The Soap Box
A place for me to dump my brain and you to pick thru it

Word or Not
5:29pm

It's time for your favorite blog game, Word or Not?

Here's how it works: I post a word. You guess if it's a real word or not. If you think it's really a word, post what you think the difinition is. If you know it's a word but want to place a fictitional definition for our amusement, please feel free. I will post the answer probably Monday night.

Today's word is Bawd.

Is bawd a real word? What does it mean?

Karma
3:30pm

Is it bad karma if your cat chucks up a hairball on your picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama?

Zicam
4:10pm

OK, figured I'd try Zicam, a homeopathic remedy for the common cold. It's like shooting vaseline up your nostrils. Then you are not supposed to blow your nose for 30 minutes so I now have this goo slowly dripping out of my nose. I hope it's worth it. Anyone ever try Zicam? Did it shorten your cold?

I Might Have Been Wrong
10:19am

Remember a few hours ago I said the orange Hooch couldn't hurt me? Well, I think the alcohol suppressed my immune system enough that now I'm legitimately sick. I feel awful. I already called into work sick but will try to make it to my marathon 3 hour class later. Back to bed with me....

Freaking Me Out
4:00am

My cat Damien is asleep next to me...fast asleep except that one of his eyes is half open. His eyeball is jerking around, looking in all different directions and his whiskers are twitching. The milky white third lid is also moving to cover more, then less, of his eyeball. It's REALLY freaky!

Allergies
3:46am

OK, I've taken an 180mg Allegra but my allergies are so bad I can't sleep. Anyone have any home remedy for allergies? Right now I'm trying an orange flavored Hooch (it's like alcoholic orange soda). Figured it couldn't hurt.

The Great State of New Mexico
9:55pm

Now that Governor Richardson has averted a nuclear catastrophe in North Korea, it's time to get down to business here in the state and that means the renaming of Route 666, currently referred to as the "Highway to Hell." Ahhhhh, the joys of living in the wild, wild west.

Answer to Word or Not?
2:48pm

Foozle is a real word.

Main Entry: foozle
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): foo·zled; foo·zling /'füz-li[ng], 'fü-z&-/
Etymology: perhaps from German dialect fuseln to work carelessly
Date: 1892
: to manage or play awkwardly : BUNGLE

The winner for the best wrong definition is Nick for his answer of:
Foozle = being smacked in the head by a particularly hard-hit ball while playing foosball.

Thanks to everyone for playing!

Word or Not?
7:23am

Back by nobody's demand: The game Word or Not? Here's how it works: I post a word. You guess if it's a real word or not. If you think it's really a word, post what you think the difinition is. If you know it's a word but want to place a fictitional definition for our amusement, please feel free. I will post the answer probably Monday night.

Today's word is Foozle.

Is foozle a real word? What does it mean?

Have fun :)

Feline Peculiarities
3:55pm

What is it about cats and boobs? I've had cats all my life and in that process my breasts have been run across, slept on, kneaded, nuzzled, head-butted and used as a launching pad. When Damien was just a kitten and came home from the shelter, he had the typical "kennel cough" and was feeling poorly. I was slouching on the couch and he just crawled up on top of my boobages and settled down for a long winter's nap, as if they were a kitty sleeping shelf. These days he typically walks across my chestal area when I'm lying in bed. Now that he's a 16 lb monster/demon cat, his running across my breasties is no longer so cute! It HURTS! Also, you figure my boobalas are approximately 1/64th the area of the entire mattress, I don't find it coincidence that he runs right across them at every opportunity. Calliope never kneads anything except my poor scarred bazongas. And only when I'm sound asleep at that which is a REALLY sucktacular way to wake up in the middle of the night. Do cats recognize human breasts as just REALLY big cat breasts? Do they think it's funny to mangle my poor bazooms?

