keeps me awake.
59. Do you fall asleep with the tv or radio on: not on purpose.

Last time you
60. Had sex: I'm married - I have sex ALL THE TIME, just like other married people.
61. Were kissed or kissed someone: a few hours ago.
62. Watched bambi: years and years ago. that movie is garbage.
63. Cried: last friday when I watched that episode of Buffy where she sacrifices her life for Dawn's. "It's Summers blood..." gets me every time.
64. Talked on the phone: this afternoon, to my mama.
65. Read a book: about a month ago.
67. Punched someone: "for reals" - probably not since I was a kid. teasingly - last night when Brett kept tickling me.
68. Where do you see yourself ten years from now: I don't know, but hopefully I'll be SAHMing for 3 kids and working part time.
69. Who are you gonna be married to and where: I predict that I will marry Brett Jackson at Bastyr in December of 2000.
70. How many kids do you want to have: 3
71. Your profession: cog in the machine. oh wait, no...management-level cog in the machine.
72. Future school: whichever schools have classes I want to (and can) take.
73. Who is/are your best friend(s): Brett.
74. What friend do you hang out with the most: Brett.
75. What friend makes you smile the most: Brett.
76. Friend that you fight with the most: probably Brett, but not really that often.
77. One you talk to the most online: Brett.
78. Friend that you miss the most: they rotate pretty evenly.

Relationships
80. Do you currently have a boyfriend/girlfriend: no.
81. Do you want a boyfriend/girlfriend: nope.
82. Why or, why not: because I'm married.
83. Have you ever cheated on anyone: nope.
84. Has anyone ever cheated on you: yep.
86. Have you ever told someone you loved them without meaning it: not anyone who would've thought I actually meant it.
87. Do you have a crush on anyone: of course.
88. Does this person know you like him/her: I tell him every day, so probably. :)
89. How long have you liked this person: since the first time I saw him, green hair and all.

This or that
90. Vanilla or chocolate: depends on my mood.
91. Sunrise or sunset: sunrise.
92. Apples or oranges: oranges.
93. Silk or cotton: cotton.
94. Math or Science: both.
95. Pink or yellow: pink.
96. Hot or cold: what's one without the other?
97. Pen or pencil: both.
98. Beach or lake: beach.
99. Bacon bits or croutons: croutons!
100. Poor but happy or rich but sad: happy and rich.

HAVE YOU EVER...
Dated one of your best friends? yep.
Loved somebody so much it makes you cry? yep.
Drank alcohol? yep.
Done drugs? yep.
Broken the law? yep.
Broken a bone? only my Scott toe (so named because Scott helped me break it).
cheated on a test? yep.
Skinny dipped? uh...yep.
Played Truth Or Dare? yep, but "I never" is much more fun.
Flashed someone? yes.
Mooned Someone? uh-huh.
Kissed someone you didn't know? not the kind of kiss that counts.
Been on a talk show/Game show? no.
Been in a fight? not an actual wrestley-type fight since childhood.
Ridden in a fire truck? nope.
Been on a plane? uh, yeah.
Come close to dying? yep.
Gave someone a piggy back/shoulder ride? ja.
Eaten a worm/mud pie? ew! no.
Kissed Someone? NEVER! oh wait, no...I've never felt up a dead hooker, but I've definitely kissed someone. Sorry, I was confused.
Swam in the ocean? yes.
Had a nightmare/dream that made you wake up? si.

Can someone make one of these that is a little more obscure, so it won't have as many "yes" answers? Anyway, it's almost 10pm so I'm going to bed.

Woohoo!

