KirstenL4W

Well hey there, it’s a computer!  Let’s see, we put this wire into this plug, and that cord into that hole, and push the button…. it works!  Hallelujah, it’s a miracle!

So I got my computer hooked up and back online.  And not the vile Vista laptop.  Ok, I shouldn’t talk smack about it like that - it kept me online when I had no other way.  But now, I am on my computer, my beloved desktop PC, with all my files and music and good stuff like that.  And wires.  My goodness, this thing has a lot of wires.  The electrical spaghetti beneath my desk is astounding.  My next computer will definitely be an iMac, because they are sleek, and with wireless technology the only wire you absolutely need for it is the power.  One single wire.  Oh, how I long for the simplicity of it all.

But I digress.  Now that I have my PC unpacked, FH is playing WOW again, and we are settling into our new home, I anticipate having much more time to blog and be blogged.  There is still more unpacking to do, more stuff to buy, and oh yeah, a wedding coming up, but I’m happy that I can finally get back to my PC.  Don’t forget, it’s not just that I haven’t been online the past few weeks - the entire year that FH and I lived in that tiny, 1-bedroom apartment, my computer was in the bedroom and FH’s in the living room, and since I like spending time with him I spent my time in the living room, using the laptop to keep caught up and keep myself alive as far at the world wide interwebs are concerned.  I do have files on the laptop that need to be moved, but that’s nothing a flash drive can’t take care of.  For now, I’m happy to be home.  Home on my computer, and home in the home that FH and I are making for ourselves.  He’s here in the office (a room dedicated to wasting time with computers!) with me, playing WOW, and I can still reach out and touch him if I want to.

Life is good.

For my Mommy, who insists on uploading her pictures to Kodak because she can’t figure out any other way.

First thing you have to do is take that flat plug thingy and plug it in from your camera to your computer.  I assume you know how to do this, because your pictures cannot get to Kodak without this step.  Once you plug it in and turn your camera on, you will get something that looks like this:

See that option that says “Import Pictures using Windows?  That’s the one you want.  If you just keep clicking next, your pictures will be saved to the “My Pictures” folder.  You get to that one by going to the pretty picture you like to look at when you turn your computer on.  Then go to a folder that looks like a regular file folder.  It will say “My Documents.”  Double click this with the left button on the mouse.  Then you will see some more folders.  Find the one that says “My Pictures.”  Got it?  Good.

Inside this folder you’ll see all sorts of folders, if you’ve been putting stuff in there.  If you want to know what everything is with a really quick glance, go to the top part of this box where you see some words like File, Edit, View, etc.  Click on the one that says View.   It will get longer and  have more words on it.  Find the word that says Thumbnails and click on that.  The words will go away but you will see mini pictures.  This will help you find what you want.

If you need to look in one of the folders in the My Pictures folder, they will probably have dates on them that correspond to the day you put them there.  That helps you figure out how to find them.  You can rename these folders if you want, but that’s a lesson for another day.  Anyway, now you know how to find the photos once you got them out of your camera.

To email the pictures, I’ll give you directions that are specific to Yahoo, since you use that for email.  Go to write the email like you always do.  Then click on the button that says Attach Files.  By the File 1 box, click Browse.  A box will pop up, and on the left hand side of this box you can click on My Documents.  Then on the right side, you will see the folder that says My Pictures.  Go in here - it’s just like when you were finding the pictures before! - and find the picture you want to send to me.  You can attach up to 5 pictures for each email message, so you can send me lots of pictures all the time.  When you are done, find the button that says Attach Files.  Wait a sec while it puts them in your email.  When that’s done, near the top, click on the button that says Continue to Message.  That will bring you back to the regular email, so you can finish writing your email.  Don’t forget to hit SEND when you are done.  Soon I will be looking at all those pictures you tell me you take of Bubba, Messy J, and Imp Master J.  Get it?

If my overly simplistic directions didn’t help you, then call Uncle Bubby.  Hopefully he can help.  If not, the slowly step away from the computer.

‘Splain something to me.  This past week saw me eating way too much fast food, since Boyfriend and I didn’t go grocery shopping.  We ate out, ate fast food take-out and too much junk food, didn’t track points and didn’t exercise.  Yet today when I weighed in at WW today, I was down 1.6lbs.  I do not get it at all.  All the rules were broken and I was still down.  This totally sends the wrong message!

In other news, the computer issue has finally been fixed.  Turns out all I had to do was update the driver for the network adapter.  Lesson learned: stay away from Vista.  Research done regarding my problem shows that many, many people have issues with accessing the internet via wireless even though the actual wireless connection is strong.  It’s unique to Vista.  Save yourselves and get a Mac.

Boyfriend and I went to LA on Monday to meet some of his Silly Little Game friends for lunch.  I was going to blog about that earlier in the week, but the computer issue was more pressing.  I’m hoping to get around to it this weekend, while it’s still fairly fresh in my mind.