Ah the pains of being a kitty mommie…

Live and Learn
11:59am

I don't like to complain. No, really, I don't. Which is why I've never mentioned that I get really bad pain in my legs when I sleep...to the point where I can't sleep. It's been happening for a couple of months. That's why sometimes you can find posts from me at really strange hours. I've been getting acupuncture for it but I still get the pain. Well, today I told my chiropractor, whom I visit every other week or so and have been for a couple of years. His reply? "Oh that's easy to fix! And here's an exercise to stop it from coming back!" OMG! that's it? I've been suffering for months when I could have had it stop at any time? It's kind of like being Dorothy of Wizard of Oz fame who could have returned home at any time but instead went through hell just to talk to a little man behind a curtain! I feel like an idiot. However I am looking forward to a night of pain free sleep!

Movie Confessional
8:08pm

While I realize I might be pummeled for what I'm about to admit, I'm going to do it anyway. I didn't like The English Patient. Also, during Schindler's List, I considered walking out about 6 different times. I thought Shakespeare in Love was a good movie but certainly not the best of 1998. However, I do agree with this year's Golden Globes that The Hours is the best movie of last year. I saw it last night and it was just amazing. I honestly don't know if I've ever seen such consistently outstanding acting from an entire cast. Of course, Meryl Streep was great. Nicole Kidman is almost unrecognizable, changing not just her physical features but her voice, stance and other body movements. Julianne Moore, my choice for most underrated actress alive today, does another stellar job, but I fear will probably be overlooked by the Academy, just as she was for her fantastic acting job as Linda Partridge in Magnolia. As Mrs. Partridge, she has a nervous breakdown while her elderly husband is dying of cancer. If you saw this movie, you can't forget the scene in the pharmacy where she just basically loses her grasp on reality screaming:

Don't call me "lady"! I come in here, I give these things to you, you check, you make your phone calls, look suspicious, ask questions! I'm sick! I have sickness all around me and you fucking ask me about my life?! "What's wrong?" Have you seen death in your bed? In your house? Where's your fucking decency? And then I'm asked fucking questions. What's...wrong?! You suck my dick! That's what's wrong! And you, you fucking call me "lady"?! Shame on you! Shame on you!! Shame on both of you!

If you have only seen Julianne Moore in Hannibal or Evolution or God forbid, The Ladies Man, please do not consider any of these her finest work. Either rent Magnolia, Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair or shell out the $10 to see The Hours in a theater. It's well worth the money.

Elusive
5:05am

What do you do when you can't sleep even though you will have to wake up in a few hours to start you day. Calling in sick is not an option. How do you stop playing the game "if I fell asleep right now, I could get 3 hours of sleep" which only puts additional pressure on yourself to get to sleep as fast as possible which in turn keeps you awake? Then it's "if I fell asleep right now I could still get 2 and a half hours of sleep." If you're still awake when the sun starts to rise, then you know you're in deep trouble. The night is over and you're still conscious instead of in dreamland. ("That's where I'm a viking!" - Ralph Wiggam) Is warm milk really a good way to make yourself sleepy? What I should really do is open up one of my text books and dive in but I have a cat curled up in my lap right now with my laptop computer precariously balancing on my kneecaps. And we all know, it's very important to not disturb a cat that has chosen you as her sleeping place.

Clone High
7:13pm

Ever wonder what Abe Lincoln looked like as a teen? Would Cleopatra date JFK if they lived at the same time? Would Joan of Arc be into community service if she were alive today? Watch Clone High on MTVto find out the answers to these important questions and more! What's Clone High? MTV's latest cartoon which I actually I thought it was quite funny. OK, I wasn't watching that close but for some bizarre reason, there are clones of all these famous people who are in high school together. Their teacher is half man-half sheep. His cloning process didn't go that well. He sounds like Don Knotts. (I haven't had the time to surf the web to see if it really is.) If you get the chance to check out Clone High, do it!

What a Great Day!
3:43pm

It's 57 degrees out under a beautiful sunny sky. School went great today and now I'm totally jazzed about this semester. Hubby isn't travelling. All my cats are healthy and happy. Man, life is good.

WTF?
11:25am

OK, yesterday I blew off the diet, ate whatever I wanted and lost 2 lbs! WTF is up with that?

