Retention


Socialization, tutorials, and attention.
September 11, 2008, 4:22 pm
Filed under: Link-0-rama, Progress, Technorati

I took the day off work because of this cough that’s been plaguing me for about a week now. Last night was pretty bad; hours worth of coughing, and once it was time for sleep, that didn’t happen either. Every time unconsciousness would start to claim me, a violent coughing fit would start. We’re talking maybe three hours of sleep here, and this whole thing is really taking a toll on my body.

A day of rest, hopefully no talking, orange juice and whatever cough suppressant is available at CVS – that’s my Thursday. In a quick recap, my week has been: biking yesterday (about 4 miles), learning that classes are suspended until further notice, thinking of reallocating the finances I allotted for that into the house fund, agreeing to volunteer for an art project with the Museum down in Balboa Park, and another work mixer last night (at work). It was good, there was lobster, and despite coughing my lungs out I had a nice time.

It’s really grey and cool out; I will go back to bed after going to pick up those items, but I wanted to share today’s random linkage with you guys:

http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/great-email-newsletter-by-kayak.htm
Learn From a Great Email Newsletter Example: Kayak

http://www.ning.com/
Create Your Own Social Network For Anything

http://woork.blogspot.com/2008/09/7-stunning-tutorials-to-design-modern.html
7 Stunning tutorials to design modern interfaces for websites



Live
September 2, 2008, 7:17 pm
Filed under: Miscellaneous Insanity | Tags:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/google-chrome-now-live.html
Chrome is now live.
It’s like a minimalistic Firefox.

So far, so good. I dig it!



Chrome digitalis
September 1, 2008, 11:58 pm
Filed under: Miscellaneous Insanity | Tags:

http://www.randomwire.com/2008/09/01/google-creates-a-browser/
Google creates a browser called Chrome (not yet live) and presented it in comic form. No beta yet.

See full details here: http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

Since my interests now have gone back to the tech/social-networking side of things, this is an interesting read for me. I have to wonder what the sad face means (haven’t really delved in fully yet), as I am browsing online while currently in the queue for my fourth run of EoTS. We’ve won two out of three so far (go Horde), so that’s kind of nice. I’m just farming honor and don’t really know why. PvP isn’t really my thing, but it’s a nice break from the monotony of what I’ve been doing for the past several years.

Back to Chrome: I particularly liked the monkeys. :)

It seems they’re beta-testing a pre-beta, or something like that. My immense hunger beast (which will soon be soothed by this delicious delivery from Pita Pit) is making it hard to think properly. In any case, I am impressed and will probably use it secondarily for awhile, until it becomes second nature, and then replaces Firefox for me.



Adulthood, and Things That Make Me Seem Old
August 26, 2008, 2:54 am
Filed under: Inspiration, Literates, Progress

Me: Female. Mid-twenties (okay, late twenties). Short. Curvy.

You know what that means, right*?

It means that everywhere I go, I have this intense urge to scream things like “Cut your hair!” and “Pull up your pants!” and “You’re a boy, why are you wearing skintight girls’ jeans?”

It also means that my body is no longer the body of a teenager. This is something that my brain is very slowly coming to terms with. I eat a pretty healthy selection of stuff (usually), my life isn’t totally sedentary, and my job affords me the freedom of not being chained to my desk. In any case, the point of all this is that the phrase “Muffin Top” is one that strikes fear into my heart while my gut sits there silently, reminiscing about that tasty half a cake it forced me to devour.

CupCate is a new-to-me blogger and her stuff is funny and well written. She’s witty and girlish and lives in freaking LONDON (transplanted from NorCal). This means she is going on my bookmarks, and hopefully you’ll all do the same.

Anyway, her article is what sparked my thoughts:

http://cupcate.vox.com/library/post/highly-proficient-in-camel-toe-excels-at-muffin-top.html

——————–

*another novel idea – novel as in words on paper; get it published. Goal date: Summer 2009.



Social Networking comes full circle….
August 21, 2008, 3:58 am
Filed under: Link-0-rama, Technorati

…and it’s starting to close in on me.

Just discovered FriendFeed, which basically takes all your online personas and puts ‘em into a nice lineup. It takes my little obsession with lists and makes me feel more ADD, and then reminds me that I make lists for more reasons than just to have them.

I’m basically trying to go fully digital – you guys should see the major contact/music consolidation projects I’ve got going. Sheesh.

Anyway, I haven’t toyed with FF enough yet to see how well it suits me as far as interaction goes, but it seems okay. At the rate the Internet is going, people won’t really need personal pages anymore. You just link them to your Myspace/Facebook/Twitter…… or in this case, FriendFeed, which is slowly taking *over* Twitter, ever since the ‘view replies’ function broke.

Interesting.



Rockin’!
June 9, 2008, 4:30 am
Filed under: Progress | Tags:

“A hack that uses Google’s mapping application to help record distances traveled and calories burned during a running or walking workout.”