In the interest of just getting a post out there yesterday while in the midst of computer hell, I didn’t quite explain what the problem was.  So here’s an explanation:

I usually use the laptop in the living room, connecting to our home network via a wireless connection.  The laptop has Vista, btw, which is of an important note because it is the only one of our 4 computers running Vista.  The others are XP.  Anyhoo, all indications were that I had a very strong internet connection, and I was even able to get the weather widget to work, but trying to actually access the internet using Firefox or IE was an effort in futility.  If I was lucky enough to get a website, it was after a long wait and there was no guarantee that graphics would be included.  Again, just as a reminder, the laptop was the only computer afflicted with this strange illness.

The computer had been sitting idle since Sunday evening, so it had been close to 48 hours that it was powered down.  There was plenty of battery life left, and everything else appeared to be working normally.  Vista even thought my connection was fine; the diagnostic check recommended that I contact my ISP.  Since Boyfriend was online playing his Silly Little Game, I knew that the problem was not with my ISP, it was in the laptop, somehow.

At Boyfriend’s suggestion, I installed some new anti-virus software. (Side note: I have run a computer for many years without any such software; when I finally did install some it only found some tracking cookies.  In all my years of computing I have never had a virus.)  After the hour or so of updating Vista, uninstalling the Norton that came with the laptop, installing TrendMicro, and doing a scan, only a few tracking cookies were found.  Performance was not improved.  Some more diagnostics ended up resetting the internal wireless adapter, which solved the problem … for about 5 minutes.

Boyfriend did a hard restart, which helped a little, but it was still very slow (not super slow, as it had been), and I was still getting some sites without graphics.  I had already given up by this point and was all by my lonesome in the bedroom on my desktop.  I did start the disk defrag, but as of 5:30am it was still running, so with the screen saver and power saver settings, I don’t know if it stops running when it goes into power save mode.  There’s no way to visually check the progress of the defrag on Vista, either.  However, the internet issues were pretty much gone this morning, since I was able to check my email just fine.  This is so perplexing.

Boyfriend mentioned yesterday that his satellite radio was not able to access a signal.  Since it’s in the truck and there aren’t that many natural barriers to the signal here in Las Vegas, I’m wondering if these events are related.  The Pentagon seems intent on shooting down a wayward satellite, and with a 10 second window to push the button to send a heat-seeking missile to an object that is not outputting any heat, along with the coincidental news coming out of Cuba this week, I’m wondering if the electronic issues of late are a signal that the end of the world is coming.  But don’t listen to me.  I’m not a conspiracy theorist or anything.

At least my iPod still works normally.  I don’t know where I’d be without that.

I’m having computer issues tonight.  Just with this damn laptop.  I’ve spent enough time trying to fix it, and I just want the damn thing to work already.   This is very frustrating because it only seems to be affecting the new Vista laptop.

I’m giving up before I end up hurling this thing across the room.

When I moved in with Boyfriend, I had to find somewhere to put my desk.  The living room wasn’t an option because his desk was already in there, and the only corner where it made sense to put mine was taken up by a fireplace.  So that left the bedroom, which used to be spacious before I moved in.  Now my desk is crowded in the far corner of the room, without enough room for a proper chair.  I sit on an overturned trash barrel with a pillow on top in lieu of a proper stool.

Since my desk is so out of the way, Boyfriend really doesn’t like it when I spend time on my computer.  He has 2 laptops, one of them a brand spanking new HP Something that runs Vista.  Since the arrival of the HP, I’ve been using that a lot more because it allows me to spend time with Boyfriend - we can both be on the computer yet in the same room together.  It’s been nice, but there are lots of things on my desktop that I still need - all my iTunes, my personal finance software, all my files that I do stuff with - and at this point it’s just going to have to stay that way, because I don’t see us getting a server or even an external hard drive anytime soon.  I prefer to have everything in just one place, anyway, so I’ve kept it all on my desktop.

Since I spend so much time on the laptop, however, I figured it would be wise to try and merge some stuff.  I have zillions of bookmarks on my desktop - not that I use them all regularly, I admit that they could use some cleaning out - but I wanted the bookmarks for my main computer with me on the laptop.  I went online to see what extensions Firefox had, since I had heard they had one that syncs bookmarks.  I downloaded Foxmarks on the desktop and laptop and went about doing my thing, being careful to keep the ones I already had on my desktop as the dominant set.  This is when the trouble began.

When I finished syncing (spellcheck says that is right, I don’t know) them, I had a whole bunch of blank bookmarks on the laptop.  That wasn’t right, so I set about deleting them.  Once that was done, Foxmarks wanted to sync again.  I chose no.  Throughout the day, it kept wanting to sync.  Tired of the popup, I finally clicked yes, thinking that because I had set my desktop bookmarks as the dominant set, it would shut this thing up once and for all.  Boy, was I wrong.  All those blank bookmarks were the folders that I had to organize stuff.  All the bookmarks I previously had in folders were gone.  Now all I have is the miscellany that I had floating at the end, waiting to be organized.  Everything else is gone.  I don’t even remember half of what I had, but it’s all gone.  I know I had clothing stores and shoe stores and all sorts of other stores that I liked to visit.  Some of those I’ll never find again, so no more window shopping for me.

Now that I’m completely fed up with the Great Bookmark Syncing Fiasco, I’ve uninstalled Foxmarks and will never try that again.  Perhaps a site like PortaPortal will be a bit better, or not.  Perhaps I will just keep separate bookmarks on each computer.  I don’t know, I haven’t figured that out yet.  I’m still hurting from losing all my cool bookmarks.