It's me, it's me! I'm posting! We've been very busy with our normal jobs AND with other projects over the past couple of months, but I think we're both starting to adjust to it a little now. It's not that the things themselves are getting easier or less time-consuming, but we've been starting to be more productive again with our free time, which is good. For the last two months I've basically been doing one of three things at all times: eating, sleeping, or working. Actually, there has been a small amount of non-working, eating or sleeping time in there (and a few bits of shower time here and there as well) but mostly my non-working time has been spent in a pretty couch-potatoish state zombied out in front of le tube. I've made some updates to my site though, and put up THREE new slideshows in the section now called "photographs." I added some slideshows to 3-D too, and deleted the temporary creations section because those pretty much qualify as 2-D or 3-D, and since I don't take pictures of most of the stuff I make anyway, I might as well just squish down the categories. I do feel like "photographs" seems a little dumb for a title when a lot of the stuff in the other categories (at least in 3-D) was photographed as well, but the "photographs" images are actually only photographs I've taken for the sake of taking photos, rather than photographs taken only to show something else I've made. You probably really didn't need me to get into that, but I just did, so I'm not erasing it because it was a lot to write, and maybe someone out there was helped by the explanation. :) So. the three new photograph slideshows are 1) pictures from our Chinese New Year party (finally!) 2) pictures from the duck pond at my work, and 3) pictures from our yard, because it's spring and things are all bloomy and pretty outside. I do touch up my photos normally (that's what photoshop is for, right?) to try and compensate for images that are too dark, too light, too blurry, etc, but the duck pond and yard photos are not touched up AT ALL. No contrast, no brightness, no saturation, NOTHING. Thank you, nature, and thank you, Nikon...I am so impressed with the way they turned out. :)

Grr.

I hope I don't get dooced for this, but I'm having a really, really lame day today, and let's just say it's not due to any problems in my personal life. We're under so much stress with all the new responsibilities they're shoveling onto us, and more just keeps being added. I'm grateful for my employment, but days/weeks/months like this sure don't deter my fantasies of the stay-at-home-mom position I will be promoted to in the next year or so. (No dad, not preggers yet, just planning for it). Speaking of dooce and SAHM's, I (like half the world, it seems) really like her blog. There are a few non-friend blogs I like actually, and though I read them about as much as my friend's blogs (which isn't as frequently as it should be) I do like reading them from time-to-time. Here's a list of the blogs I infrequently frequent:

Things I hate about my Flatmate
Hi-LARIOUS. Anyone who's ever lived with someone they couldn't stand (or even just someone mildly irritating) will find this site brilliantly amusing.

360 Degrees of Sky - Life in Rural Zambia
Very good read. I love learning about other countries and cultures, and this blog gives a first-hand account of what it's like to be in...well, rural Zambia. Makes you both appreciate what we have and what they have, and talks about bugs a lot, which I dig because I love bugs.

La Coquette
Just a girl living in Paris who seems pretty cool and writes about things I'd probably write about if I were living in Paris.

noodlepie
Vietnamese food-type blog. Again, other countries and cultures = fun and educational read. Plus the only Vietnamese food I've ever tried and liked has been pho, so this blog is good motivation to keep giving them a chance to hook me in with other dishes.

dooce
Irregular girl (in more ways than one) with a seemingly regular life. She is a SAHM and I read her blog because I like to live vicariously though her right now, because I will probably be a lot like her when *I* am a SAHM. I hope.

WIL WHEATON DOT NET
He's just as nerdy as you'd imagine him to be. Yet, if you yourself are a nerd, as I am, this is a very amusing blog. You go, Wil Wheaton!

So...it's not a bloggie, but a few of them might end up with bloggies anyway, so being one of MY favorites is just the icing on the cake.

Supreme Court Bars Death Penalty for Juvenile Killers

Woohoo!!! Whoever thought this was a good idea in the first place should be ashamed of themselves. Now our country can proudly say that it doesn't approve murdering mentally handicapped people OR children!!! One step at a time, America, one step at a time.