RTFM
10:11am

Remember the good old days when software would come with an imposing fat manual telling you all the wonderful tips and tricks you could do with the application? You'd have to buy a separate bookcase just to store all your manuals and when you ran out of room on your bookcase, you could use them as doorstops. I miss those days. I just got MS Word for Mac OSX today and there is NO manual. Nothing. Nada. I'm sure there's online help in which some stupid animated paperclip will try to lead me through but I never find any online help as useful as flipping through an index in a printed manual. I actually like the weight of a paper manual, the feel of it, the pretty pictures enclosed. I'm actually one of those really messed up people who will take a manual with me to the hairdressers or the airport when waiting to pick someone up and flip through it looking for one thing or another. Can't do that anymore. I realize it costs money to print a manual. Why not at least give me the option to buy one from the company that makes the software? You know, being the stubborn kinda person I am, I won't go to a bookstore and buy a "Missing Manual" or other such supplement. I'd rather be pompous and assume I know EVERYTHING about Word even though in my heart I know that I know probably 60% of the program. So when I get into trouble or need to learn something new, I'll ask that damn paperclip for help and sit there cursing the online help system then probably break into tears and ask my husband to help me. I can see it all now…

And why do I always feel like that damn paperclip is laughing at me?

Whatever
12:02pm

Today is "Fuck the Diet" day. It doesn't seem to be doing any good anyway. And with that, I'm going to get a bagel sammich. Can I get you anything?

Ford is paying $20million for its cars to be displayed on American Idol. I really really REALLY hate commercials within TV shows, a la American Idol. Unfortunately, it looks like the trend of the future.

I am in charge of a Flash Film Festival that takes place in only a coupla weeks! I'm struggling with coming up with my own entry. I feel sooo uncreative and really inarticulate today. I have a feeling I won't feel any more creative tomorrow.

Today's Quote
"I like visiting my Disneyland in my head" - anonymous (to protect the innocent)

Skating in Review
10:48pm

It was an interesting US Championship this year. In pairs, brother/sister team Johnny and Tiffany Stiegler had a little pile up on the ice where apparently Tiffany's blade cut into Johnny's finger! Then John Baldwin threw his partner, Rena Inoue, into the boards where she cut her knee, requiring 5 stitches. Miraculously, they still won the bronze medal and will be going on to the World Championship.

The Men's competition wasn't much better. Johnny Weir, previously in second place going into the long program, just kinda wigged out! First he crashed into the boards about 30 seconds into his program and just stopped skating! He was allowed to restart where he left off (why?) and then when he attempted a jump, it was as if he had a back spasm and landed in a strange split position in the ice where, again, he just stopped skating and then withdrew. I've never seen anything like it. Matt Savoie, the next skater, also hit the boards where the strap holding his pant leg down (think of a stirrup pant type of thing) and was stopped by the referee (yes, there is a referee at a skating event) for his own safety. He cut the stirrup off then had to start where he had stopped which is rather unnerving. In the end, he dropped from 3rd to 6th. Actually, no male competitor skated cleanly, not even Olympic bronze medallist Timothy Goebel who fell twice, losing the US crown to…Michael Weiss who was in 4th place after the short program! Little known Ryan Jahnke came in third.

The Women's competition was much cleaner with Michelle Kwan skating a beautiful long program. Sarah Hughes also skated cleanly to capture second with Sasha Cohen, who fell twice, grabbing third. Ann Patrice McDonough also skated beautifully and moved from 6th to 4th place. She is a beautiful and graceful skater who I am sure we will see in the future.

US Skating Championship
11:23am

Going into the long program, which airs tonight on ABC, Michelle Kwan is in first place, Sasha Cohen in second and Sarah Hughes is in third. Sarah has been out most of this season with an injury so when she performed her short program at the championships, it was the first time she had skated it in competition. If you recall, she was neither first or second going into the long program for the Olympics and still won the gold so don't count her out.