I’m still on the hunt for a job. I registered with a couple agencies and have been going on interviews. Soon I shall have something, fingers crossed. It’s hard to sound excited about being an administrative assistant. I mean, it’s not like it’s a career goal anymore. Years ago there were secretarial schools that women went to, because it was one of the 3 accepted careers for women (the others being nurse and teacher). If a woman was going to work, that’s one of the very few choices she had. I don’t know how anyone ends up being a career assistant, especially in this day and age where getting a new job every couple of years is the norm.

Since I’ve been home looking for a job, I’ve also been trying to get my stuff all unpacked and settled. That’s been going even less successful than the job hunt. First of all, it’s over 100 degrees outside, so going to our garage and hauling boxes into the upstairs apartment we have isn’t an appealing thought. Also, Boyfriend and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment, so space is severely limited. We’ve both been frustrated with the process, but we are slowly but surely making progress. On the plus side, my computer is set up and online via wirelss (yay Boyfriend!) so no more issues with that one silly little laptop key. The rest of my desk, on the other hand, is in a miserable state of being partially done, since a lot of the relevant crap that goes with having a desk is still boxed up in the garage.

Other than that there’s been not a heck of a lot going on. I’ve been trying to keep up with blogs, though I haven’t been able to check all of them as often as I used to. That’s ok, because if I get a job that has me as busy as I want to be, I won’t have much time to read them all, so it’s something that I should get used to. For now, though, I need to get some stuff done around the house to make things easier for when Boyfriend gets home and perhaps eat some lunch.

I don’t know how many of you listen to radio online, but I’d be willing to bet that the typical blogger has at one point or another listened to something online. I myself am a big fan of Radio Paradise. Almost the entire time I worked at MRI, I listened to RP. Now at my new job, I am once again allowed to stream radio. As soon as I found that out, I was online in musical heaven as fast as my connection would allow.

Let me tell you a bit about RP. They play music 24/7. They play hits, and they play stuff no one has ever heard of. They play such a wide variety of music that you just can’t put them in any one category. I mean, check out their playlist. I have discovered so much new music through RP alone. RP has done more to bring new and wonderful music to my life than any other single source - and probably more than all other sources put together. They survive from donations from listeners, so it’s totally free and listeners only give out of the goodness of their own hearts. The best thing about RP is the amount of information available. The song currently being played is always on their website, they keep a readily available playlist of the last 24 hours, and EVERY SINGLE SONG has a forum so that it can be discussed. Oh, and the information on what album the song came from, and links to other songs and albums by that artist, are easy to find. I mean, that’s got to be the easiest way to discover new and exciting music ever.

Now, what do I have against FM radio? Personally, when I am listening to the radio, I want to listen to MUSIC. How many of you out there can listen to music on your morning commute? Not I. Insted, I am subjected to the antics of juvenile DJs along with too many commercials for my liking. On a typical half hour drive to work, I’m lucky if I can hear one song. And I guarantee you it will be the same song every day. Who do they think I am? Ok, I understand that advertising has its place, and that all the commercials allow us to listen to FM radio for free. And stations like the new Jack format (or Fred, or Bob, or whatever they call it in your town) is a start, since they got rid of the silly DJs and play a wider variety of music. But once you get sick of that, where are you going to discover new music? In fact, the only FM station I listen to on a regular basis is my local NPR station, not because I like sleepy elevator jazz, but because I can listen to commercial free music on my way into work. And the jazz does keep me more relaxed during the commute than something a bit more upbeat.

Now, what about other formats such as satellite radio? I admit, the appeal is great to subscribe to XM or Sirius simply to have a wider variety of music to listen to without commercials, but RP has one thing over these and other online options such as Launchcast - RP is format-free. If I were to listen to a satellite option, I’d still have to choose a format or station where they have selected a niche-genre of music to play to me. RP doesn’t do that. They just play it all. I like that. I like that I don’t have to pigeonhole my musical tastes like that. I mean, let’s put it this way: you can eat at an Italian restaurant all the time, enthusiastically trying every new dish they throw your way, but how will you know if you like anything else unless you visit the Chinese restaurant across the street? It’s the same thing. Just as my culinary tastes are not firmly set in any one particular cuisine, neither are my musical tastes firmly set in any one musical genre. I listen to Mozart. I listen to Metallica. RP will play both, right in a row. How cool is that?

I don’t profess to be politically savvy, in fact, I’m more of a political idiot. Not really, but politics is usually somewhere I just don’t want to go. But this threat - that silly new laws about royalties will bring an end to US-based internet radio - just, well, sucks. So what can be done? Start a blogstorm, Digg it, slashdot it, just get the word out. If the people want it, perhaps we just might get it. It seems to me that these moves undermine the freedom that we as Americans are supposed to enjoy, but having no other options than to listen to the same manufactured drivel day in and day out on commercial radio smacks of - dare I say it - Communism. These laws that are being passed are not for the benefit of the people, they are for the benefit of Big Business. In a country where one is supposed to be able to be an individual and the small and meek can be heard, having no choice but to support Big Business does not uphold the fundamental liberties that we as Americans are supposed to be enjoying. So let’s get what we want! The internet radio stations are willing to do what it takes to stay legal, but lets get laws that are fair and unbiased. And while we’re at it, let’s outlaw corporate lobbying.