See the New York Times article here

Some Things Before Bed

No, I didn't work on my New Year's Slideshow today. I know I promised to have it up (I promised to Shannon, at least), but my computer went wacky this morning and I decided to study Dawn of the Dead all day instead. And by study, I mean I actually watched a good bit of it FRAME BY FRAME. And I'd do it again in a heart beat. I was looking at its special effects, makeup, photography, symbolism, etc., because we're interested in having a Halloween party that's centred around a zombie theme this year. Yes, I know Halloween is 245 days away, but our birthday parties don't take much planning, and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. So anyway, zombies. The zombie makeup in Dawn of the Dead is really brilliant because they have the perfect blend of crappy zombie makeup that you only notice when you're watching it um...frame by frame, and really, really good, hours-in-the-chair kind of makeup. However, after looking at those images for several hours even *I* was grossed out a little, which caused the realization that a lot of our friends probably wouldn't dig a zombie party as much as we would. And what's a theme party if people are dismissive of the theme? So now I'm thinking we'll come up with something along the lines of "undead" or "damned" (damned as in vampires and demons and zombies, not "hell house" damned...yuck). Jon only reinforced this idea when he said something about "humoring" the zombie theme when asked his opinion on the matter over the phone today. Plenty of people would probably put up with the theme just to be able to come to one of our AWESOME parties, but still. I want them to really get into it. Whoa...it's past my bedtime. But oh...one last thing. Shannon posted this test on her blog, so Brett and I took it, and our results are below. A funny note about Brett's results: the test is called "What sort of hipster are you?" And upon seeing it, Brett said to me, "hmm...what sort of hipster am I?" and I laughed and responded, "None. You are none hipster." And we both laughed, because we're both fogies, not hipsters. But apparently I AM a hipster, at least by their standards, and Brett is not. And both descriptions are actually really dead on, except for the part about my hair, and the fact that *I'm* just as much a home owner as Brett, so there.

Me..............

You're the Artiste!
Take What sort of Hipster are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You paint, you draw, you cut up bits of paper, you take digital photographs. You're always on the move and great with your hands. You use words like "Postmodern," "image," "simplicity," and "project." You frequently fuss with your sculpted hair. Your clothes speak to others with their symmetry and color scheme. You spend hours in the studio. You've little money or accomplishment, but aren't concerned one bit. You listen to electronic music. You have friends and roommates who are also devoted to the creative side of life. You don't care if you never get recognized--as long as you've created art, then you'll die happy.

Brett...........

You're Not a Hipster!
Take What sort of Hipster are you? today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Personality Test Generator.

You're actually not much of a Hipster. Congratulations! You may have Hipster style, but you're healthy, you eat right, you have a decent job you enjoy, your finances are stable, you plan on buying a house (if you don't already own one) and settling down before you're 35, you have friends you like, your friends like you, and you can honestly say you're pretty damn happy. Perhaps you should adopt a Hipster and draw them into your perfect lair . . .

Lunchies

I'm on my lunch break now, and bored with browsing the news on MSN (bird flu could kill millions, bird flu isn't a big deal, autism is on the rise, autism is not on the rise...how am I supposed to know what to worry about and what NOT to worry about?!?) so I'm just blogging again. Brett's doing some big conference/project thingy all week at work so he hasn't been checking his email so I haven't been spending my breaks and lunches writing back and forth to him, which I think has been sort of nice in a way, because though I do miss talking to him, I'm writing in my blog a lot more. And moving foward I won't be writing him as much because he'll be seeing patients at his clinic instead of working at a desk as much, which is awesome. There are things I should be working on instead of writing this I guess, but I don't have enough time to do most of them (or the stuff I need to do some of them) so I'll just keep writing and hopefully get something done when I get home. Here is my list of stuff to do tonight:

Write 2 letters (snail mail, for grandparents)
Upload my links page again
Work on my New Year's slideshow
Work out (for any length of time at ALL)
Bring my knitting to work for the scarf I'm late finishing for someone (NOTE: I'm REALLY sick of making these right now, so please stop asking me to make them, because I'll probably just say yes anyway)
Continue apocalypsizing my Sims if I have time, and watch the Project Runway finale that I taped last night.

So let's see how much of that I actually get done. For now though: back to work.

Son of a...