On the men's side, Timothy Goebel is in first after the men's short with Johnny Weir (who?) in second and Matt Savoie in third. Past winner Michael Weiss is in fourth after landing a triple axel on his knees. Ouch! Their long program is this afternoon, also on ABC.

New Comic Strip
11:19pm

Click here.

Aren't I Cute?
7:53pm

Here's one of the cuter quizzes on the web, if I do say so myself! My result is that I would be a lazy grey kitten as seen below:

What color of kitten would you be?
brought to you by Quizilla

Random Notes for J
6:53pm

My Mother In Law Rocks!
My MIL has always had purebred cats from a breeder, which I am against as so many animals are put down on a daily basis in this country for the crime of not having a loving home. However, after her kitty of 14 years had to go to feline heaven, she actually went to a shelter and adopted a homeless kitty! Yay for her! There is no better feeling than saving a furry friend from a premature death.

School Starts Again
I start a new semester of classes on Tuesday. While I've enjoyed being an irresponsible slob for 6 weeks, I really am excited about my new classes. One is about the Japanese supernational as portrayed in film, literature and drama. You know you're going to have a good class when one of your text books is about the history of Anime.

D'oh!
The Simpsons has been renewed thru the 2005 season making it the longest sitcom in TV history. Woohoo! It's amazing that a show that has been on for 14 years is still consistently funny. I find it hysterical how they slip so much adult humor into a show thought of as a kid's show. Now I know what I'm doing on Sunday nights for the next 2 years!

Hmmm...
Is it a bad thing when you go to lay down for a quick nap and wake up 5 hours later feeling dehydrated and with a pounding headache? I think Jay gave me his cooties.

OK, J, that's all I got.

An Open Letter to a Spammer
12:01am

Dear Email Spammer:

Thanks but I don't need a bigger penis, dates with singles in my area, amateur webcams, name brand cigarettes, a free snow scene screen saver, bi-polar medication, that fricken pasta pot, 15.2 million e-mail addresses, a rotomatic (whatever that is), to illegally copy DVDs, a free glucose meter, viagra, a cosmetic collection, ink for inkjet printers, a casino web site, an auto loan, or to lose weight while eating pizza...wait a minute...that last one sounds pretty good..

Questions from mike
12:30am

1. what kind of job pays you to go to amsterdam and paris?
Being a Macromedia trainer. I was sent to Amsterdam to train European vendors that wanted to be Authorized trainers in Director. In Paris, I taught Director at the Macromedia European User Conference. That was my past life. I still teach Macromedia products, but much less often.

2. describe your first trip to the louvre.
Well, I have a fear of using public transportation in strange cities (strange meaning unfamiliar in this case). So, I was scared to travel into Paris in the first place especially because I don't speak a word of French except for saying "I don't speak any French, do you speak English?" which I made myself learn before going there. Anyway, I got up the courage and got on the right train and had about 13 stops to go. Well, three stops later the train stops. I mean it stops and doesn't start again. Then there is an announcement in French of course, and everyone leaves the train! I had NO idea where I was or how to get anywhere! I ask a cop on the platform if he speaks English, he says no which I know is totally BS. So I say in English that I'm not leaving the platform until I find out why. So he says the station is closed and I have to leave and take a bus (in English). I somehow figure out that the reason the train has been stopped is because someone committed suicide by jumping onto the tracks and was smooshed by the train and was actually laying under the car in which I was sitting. Well, I refused to get on a bus that I didn't have any idea where it was going. I found some other Americans and one called a cab but they said they wouldn't come out to where we were so then I'm thinking, "how bad is this section that a cab won't come out to rip off some American tourists?" Eventually, some high school student who wanted to practice her English took pity on me and walked me to the next train stop at which point I went back to my hotel and went to bed. Oh, did I mention that that very day was my wedding anniversary and I was away from my husband which was depressing to begin with? I did, however, get to the Louvre successfully the next day. :)

3. describe god in one sentence.
Impossible but I'll take a stab at it. I don't believe in an anthropomorphic god but that "god" as Westerners tend to call it, is something inside each of us and in all living things, kind of how in Buddhism everyone contains Buddha nature but don't realize it. This "something" contains our strengths, our potential, our goodness and much more but overall is ineffable. In explaining it you make it less that it really is. (That's three sentences, huh?) I would just like to say this is my personal interpretation and I don't wish to push this belief on anyone else. I also believe that god exists in whichever form you believe it exists. Confused yet?