Go to Radio Paradise, right on their front page they have a story with links to resources. And read their forums - there’s a very active and intelligent discussion about this issue going on here, with LOTS of good ideas and links to how you can help. Worth the read, even if you only read a few pages.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to finish out my workday listening to Radio Paradise.

I found a place here in Vegas that could be a good source for selling some CDs. I miss my beloved Newbury Comics, so finding a similar place here to unload music would be great. My first round of CD unload saw me uploading all the songs I had that I wanted, but bought the CD for the one song. I uploaded those single songs and sent my music home to trade in at Newbury Comics when I was visiting. Now, I want to upload all the music I have just to have - you know, that stuff that’s supposed to be essential to all good music collections - and get rid of the physical CD. I still use CDs in my car and such, but I notice that I stick to a select few dozen or so. So, I’ll keep those ones and sell the rest. That means I’ll also be able to sell the CD rack that I have, and I have a friend in mind who might be interested in purchasing it. But first, I have many, many hours to spend in front of the computer uploading music.

I also think that I might purchase a pro account on Flickr. I want to keep things organized, and not only do I have to get them organized on my home computer, since my photo organization leaves much to be desired, but when people are looking at them online I want to have them nice and organized there too. A pro account to create more photosets would accomplish this. And it’s not expensive either, so why the heck not?

And, I’ve had a Palm Z22 for almost a year now, but only once have I synched it to my computer. I need to update that and sync it again, and I ought to start using it more regularly for other things as well. It’s an amazing little electronic device, so I should be taking full advantage. Even so, I don’t think it will help me find the time to get all this stuff done.

Ah well, the list never ends. Despite having all that to do, the main priority right now (besides sleep and work) is finishing the traffic school thing online and paying my stupid traffic fine by Tuesday of next week. Stupid Nevada traffic court system. I am so determined that there will not be a next time regarding any traffic issues, but at least I don’t have any points on my license for it. Yeah, well worth the money, sure. Still a major PITA, but at least they take credit cards and I can do traffic school online when I have a chance.

I slept really well last night, which makes up for the lack of sleep or any sort of schedule the past few days. Of course, my sister called and woke me up this morning to pretend to bitch about the picture of her pregnant belly that I posted from my vacation. After that I went back to sleep for 3 more hours.

So what did I do today? I got the slides done for church. I finished posting all the widgets for my blog. I labeled all my posts (boy, was that a chore). I chatted with Officer Friend. I chatted online with other friends. Helped VegasRic proofread a site he’s working on (I really wish he’d let me help more, all the proofreading did was add to his to-do list)

I did laundry today. Someone almost burned down the laundry room by stuffing a comforter in one of the washers. Last week I neglected doing laundry and went out instead, and nearly got myself killed. Tonite I stay home and do laundry, and someone almost burns the place down. Can’t win. I don’t know if I’m supposed to do laundry or not.

I changed my cell phone plan today. Every time you do something like that you are subjected to another year on your contract. Between changing plans and taking advantage of free upgrades, I think my cell phone contract runs for another decade. But the accident this week and my recently exploded social life made me run way over my minutes this month, so for the next 3 days it’s only text messages. If anyone calls me, just leave a voice mail and I’ll check it on Wednesday, when my new billing cycle starts.

Also did some banking today, watching my bank balance dwindle. But I’m working about 30 hours at the store next week, so that will help, especially if I’m to be away for a week getting my new car.

And one more thing - if anyone has a subscription to my blog, I’M SORRY! I tagged 163 posts today, so your feeds have probably been going beserk. It won’t happen again, I promise.

That’s about it for now. I’m getting good at typing with a cast on, but it’s still a major pain in the ass. Or hand, rather. You’ll just have to deal with shorter posts for awhile.

No, not really. It rained today. I haven’t seen that much water fall out of the sky in such a long time. Plus the temps were only in the low 70s, so it was cool out too. It was a nice cozy cool and it made me feel all warm inside. It was nice to have some variety in the weather. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have stayed home with my blanket wrapped around me.

Google has had some gadgets that you can add to your Google home page, but they’ve only been available for your Google homepage. Until now. I recently found out that they’ve added over 1200 gadgets (some redundancy is expected) that you can add to your webpage! Yay! So I went here and got myself a new Magic 8 Ball. I like it better than the one I had before; this is the one I’ve wanted all along. I’ve also cleaned up and re-organized my sidebar a bit. Now if I could only get around to doing that with my bookmarks…

I’m talking with The Man again. He explained to me what happened. Without revealing anything about him, and making a long story short, he thought he was doing a good thing and got fucked over. Now he’s just trying to un-fuck his life and get on with things.

I have that interview tomorrow morning at my friend’s place. I have a really good feeling about this one, so wish me luck. I really want this one to happen, because I am so ready to move on.