Well, it doesn’t mention biking, but that’s what we did. Jason bought a bike, finally, so hopefully this will be the start of a good habit. I’ve been biking on my own (with a non-beach cruiser) since April 23rd, but it’s nice to have someone else there for motivation, especially when it’s someone who you know will push you to keep going. There’s a calorie counter where you enter your weight, but I don’t know (don’t want to know) my weight, and I’m not sure how it calculates. It doesn’t account for hills or speed, so …oh well.

Still… this is AWESOME. I love maps and stuff like that. So! I’m hoping it’s correct. It looks correct. It also means we went 11.2 miles this morning and 6.3 miles on Friday night… something that my glutes and quads can attest to. It *also* means that my route to work is just under four miles (2 miles each way), which is nice.

Back in the day I used to walk around my Pennsylvania neighborhood quite a bit. The month or so before I moved found me awake every morning before 7, then off to walk/jog almost four miles. I’d come back home, make breakfast, and play the Sims/chat with Jason, and not really do much else. Mainly I was just waiting for the moving day to get there. It was fun looking at the route though just now, and remembering why I took a specific way or some of the things that used to be there.

My next goal is my Bird Rock Route/LJ Route, one of the most scenic and peaceful rides ever. With some hills and everything.

Chart your own course!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/



Artist of the Moment 8
June 4, 2008, 3:17 am
Filed under: Miscellaneous Insanity | Tags: ,

I’m pretty torn between several people, however a recent present has swayed my decision.

Dirge’s work has been a favorite of mine for almost a decade now. Maybe it’s the dead animal factor. I don’t know. But he is, indeed, very snazzy. If you haven’t seen his Myspace or website yet, do your eyeballs a favor and head on over.

Damn! There’s so much good stuff I am having a tough time even posting an example. Instead of being biased, you’re just going to get a picture of his cat.

PS: You’ll notice that either you’re behind the times or I merely started this series at Number Eight.
Go with the former and blame it on me – I have the first seven parts in my MySpace blog, but haven’t yet linked ‘em up. You can peruse the archives if you’d like.



Sound the Alarm
May 18, 2008, 7:43 pm
Filed under: Miscellaneous Insanity

Mine, this morning (0500 to be exact) was the following: MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW MAOW? MAOWMAOW!

When you are pulled against your will from your sub-conscious, your brain goes into Kill Mode as soon as you recognize the noise. Oh Kitty, where aaaaarre youuuu? There you are. Why, what’s that in your mouth? OH A MOUSE HOW PLEASANT.

Mister Murderer had successfully caught – and killed – a little mouse very early this morning. What threw me was that as soon as I stumbled into the bathroom and found a light to help deduce this situation, he stopped making noise. I saw Brak stretched out on the living room floor in kind of a weird position, and my brain immediately said “Hello, your cat is no more. He has ceased to be.”

A bad feeling, that one – until his tail flapped a bit. Then the other girl-y portion of my brain kicked in to remind me of the prior time he caught a mouse. That’s right. I was standing on the sofa for 25 minutes and trying to get the mouse outside via telekinesis.

Brak had begun jumping around a bit and pawing at the carpet where …something seemed to be, so at this point there was really only one thing to do: Wake Up Someone Else. (He’s a guy, things like this are in his contract.)

Me: ::squee squee:: kitty – he has something – i think it’s a mouse – itsamousehehasamouse
Jason: ::sleeping:: guh. whut?
Me: I THINK THE CAT HAS A MOUSE
Jason: grr. uh. guh. k.

He went out to the living room to confirm that the cat did indeed have a mouse, which had now upgraded its’ status to Dead Mouse. Probably a heart attack, possibly Death By Kitty. This current (very dead) mouse looked just like the one that had previously been trapped in our place, so I can’t help but wonder if he came back to try and claim some vengeance.

Sorry buddy, today it looks like you’re traveling by failboat.

As J was helping Brak realize that his new toy was going out to its’ new home (the dumpster), I see a spot on the blinds. A large black spot, and we don’t have Christmas lights that could possibly be poking through.

Me: Look at the blinds. In the front.
Jason: ::looks::
Me: What is that black spot?

He pokes at the blinds, and you know what it is? A MOTH. A moth!!!! You don’t understand.

As he proceeds to score more man points by removing the mouse, killing and removing the moth, I close the bedroom door and go back to bed. It is 0530. Happy Sunday.



I can take apart a remote control and I can almost put it back together.
April 14, 2008, 8:33 pm
Filed under: Miscellaneous Insanity, Progress

If I ever finished everything that I needed to finish… what would I post about?

Cali to the A, we speedin’ on the freeway… Look at me, look at me, hands in the air like it’s good to be… alive.

Progress draws progress and patience sits patient, you flow with the inside of the inner circles, you don’t know what to do or where to go, you keep on knowing what you know, oh I don’t know… oh I don’t know.

v1 versionzer0.

Friday - worked until 7. Blank spot after that.

Saturday – worked from 8 to 4. Spent most of the day giving tours and trying to figure out what direction to go in. Weather: HOT. After: Sushi at Mizu with Maria & Trent. Mizu is still the numero uno sushi joint in all of SD (in my opinion). VIP seating and people watching made the food taste even better. We also noticed that THE MOTHS ARE BACK. I hate the moths. They get into my apartment and flap like bats. They scare me. Screw you, moths.