I updated my links page last night and added Ai, AG, Dan, Jon and Nina, but I said Nina was about to move to Tokyo but then I checked my email this morning and she'd written to say that she'd already just arrived, so I tried to update again from work to change what I'd said, but I just hit "view source," updated the text in notepad, FORGOT TO SAVE, then uploaded the page again. Now...the problem with this is that since I'm at WORK and I updated my links from HOME last night, I uploaded an old file. And I didn't realize this until I'd reloaded the page to view it. So NONE of the work I did is there. But it's at home, so I'll just upload it later. I just feel so dumb when I do things like that. Anyway...back to work...

Links

I really need to update my links...my friends' blogs are so much cooler than my own, and people have been finding each other's blogs and being like, "wow, I wonder why Cat & Brett don't have a link to your blog...it's so great!"
My little secret is that I don't have them linked because I don't want people to know how lame I am compared to my friends. Either that, or I'm just supro-lazy. So pretty much I'm just supro-lazy. I here-by pledge to update my links TONIGHT instead of working on apocalypsizing my Sims. Or maybe BEFORE I work on apocalypsizing my Sims...hmmm...
And why does blogger keep showing my post count as 36? I have way more posts than that now I think. Also, why doesn't their spell checker recognize the words "blog" "blogs" or "blogger?" What is THAT about? And nobody should reply back that they just utilize some random spelling dictionary database that they haven't added custom words to, because THOSE words should be in there.

Oh Yeah...

and I forgot...there's new stuff up on my site! I actually have CONTENT in the two-dimensional folder!!! and I changed the top-of-the-page images on a few pages, including this one! Brett and I couldn't agree on which photos would be best (he really hated my "zombie" face where I stretch my mouth out and look at the ceiling, but I like it) so I made an animated gif that alternates between 9 different photos as a compromise. Do you like them? What do you think?

It's "Monday"!

But not really. I said I'd write more on Monday, but it's really Tuesday. I was super sick this weekend! Ugh!!! Our Chinese New Year party went really well, and I'll get photos up soon. I managed to get a few hours of sleep before going to work later that morning, and I was fine at work, but then I had GARBAGE for dinner Sunday night (a hot pocket and a mini frozen pizza) and then I went to sleep early, and was woken up well...let's just say "violently" in the middle of the night. Brett gave me some ginger and a heating pad and some electro-puncture (I don't know what it's really called...it's electricity shot through different points instead of needles), and I was able to get back to sleep after an hour or so and wasn't really sick again after that. Luckily I had Monday off though, because I slept in really late and then still felt really yucky ALL DAY. I STILL feel sore and weak. I don't think anyone else got sick though, because we probably would've heard about it. So that's why I didn't post yesterday...I didn't even go on my computer at all...I just curled up in a ball in a big cozy chair with the heating pad and Brett's laptop and played The Sims. I wish I had a laptop...and also wireless internet. Soon hopefully. Anyway, so I got these cool zombie skins for my sims and gothy clothes and hair and stuff, and I'm making a neighborhood that I'm planning on apocalypsizing. (apocalypsizing: the act of creating an apocalypse) I'll let some people die all the way and be ghosts, and some will die partially and turn into real zombies, and then I'll have some that are normal sims with my zombie skins that are VERY outgoing (so hopefully they'll harass my normals all the time) and then some regular sims that I'll probably give the gerbil flu to or something so they'll be sick and maybe eventually die too. Then we have the "normals." I've named them the Omega family, and they'll live in a fortress and barricade themselves from the Bad Things outside. Oh...as much as you'd love for me to continue with my little Simsplanation, I have to get back to work. I'll write more when I get my New Year's photos up though. :)

Happy Belated *Lunar* New Year!!!

It's sad that my last post was over a month ago and was also a belated New Year's post, but meh, I'm busy. Anyway, it's the 10th day of the lunar new year and I've found myself with an extra few minutes to kill on my lunch break at work, so I'm going to post a brief recap of the last month.