I think that’s about enough for now. I know I had more to write, I always do, but then I get online and have 4 or 5 tabs open and I’m doing at least that much, so I get distracted and lose my train of thought. Oh well.

ETA: The 8-Ball is out for now. I just can’t get it to display properly. When and if I get it figured out I’ll consider putting it back.

Ok, I admit it. I’m a Windows user. Blame it on circumstance - and money. It all started in late 1998 when I came home from work one winter evening. As I was walking through the dark dining room to get to my bedroom, I sensed a large presence in the room with me. I turned on the light and saw a few large boxes taking up the space. Oh, great. Being of the younger generation, I knew that I would be the one who would have to show Dad how to use the darn thing. Problem was, I had very little experience on computers myself at that point. Luckily, I could learn in a hurry. I was at the time working for a temp agency, in their office, and they offered free computer training to all their employees. Since the next day was New Year’s Eve, and we’d have a very slow half day, I asked the boss if I could get on there to at least have a starting point. I learned enough in those couple hours to at least figure out how to turn the thing on and start doing something. But it was definitely a case of the blind leading the blind.

The very little experience I had on computers was using pre-Windows operating systems, mainly DOS. I started in elemntary school (4th and 5th grade) on the Apple IIE learning Basic, typing in commands to make a box or circle or something silly. Back then, I figured computers were a cool toy that didn’t really do much. By high school, I was still using Basic but had moved up to WordPerfect to type the occassional paper. College was pretty much more of the same, and I even got a taste of online then. I used to type in commands to connect to a telnet BBS. I even met a very good friend on there, in a very roundabout way. I was meeting people online before anyone knew how freaky that could be. But back to Dad’s computer. This ran Windows 98. I knew nothing about Windows before that mad rush training session. I knew it was popular. I knew it was run by some hippie tech geek guy in Washington, on the other side of the earth. I knew people bought it like mad - Windows 98 was like the Tickle Me Elmo of its day. Problem was, I had no idea why.

On New Year’s Eve, I got home from work early and did a bit of poking around my room before putting in the order for Chinese food. As I got down to the dining room, I found my dad in there with computer components all around him, empty boxes strewn about, and various cords in his hand. I’ve never seen my Dad look as lost as he did that night. Luckily, I new this part. It’s like doing a puzzle - they all only fit into one place. Today they’re color coded to make things even easier, but it wasn’t that easy then. I still managed to get it plugged in and booted up. We’d be playing with it, then stop for a few minutes to read the useless books that came with, and the screen saver would kick in. It was password protected, and we couldn’t figure out what the password was or how to get rid of it. So I put in a call to my uncle, who had recently purchased a computer of his own. He told me how to remove the password, and we were off and running. Sort of.

There’s only so much one can do with a computer that’s not online yet. By my uncle’s advice, Dad made an appointment with the cable company to get online, but that was a month out. In the meantime, I got very good at playing solitaire and teaching my nephew how to print out all sorts of silly pictures on Paint. I still have some of those pics. Here’s a tip: never let a 5 year old print anything. You’ll go through hundreds of dollars worth of ink cartridges over the course of a month.

Anyway, by the end of January the cable guy had come to the house and gotten us online. All of a sudden I was swallowed in the vortex of cyberspace. I’m still stuck there. I’d go online after my Dad had gone to bed, staying online so long that my mousing hand would freeze stiff. I wrote down tons and tons of websites to visit, and actually visited them. I set up an email account and got into online dating, much to the chagrin of Officer Friend, who insisted on running all these guys through the police department computers rather than letting my trust my instincts. I’m very picky; I may have gotten my heart broken a few times but I’ve never ever put myself in a situation where I felt that danger was at hand. Ok, going off on too many gangents right now. Back to computing.

One night not long after getting the family computer online, my stepmonster asked a favor of me. Since I was obviously at the top of the tech food chain in the household, I was the one everyone turned to whenever there was a problem, despite the fact that I’d only been computing for mere weeks. One night at dinner, my stepmonster opened up IE and a porn page came up. I was appalled. She said, “Now, I know you like looking at this stuff, but can you please put it back the way it was?” I was pissed. At the time no one knew how it got there, but I couldn’t figure out hwo to change it back. So I downloaded Netscape and we began using that. It wasn’t until months later that I learned about the various virii, spyware, and other weird shit that made IE’s homepage reset itself. At least my Dad told her not to yell at me for it, which was nice.

During this time, through various temp jobs and my new reception job at a graphic design firm, I learned that the tech support team can be your very best friends - just be sure to treat them nicely. I learned a lot about what I now know about computers by being nice, doing favors, and picking their brains. Tech geeks are your friends, trust me.

Since I was working at the graphic design firm, I was using a Mac at work all day long. Pretty soon I was more proficient on the Mac than I was on the PC. Also, late in the summer of that year, not long after my niece was born, I moved out of the house and got my own place, so I had no computer at home. My Dad had to learn to email all by himself when I moved out instead of relying on me to do his emailing for him. My mother had also purchased a computer in this time, and after awhile I got tired of my parents calling me up with every single little computer problem they had, so I decided to go out and get myself a computer. I really wanted a Mac - the pretty iMacs had just come out and I really wanted one. But, due to my family pestering me and not understading why I did not know the answers to their problems, I got a PC. For the time, it was a pretty decent machine and it served me well for 5 years.