4. what is your favorite guilty pleasure?
hmmm...probably watching the "reality" shows on MTV like Real World, etc.

5. what is one thing a reader would not know about you just from reading your blog?
That I have a degree in electrical engineer and comparative religion? Sheesh I dunno. Did you know that?

Strip Tease
4:28pm

I found a really fun site that allows you to make your own comic strips! You wanna see mine? Click here.

(Link feefed from Mike.)

Mmmm…Spam!
3:01pm

Just yesterday alone, I received 87 pieces of spam. That seems like a lot to me! Anyone else get that much or more on a daily basis?

Back From Dentist
2:34pm

So, I get to the dentist and I need use the bathroom so I go back where all the patients are being worked over on, and this one guy is just gagging so badly, it sounds like he's puking his guts out. I get a glimpse of his flailing legs and I just wanna run the hell out of there. I don't however and I wait my turn like a good little girl. The temporary crown comes off but ALL the glue used to keep it on stick to my tooth so that all has to be chipped off. Long story short, the permanent crown goes on and Junior (literally, it's the 19 year old son of the dentist) is assigned the task of removing the excess glue which makes my gums bleed unbelievably as Junior sure likes pointy instruments and my gum line. OUCH! Then Daddy Dentist makes sure everything's cool then tells me he isn't going to do my fillings for a coupla months! YAY! He says I deserve some time off and I agree. I've been feeling really run down and was afraid that all the dental work today could make me sick. So now I have until March 3rd to forget about the torture and make some more money to give to him.

Why?
7:17pm

Why do Chinese herbs taste so unbelievably bad?

Why don't my cats want to use the litter box now that I put some deodorizer stuff in it so it doesn't just smell like a big mound of pee?

Why does TV on Tuesday nights suck so bad?

Why is there always more dirty laundry even though my husband hates to wear clothes?

Why does my vacation have to ever end?

Dentist Again?
12:32am

Tomorrow is hopefully the LAST FRICKEN DENTIST APPOINTMENT for 6 months. At least I'm praying it is. I need to get a permanent crown and more fillings. *sigh* I'm afraid that when they put the permanent crown on, the dentist will have to cut a piece of gum. I have this weird little flap of gum that actually is resting on the top of the temporary crown. The last time he had to cut some gum it was sore for a week and I was totally miserable.   :(  It's also a good thing I start back to work next week as this is costing me a fortune!

Unscripted TV for Cats
7:56pm

Look who LOVES watching the new fish tank!

Life Unscripted
12:42pm

I admit it. I'm an unscripted TV (aka "reality" TV) addict. (I choose to use a broader term of unscripted than reality because what is "real" about dropping people off on a island and watching them starve?) I love Junkyard Wars (aka Scrap Heap Challenge), Escape from Experiment Island, Panic Mechanic, Monster Garage and Full Metal Challenge, all found on The Learning Channel, Real World/Road Rules Challenge, The Osbournes, and Tough Enough on MTV, Fear Factor, The Mole, and, of course, Whose Line Is It Anyway? All the shows are cheap to make so hopefully they will stick around for a while.

I do not, however, watch any remodeling shows such as Trading Spaces or While you Were Out...too girlie for me...or maybe its envy. I'd love for someone to redo my house for me for free.

Pictures!
5:27pm

I finally got my pictures from my recent trip to White Sands scanned. Click on the picture to the left to see more! White Sands National Monument is just an amazing place. There are 275 square miles of white sand dunes just stretching as far as the eye can see. Also, with each trip I've taken down there (it's about 4 hours south of ABQ) I have found parts of missiles since not only is it a national monument but also a missile range! Don't worry, people aren't allowed in on missile test days.