The first little story to share is that Brett was given approval to switch to part time at Premera as of March 1st so he can now focus more energy on his budding acupuncture practice. He'll be available for appointments every weekday after noon (and probably some weekend days too), so give him a call or an email & book yours now! He's a brilliant healer. Going along with that information is this image of a can of herbs. We're all the time getting new herbs in the mail at our house, but mostly their packaging is pretty boring and medical looking, so when I saw this one I was excited and grabbed it and was like, "oh! what is THIS one?!? I like it...is it beef? milk? why is there a cow on the front?"
Silly me, I didn't read the label. It's cow bile. That's hot. But Brett says he's never fed it to me because I don't have the problems it fixes. He has given me some strange stuff though, and most of it tasted not so good, and all of it made me get well fast.
Eek! Running out of time...I'll just write one more thing before I go and then I'll write more AFTER our new year's party this weekend: I've surpassed my six-month mark with StatCounter! In the last 6 months I've had 1288 hits! I'm very grateful for this, as I'm a terrible blogger and really don't post as often as I should. More on Monday though, okay little blog? I promise you won't be so empty after this weekend. For now though, back to work...

Happy New Year!

It's been awhile since I've posted so I have multiple things to write about, and I've decided to list them all in one post. Here they are, in no particular order:

Shaun of the Dead
I finally got to see this movie and it's brilliant. Even people who don't have my bizarre addiction to all topics (even remotely) apocalyptic will like this. Unless you're like my mom and you found the goriness of Dawn of the Dead "extremely offensive" and you also don't understand "toilet humor." If you're one of those, you'll hate Shaun, so don't see it.

Tsunami
I can't even really comprehend this right now. I can't even...I just don't even know what to do. Brett is playing LOTR on his PS2 while I write a blog post, and across the ocean the number of dead has more than quadrupled the population of our town. The number of homeless? About ten times the population of Seattle. I feel guilty for being lucky enough to still have a house and a family. Brett and I donated money to the Red Cross through Amazon and it literally took less than two minutes.

And um...to follow that...

Christmas
Which happened before the tsunami, but whatever. One week after Halloween I started working on my xmas presentsand, holy crap! Seven weeks and 95% of my free time later I finished. Most people we did xmas presents for this year received one or more of the following: soap, scarf, or boterletter (a traditional Dutch pastry Brett makes). A select few received store-bought gifts, and about 50 or so got cards. Except for Jeff, All, Ben, Courtney, Lisa & Jeff, Rachel & Javier, and Mike & Diane whose cards I still have because I don't think we have current address info for any of you. And the Pounds, the Clevelands, and Dan whose presents we still have.
We spent Christmas at my mom's and had a really good time, and I just now finished the slideshow. Trying to kull down the pictures, even though no one probably cares about them but me, has been part of why I've taken so long to post this time around. The other part of the delay has been caused by us being busy with clinic stuff, getting started on this year's Chinese New Year party plans, and still having our other usual random busy-ness.

Ai Uchida!
Ai Uchida, who I think I've mentioned in my blog once before, and have mentioned countless times to my friends "in real life," found my blog and wrote to me!!! She was one of my very best friends growing up, and I'd always imagined that she was living in Tokyo, being all cool and hip, and I was right! Now I have two good friends who live in Tokyo. Ai is a singer, which I'm pretty sure is exactly what she's always wanted to be, and you can check out her website & album here: www.ag.mu. Check out the "Tokyo" section - it's like a mini-blog with lots of photos.

And...I think that's everything for now. The kitties are asleep, there's some piece of crap VH1 show shouting at me from across our darkened living room, Brett's looking sleepy, and we have to get up in less than seven hours and go back to pushing that big corporate boulder up the never-ending hill. Ah...speaking of corporations, that Honda Civic Hybrid commercial is on tv...damn that's a beautiful commercial...I think it's the best one I've ever, ever seen...the music, the imagery, the message, everything, and I already wanted a hybrid car, but now I REALLY want one. Oh well, maybe some day. For now I'll just settle for sleep. :)