When that computer was starting to make me nervous because I knew its days were numbered, I bought a new computer. Instead of going to the store, I decided to order one online. Yes, I bought a Dell. I know you tech snobs stare down your noses at Dell, but for an average yoyo like myself, they’re pretty great. Again, I would have preferred to get a Mac, but now I’m working in a PC environment and rely heavily on that standard, so another PC it was. I wanted to specify what I wanted, and I’d heard about their decent customer service, so online I went and picked out what I wanted. I’m pretty happy with it.

Now for the future. I still want a Mac, but one of these years when I get around to getting myself a laptop, a MacBook it will be. I may have a PC for my desktop system, but for a laptop I wouldn’t consider anything else but a Mac.

I also found this article online regarding the upcoming Windows Vista operating system. Seems like it’s got a lot of cool features that will come in handy and bridge the gap a bit between Windows and the easy-as-pie Mac OS X. I like the eye candy features like the improved graphics and widgets for the desktop, which Macs have had for a long time. And my mom would have really liked to have the improved user settings, such as online “curfews” that can be set different for every user, when she had a teenage girl foster child living with her. As for me, I’ll switch to Vista when 2 things happen: 1. most popular software will include Vista in the operating systems they’re compatible with and 2. I can afford to spend money on it and can’t afford not to have Vista due to it becoming a standard.

In the meantime, I’ll still keep coveting my MacBook.

WOOHOO! I did it! I changed my template and got my sidebar the way I want it! Yeah! I’m so happy! Of course, I’m not stupid (see this post), I did back up my old template just in case something really bizarro happens. That kind of foresight is invaluable. But for now I’m just really happy I have a template I like. Except for one little thing: the comments pages show on the old template. I’m thinking something in the code got left out. I’ll play around with that some more to see if I can fix it.

I found a template I like. Actually, I found it some time ago but didn’t want to put forth the effort to get my sidebar the way I want it and edit the other stuff. Now I’m just working on it in Notepad bit by bit and pasting it in my template without saving, just to make sure it all works. Once it’s done I’ll post it. It’s much nicer than the one I have now. Not that I have anything against the Blogger templates, but like I said in the previous post, I want endless choices. Hopefully when the new Beta version is put into full effect, there will be many many more choices, along with the ability to edit the template without losing all the sidebar customizations. That’s the most frustrating part of changing templates. But for now, enjoy some new sidebar content all the way down at the bottom.

Even though I keep saying I need to step away from the computer, I’m not listening. I did finally get that button. If anyone wants it, just go to View–> source and copy and paste it that part of the code into your own template. I’m assuming that those who would want the button have an inkling of knowledge about this sort of thing.

If you can’t figure out the view source part of it but have a handle on copy and paste, and you know where to put it in on your template, just leave me a comment with your email and I’ll send it to you in a notepad document, and you can copy and paste it from there. I won’t publish any comments with email addresses in them, so you won’t have to worry about spam.

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding?

I worked with AJ at the Job#2 tonite. We are such blog geek enablers. She has a list of things to do in her pocket (all computer related) and as we chatted about blogging and other computer related activities, I created a list too. I even told her how when I was at the airport waiting to board my flight in Boston, I was going through all my receipts and writing down my spending for my vacation. When I was done I ended it with an html tag < / vaca spending >

Yeah, I’m a geek. And I have no plans on quitting.

I need to get a few more things done online, in addition to eating my 4th meal, before I go to bed way too late again. ‘Til next time….

All I can say is thank goodness I have internet access at work. I’d be dying a slow and painful death otherwise. After yet another lengthy call to tech support at the cable company, it is apparent that the signal coming into my apartment is not strong enough to support broadband. It’s barely strong enough to support digital cable - the digital channels don’t quite have enough volume to be heard over my ancient a/c unit, and that’s with the tv volume all the way up. I also don’t get my On Demand channel, it keeps saying there’s some sort of error. Hopefully all of that will be fixed when the technician comes on Friday.

In better news, my DVD player does work. I took it to the local mega-electronics store (the red one where you can actually get some help) and played stupid saying I didn’t know if it worked because I didn’t know how to plug it in. They hooked it up and it does actually work. So now I’m thinking that the sequence for my coax plug-in is only because of the weak signal, and once the tech fixes that I should be able to go back to the old sequence which should make my cable tv and DVD player work without having to rewire everything every time I wanted to watch a movie. That would be a serious PITA. Now if I could just figure out the damn stereo system, I’ll be a happy camper.

What I miss most about being online is not just getting to be online all the time, but I don’t get to talk to Bubba. Boys his age don’t call their Aunty, and won’t email either. IM is the only way to get in touch with the kid. I’m also bored in the morning, since my routine is interrupted. Usually I get up, pee, get a glass of juice, and sit down at the computer for half an hour or so. Now I’m just oversleeping, which really sucks. Oh, and I can’t even do the slides for church because we don’t have powerpoint at work. If we did have that I know my boss (being the church council VP) wouldn’t have an issue with me taking a little time to put that together. So I feel myself being reduced in the efficiency and functionality that I used to have. This sucks. I was so looking forward to having my own space and having everything all in one room so I could watch tv and be online at the same time and really multi-task. But alas, it is not to be - at least not right now. That tech better be able to fix things for me. I don’t have the patience for dial-up and I don’t feel like getting hosed by the phone company for DSL.