That's it Exactly!
3:45pm

Ya know how sometimes you feel something but you don't know how to put it into words? Or maybe you're scared to actually analyze the feeling? Maybe it's too frightening to look in the face? Well, here's a link that TOTALLY describes how I feel about current events.

(Link feefed from Melanie)

Pissed off
2:30pm

Way back in the late 90's, I briefly attended one of those "alternative" liberal arts schools back east. It was too alternative for me and I did not get my master's degree as I found it ridiculous to jump through the spiritual searching hoops they required when I wanted to do an academic study. Anyway, I'm now trying to apply to U of New Mexico for my Master's and needed my transcripts to do it. Well, I did as I was told, sent them my name, SSN and DOB along with a check and now, three weeks later, I find out they did not send MY transcripts to UNM, but another Jennifer Bennett's! Those idiots! I can only assume their thought process went something like this..."Well, we have a SSN which is a unique number, a name, which could be duplicated and a DOB. Let's throw out the unique number, and just go with the name without checking the DOB against it. There can't POSSIBLY be 2 Jennifer Bennetts ever attending college!" You know, William H. Macy also attended this college. I wonder if I wrote them and said "Hi, I'm William H. Macy. According to IMDB, my DOB is March 13, 1950. I have forgotten my SSN. Could you please send my transcripts to ..." if I could get them. Kinda scary really.

So now UNM has in their possession transcripts for Jennifer Bennett (not me) who did undergraduate work at the college not Master's work! Gee, I don't see any problem there. I'm sure UNM will believe me when I tell them I have 24 credits of graduate work and will let me transfer them anyway. *smirk*

So, an hour after finding out about the transcript problem, I receive via UPS a computer battery I bought off of eBay from one of those "power sellers." Guess what? It's the wrong battery! It's not the one I need nor the one I purchased! Of course I immediately called them and the instructed me to send it back via First Class USPS. When I asked about whether I would be reimbursed for this charge, I got a lot of hems and haws but finally got them to say they would reimburse me for their mistake.

Guess what people? The holidays are over! Stop drinking egg nog on the job and get your ass in gear! Jeez! OK, I gotta now call the UNM Graduate School Office and fix someone else's mistake...

New Blog
1:17am

In my current feverish state, I have started a new blog for women to go talk about their womenly things like their "plumbing" and cramping and bad dates and no dates, etc. It's called TMI Talk and can be found here. The instructions on how to post an entry to the blog can be found there as well. Anyone can add to it and guys, you can go read it but you have been warned...it's gonna be filled with yucky girly stuff.

Chronic
7:06pm

I really hate the newest ad campaign meant to tell people the horrors of marijuana. In one commercial these bozos are smoking in their car while going through a restaurant drive-thru. At the end of the commercial it is implied that the boys hit a little girl on a bike because their reaction time is impaired from the pot. Yes, you reaction time is impaired if you smoke marijuana. See, pot is a drug, just like alcohol or codeine laced cough syrup. Do you think it's a good idea to drive after drinking or taking codeine-cough syrup? No! Why? Because your reaction time is impaired, duh! So, really what this commercial is saying is that you shouldn't smoke pot and drive and I am ALL for that.

In the other commercial, there are two teens smoking at a house when one shoots the other with his parent's gun which he thought was unloaded. The implication here is that pot impaired the child's judgment and we all know that of the thousands of accidental handgun shootings that happen in homes every year, pot is the reason why they happen, right? Because without it, children would never play with a loaded gun left out by some really responsible parents. (That's called sarcasm, kids.)