Sabbat, accompanied by Jason. The place was empty at 11 (upon our arrival) and somewhat awkward. The beat was off and neither of us really wanted to be there. Met up with Daisy & Eric. Discovery: it is difficult to dance in flats. Secondary discovery: I still love dancing, but not to Goth Musik. Whatever playlist they were running should have been wiped clean of Du Hast and Closer. Oh wait, it wasn’t Closer, it was just some song that flat stole the infamous beat and put some crap yelling over it. Winner! Anyway, I was painfully sober and realized Air Conditioned would have been a better choice. Either that or maybe another Saturday, one with more patrons and whatever music they played at the 10-year anniversary. It just seemed like there was an abundance of newly-turned-21s and weirdness.

Sunday – Slept until 1500. AWESOME. Daisy showed up around 1800 and succumbed to my craving for Dairy Queen Goodness. I’m freaking lactose intolerant, I knew what I was in for. That peanut buster parfait (with chocolate ice cream) was so worth it. Then we went to Ichiban (on the rocks), Trader Joe’s (my first trip in there ever), and finished up at Whole Foods. Got to listen to some chit-chat about an upcoming event in the leather scene, and saw a girl from my past. Of course I didn’t say hello because I didn’t know for certain if it *was* her, but a quick convo via MySpace confirmed it. Yay for Kitty.

Today - bills to pay, errands to run, cleaning to do. Relaxation to attend to as well, I do enjoy Mondays for that.

In other news, we are looking for a new spot to move to. The beach scene has pretty much killed my love for the actual beach. Since house-buying probably won’t happen in under a year, my sanity needs to be saved and we need to GTFO. This is frustrating but A) the neighbors won’t give me peace, B) the landlord won’t put in double-paned windows, so C) I need to do something about this. Five years is enough already. Of course Hillcrest/Mission Hills is my spot of choice, but it’s tough. A large one-bedroom under $1100/monthly, that comes with parking, no drama and a decent neighborhood within 10 minutes of my job. HOW HARD CAN THIS BE.

Oh yeah, the Nigerian/West African/South African scammers have moved on to not just spam, but putting up houses for rent. Awesome.



Seriously, I Hate My Couch.
March 12, 2008, 3:34 am
Filed under: Homeprovements, Miscellaneous Insanity

I don’t invite people over.

The prospect of a relaxing Sunday afternoon stippled with sunny reflections
over breezy chatter isn’t something on my agenda.  Yet.

You know why?

It’s because I hate my couch.  Not just in that way where you kind of don’t like your couch, and it seems a little outdated… but with the burning hot fury of a thousand suns.

The Beast, a nickname it has been christened with over time, sits – nay, lurks! – in our living room.  We have a 600 square foot apartment, 90% of which is taken up by the goddamn couch.  It was there when we move in, and it will probably be there when we leave.  A green, cracked leather behemoth of furniture, it knows that it could never be replaced because it is just too much of a hassle to move.

I’ve considered getting the day laborers outside of Home Depot to just take it away.  ¿Dónde a?, they’ll ask me, and I will shrug and point out the door.  Just take it.  The couch sits, smug in its’ permanence, and you can almost hear it laughing at us.  Mocking. 

 

It’s just not fair.  Have you even seen what’s out there?  Ever since buying The Entertainment Beast,
all I’ve really wanted to do is get a new couch.  With the goods that you can find at ApartmentTherapy, InhabitLiving or MocoLoco,
it almost makes me want to have a tantrum.  

What happens is that I see sites like Workspace of the Week over on Unclutterer and want my apartment to be cleaner.  This either makes me surf obsessively (weeping!) through the home décor
sites, or launches an epic cleaning spree that results in the apartment looking like we just moved in.  That latter bit happens perhaps once a month, and can probably be blamed on the moon… or the
cat.

Then my wishlist factor kicks in.  The first symptom is astonishment: WHY does
a single chair cost more than I make in almost six weeks worth of work?  The second symptom is answered by its’ own questioning:  WHY can’t we have that?  Well, because a single chair costs more than I make in almost six weeks worth of work.  Don’t get me wrong: it’s an awesome
chair.  It is, however, a CHAIR.

Other things that are interesting (and make me realize that I really am a packrat) are things like this, where someone lives in a space half the size of my dwelling.  They probably don’t share that with a
significant other and a cat, but you never know.  They also probably know how to pick up their laundry and put it away, however this is one of my major downfalls.  The lines in those rooms are nice and clean, and all of those homes look like display models.  My home is not particularly clean, nor does it look like a display model.  It looks like a renovated San Diego beach cottage from the 70’s, which makes it stay true to form.

However, that last link brings me full circle… did you see the couch?  Square, comfy, one piece?  Yeah, I need to borrow that.  You don’t need it.  I need it.

While you’re at it, feel free to pick up some new sheet sets for me.  Maybe it’ll offset the couch.