I did unpack my camera cord, so once I get online at home I will be posting pictures of my place. Look for them soon (fingers crossed!)

How many of you out there have a “Favorites” file on your browser that is completely unorganized? Show of hands? That’s what I thought. Mine are somewhat organized, but all the categories I have aren’t adequate for what I’m doing now. For example, I’ve really gotten into blogging lately. Right now all the favorites I have saved are in a “To Be Filed” folder. Ok, sort of organized, but it’s a bit too large for its purpose. I think it’s about time I went and made a few new folders for the things in there. While I’m at it, I should quickly go through the many many sites I have saved to 1. see if they still are there and 2. see if I still want it saved. A lot of the stuff is from when I first started using the internet, sometime in the late 90s, so who knows if it’s any good anymore. Also, since I’ve been online I’ve discovered the power of Google, and I know how to use it very well so a lot of the information I’ve saved can easily be found again and again. Yes, it’s time to clean up my favorites.

Those of you who read my blog know that I will be moving in a few weeks. Moving is a great way to do some spring cleaning. I’ll be moving to a studio apartment, so there are a few things I won’t need anymore. The ginormous entertainment center I have will be sold, most likely to my roommate, so that will give me a bit of cash and I won’t have to move such a huge piece of furniture that isn’t going to fit in my one room apartment. I’ll also sell my dining room table and a stereo set. Both things are duplicates - I have a cute patio set that I’ll use for bistro-style dining (though not al fresco, since I won’t have a patio), and the stereo I only got to listen to music in my bedroom since my main stereo set is in the living room. No need for 2 stereo sets in one room. So good for me, extra cash in hand and fewer things to move.

There are some things I may want to get rid of that won’t be worth the time to sell them. For these, I’ll most likely bring them to the local donation shops. I’m not too decided on what to get rid of, if anything, so I’ll probably make those decisions as I get more settled.

I do frequent a number of websites dedicated to organizing, so I have lots of good ideas, and I’ve always been pretty well organized (my desks at home and work being the exception). I love a good, invigorating organizing session, so this move will be the perfect catalyst for that.

I should be getting to bed, I still need my rest to avoid a common cold relapse. But I can’t resist, this internet thing is such a huge time vacuum!

I have a friend. Actually, I have many friends but one friend in particular who lives in the Great White North, eh. Now, this friend tends to get a crazy silly streak once in awhile. One day I was at work and all of a sudden, my inbox beeped with a new message. A few new messages. Actually, dozens of new messages. And they all said the same thing. Subject: Spam. Of course, seeing who the sender was, I simply rolled my eyes and laughed. From then on, Spam would be a running joke with us.

After the high volume spam, GP sent me spam in other forms. I got a nice gif image of a Spam can. I got the wav file of the Monty Python spam sketch. I also got the script of said sketch. I joked that I’d get him back one day. He lives in a better off neighborhood in a large Canadian city, so I joked that I’d have a pallet of spam delivered to his house. Wouldn’t the neighbors love that - a whole pallet of Spam rotting in the driveway of the vegan’s house. But, I couldn’t raise the money or figure out the logistics of sending that large a meat shipment over international borders. Then one day I found the perfect comeback. It was legal. It had to work. Of course, the thing cost more to ship to Canada than it did to actually buy it, but it was still affordable. What was it, you ask? It was (drumroll, please) a pallet of Spam. Not an actual pallet, but a notecube with tiny cans of Spam printed on the sides displayed on a little wooden pallet. Oh yeah. Point for the American!

He loved it, of course. I had won the Spam wars. But, he couldn’t sit silently. A few weeks later, I received a box from Amazon. I didn’t remember ordering anything. Then I noticed it wasn’t from Amazon.com. It was from Amazon.ca. Big difference, and I only knew one person who would send me something from there. GP himself. I received a lovely illustrated children’s book about a family pet with a particularly malodorous problem. It was different and unexpected, and my then 4-year-old niece loved it.

We’ve called a truce in the Spam wars, but every now and then there’s a bit of friendly fire. We just like to keep things interesting.

A bunch of Digsters have various email quizzes posted on their blogs, and for a brief moment I became obsessed with them. So, I took all the different quizzes I found and decided to answer them all. Now, you’ll notice a few redundancies, but I tried to take them out. Also, you’ll see a few inconsistencies, but that’s because it took so darn long to do them all, so questions pertaining to what I ate or what I’m wearing will have different answers depending on when I answered them.