Here's something to think about: you cannot smoke yourself to death like you can drink yourself to death. You don't get hung over from pot like you do with alcohol. I worked in a hospital for a coupla years and I can't recall anyone being admitted for pot poisoning but I can clearly recall many college students being admitted for alcohol poisoning. Am I saying pot should be legal? No. I'm not making any calls on that. I do, however, think that there is no reason why marijuana shouldn't be used for medicinal purposes, like most drugs are. I have heard from a VERY reliable source that pot is great for menstrual cramps and we know it's good for relieving pain from glaucoma, as well as relieving nausea from chemotherapy and radiation. It makes NO sense to me that liquid morphine is legal for medicinal purposes, which with either 1) blitz out the patient into la-la land, possibly forever or 2) kill you while pot is considered too dangerous to be used responsibly for pain relief under the direction of a licensed physician. It is interesting that when voted by the public, the use of medicinal marijuana has been approved, only to be overturned by our "down sized, hands-off" federal government.

OK, I think I'm done but I reserve the right to rant more later…

Random Thoughts
4:56pm

When I was in Utah, I saw this unintentionally hilarious TV show on the Oxygen network (which we don't get here in ABQ). It was a call in sex talk show hosted by a woman who was at least 70 years old. On the 2 shows we saw she answered questions on everything from whether a woman can become pregnant from swallowing semen to queefs and how to stop them. The best/scariest segment was when she reviewed a very interesting 3 pronged vibrator, stating that the test subjects enjoyed it more than SHE did! UGH! That is TMI when you hear about an elderly woman testing out vibrators. It would almost be worth it to get the Oxygen channel just to watch this show.

Does anyone else own a pair of shoes for the sole purpose of taking out the trash and going in the garage when it's cold? Or am I just a nut?

I set up a new aquarium that now has a total of 4 fish in it and Damien LOVES it! He can watch it for hours! He got behind the tank at one point and it looked like he was IN the tank! It was the funniest thing I ever saw! I'm waiting for the big SPLOOSH sound when he actually finds his way into the tank.

Is it a bad sign when I feel worn out and crappy after a day that consisted of getting a massage and taking a hot epsom bath? I think I might have caught a bug :(

Funny-Ass Blogger
1:35pm

Suzie is a doctor in rural Pennsylvania who just has the funniest stories! For an example, check out this one. Enjoy!

Public Service Announcement
7:40am

I can't hold my tongue any longer. There is a problem in the blog world and I feel I must address it. Now, I'm all for everyone expressing themselves however they feel appropriate (and I love you all) but there is this basic design principle that has just been butchered lately. This principle is called "contrast." In order for someone to read your blog, they have to actually SEE the text. For them to see the text, there has to be a significant difference between the background color of your blog and the color of your text. For instance, A white background with black, dark grey or blue text works nicely. Black background with black, dark grey or blue text does NOT work nicely. I could go on, but you get the idea. The more contrast the easier it is for old fogies like me to read the screen. After all, the point of having a blog is for others to read it right? Otherwise you could just keep a private diary or journal.

So, what have we learned today? Contrast GOOD. Contrast equals lots of readers and a happy Jen.

…Part Deux
9:43pm

The following movies have a sequel opening this year or in production...the question is, should all of these really be made?

X-Men, Dumb and Dumber, Shanghai Noon, Bad Boys, Mad Max, Rocky, Terminator, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Spiderman, Charlie's Angels, American Pie, and Legally Blonde.

That list just scares the crap out of me. I mean, a Dumb and Dumber sequel? I couldn't watch the original! Also, didn't everyone die in Gladiator? I have to admit I will be in the theaters for X-Men, The Matrix, and Lord of the Rings. The others? I'm gonna have to wait and see…

Photo Contest
1:10pm

UGH!
5:45pm

The dentist was terrible, TERRIBLE! OMG, no wonder I didn't go for 10 years. It turns out I need a 3rd crown! I'm not done afterall! I have to go back for the permanent crown and some more fillings next week. Gawd, I had parts of my own tooth flying out of my mouth while he drilled it down for the new crown. His gloves were splattered with blood from my mouth...ARGH! I couldn't help but think how barbaric it is to drill into our own body parts then put metal in there. What's up with that? It's hard to believe there isn't a better way to keep a mouth full of teeth through a lifetime. I mean, why not just pull them out one by one as they grow in and replace them with fake ones? Why not just puree our food before eating it and suck it down through a straw and just let the teeth rot out of our heads, like nature intended?

Update: I still stand by the following statement: It is less painful and less traumatic to get a tattoo then to have dental work done.

More Dental Torture
10:47pm

I gotta go back to the dentist tomorrow! Ugh! I need to get my 2 permanent crowns, 4 new fillings and have 2 fillings replaced. But then I'm done! Yay!!!!

MS Sucks
12:35am

Could Microsoft suck any harder? As mentioned yesterday I updated my OS and really, it was for the most part trouble free except for trasferring my email from Outlook Express to Apple's new email program. To make a person totallty insane, the data, which includes all your email and mailboxes, is not stored where the application itself is stored so you gotta figure out where the frig it is and where to put it so that the data can be imported. OMG, it could not have been more frustrating. Then when I lost the serial number data for Dreamweaver, I thought I'd just open my web page in MS Word and write some HTML. Well, the web page didn't open in "code" form but opened up WYSIWYG so I thought, "cool, I'll just edit it like this." Well MS Word first stripped out the code for ALL the comments on this page and in its place added so much extraneous code to my page I honestly don't know if I will ever get it all out! I've stopped trying for the night and am just cursing the evilness that lurks in the halls of Redmond, Washington.

Grrrr
7:52pm

Upgraded to Mac OS X.2.3 yesterday and I actually lost no data EXCEPT the serial numbers for my Macromedia productsion which I use to create my blog so now I’m coding by “hand” so if this looks worse than a baboons butt, blame Macromedia.

Things I planned to do during my winter vacation:
1) read 3-4 books
2) learn to play bass guitar
3) write a top 10 pop/rock song
4) go to the gym 5 times a week and get down one pant size
5) work on my graduate school application
6) join the local pottery studio
7) set up an aquarium

Things I’ve done during my winter vacation:
1) installed Jaguar OS
2) gained 5 lbs
3) gone to the gym 3x in 3 weeks

I think I better get my ass in gear and get some stuff done!

Questions from mike
12:12pm

1. i gather you've lived in a few different places. which was your favorite city to live in and why?
Santa Fe. Such a fabulous city full of friendly people, a huge art community, lots of alternative medicine, great food and wonderful scenery. Unfortunately, I can't afford to live there so I live 70 miles south of Santa Fe.

2. other than a family member, who had the most influence on the course of your life?
His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

3. you need to kill time in a city you don't know much about. where do you go?
That's a tough one. I've traveled a quite a bit for work. I've even been paid to go to Amsterdam and Paris. Those were tough ones ;) Well, either I find out where the cool shopping is like the Royal Mile in Edinburgh or I go to art museums like the Louvre in Paris. If you want a sob story, ask me some time about my first attempt to get to the Louvre.

4. do you prefer movies to be letter-boxed or full screen? dubbed or sub-titled?
Letterbox and sub-titles. I HATE dubbed. Why bother?

5. what is you favorite holiday and why? (not restricted to winter holidays)
Geez, any excuse to sit on my ass all day is cool with me. Probably Christmas because I love to shop and that's the best excuse ever to do that.

Visit mike's site to see what questions I asked him!

Movies and Blogs
8:22am

Final count on movies I saw in 2002: 36. Does that say anything about me?

Hey! What's with all the blog redesigns? Don't you all know I HATE change? I think it has something to do with being old.

What I Did on My Winter Vacation (part 1, summary form)
1:35am

Went to SLC and stayed at in-laws' house while they visited other family in AZ. Mother-in-law's cat became deathly ill. Took it to the vet to be put to sleep. Petted her and told her she was beautiful until she was gone. Bawled my eyes out. Went shopping during a snow storm. Played Cranium for 3 hours New Year's Eve and can't remember when I laughed so much. Was kinda hurtin' on Jan 1st. Just got home after losing $20 in the slot machines in the Las Vegas airport. Exhausted but glad to be home with my own bed and healthy and happy kitties.

Hey! today's date is 01-02-03! Kinda cool! :)

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