1) Grab the book nearest to you. Turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down here what it says: …ridge of mud. Nobody was working on such a foul day. Sowerby and I…
2) Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first? The wall
3) What is the last thing you watched on TV? Food Network
4) WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is: 6:30am
5) Now look at the clock, what is the actual time? 6:38am
6) With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? Traffic and that damn squeaky gate to my apartment complex
7) When did you last step outside? What were you doing? Last night to come home from the gym after work
Before you came to this website, what did you look at? Calvin and Hobbes
9) What are you wearing? Pajamas and slipper socks
10) Did you dream last night? What about? Probably did dream but I can’t remember what about
11) When did you last laugh? Why? Last night at a commercial on TV
12) What is on the walls of the room you are in? lots of photos, among other things
13) Seen anything weird lately? Nothing that I would consider weird
14) What do you think of this quiz? Fun for the moment
15) What is the last film you saw? Garden State
16) If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first? Pay off car and credit card, then consider buying a house
17) Tell me something about you that I don’t know: No, if there was something I wanted you to know I’d tell you already
18) If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? People would respect each other
19) Do you like to dance? Not really
20) Would you ever consider living abroad? Oh yeah

Four Jobs You’ve Had In Your Life
1. supermarket checker
2. waitress at ice cream shop
3. administrative assistant
4. temporary worker

Four Places You Have Lived
1. Salem, NH
2. Las Vegas, NV
3. Amesbury, MA
4. Hooksett, NH

Four Favorite Books
1. The Emigrants series
2. East of Eden
3. any decorating book
4. The Bible

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over
1. Ruby in Paradise
2. Muriel’s Wedding
3. Elf
4. A Christmas Story

Four TV Shows You Love to Watch
1. Absolutely Fabulous
2. Dr G: Medical Examiner
3. Gilmore Girls
4. Mary Tyler Moore

Four Places You Have Been On Vacation
1. London and a few other UK cities
2. Paris
3. Toronto
4. New Jersey

Four Websites You Visit Daily
1. yahoo.com
2. reviewjournal.com
3. msn.com
4. calvinandhobbes.com

Four Of Your Favorite Foods
1. pasta
2. chocolate
3. ice cream
4. 7 layer cookie bars

Four Places You Would Rather be Right Now
1. with my niece and nephew
2. Exploring more of Europe
3. On a road trip
4. Australia/New Zealand

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey
Name: Kirsten
Birthday: Sometime in May
Birthplace: New Hampshire
Current Location: Las Vegas
Eye Color: green
Hair Color: red
Height: 5′8″
Right Handed or Left Handed: right
Your Heritage: Mostly Swedish and German
The Shoes You Wore Today: Slipper socks (its still early!)
Your Weakness: Chocolate and pasta
Your Fears: Legless reptiles
Your Perfect Pizza: Wood fired, super fresh ingredients, and not soggy
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: Pay off the darn credit card
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger: beep (to tell Dr. Grandma that her tea water is ready)
Thoughts First Waking Up: No not yet
Your Best Physical Feature: Most people pick my hair
Your Bedtime: Between 11 and 12
Your Most Missed Memory: I have all my memories, I don’t miss them.
Pepsi or Coke: Coke - diet
McDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds
Single or Group Dates: single
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: I don’t like iced tea
Chocolate or Vanilla: Definitely chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee: I don’t like coffee or anything related to it
Do you Smoke: No way
Do you Swear: Yes, but I try really fucking hard not to
Do you Sing: All the time in the car
Do you Shower Daily: Usually, unless I’m having a pajama day
Have you Been in Love: yes
Do you want to go to College: Already went
Do you want to get Married: If I meet the right person
Do you belive in yourself: usually
Do you get Motion Sickness: On boats
Do you think you are Attractive: sometimes
Are you a Health Freak: I don’t practice what I preach
Do you get along with your Parents: usually
Do you like Thunderstorms: As long as I’m not alone
Do you play an Instrument: No
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: no
In the past month have you Smoked: no
In the past month have you gone on a Date: no
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: yes
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: no
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: yuck
In the past month have you been on Stage: no
In the past month have you been Dumped: no
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: no
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: no
Ever been Drunk: yes
Ever been called a Tease: no
Ever been Beaten up: no
Ever Shoplifted: I plead the 5th
How do you want to Die: In my sleep, peacefully
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: I don’t plan on growing up
What country would you most like to Visit: I have to pick just one?
Number of CDs I own: Over 300
Number of Piercings: 2 holes each in my ears (the rest closed up)
Number of Tattoos: 1
Number of things in my Past I Regret: I try not to regret anything

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:15 a.m.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Walk the Line
4. What was the last TV program you watched? Food Network
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning? So far, a glass of orange juice. It’s still early
6. What’s your favorite cuisine? Italian
7. What foods do you dislike? Mushrooms, raw fish
8. What is your favorite chip flavor? plain
9. What’s your favorite CD at the moment? I don’t have a particular favorite
10. What kind of car do you drive? 2003 Kia Spectra
11. Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese
12. What characteristics do you despise? Rude, extremely opinionated
13. Favorite item of clothing? jammies
14. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be? Pretty much anywhere
15. What color is your bathroom? Apartment off-white
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Whatever fits
17. Where would you like to retire to? Let me tell you in 40 years
18. Favorite time of the day? Relaxing time
19. What was your most memorable birthday? It wasn’t good
20. Where were you born? New Hampshire
21. Favorite sport to watch? Figure skating
22. Who do you least expect to send this back to you? Um, it’s on my blog. Please don’t write a comment replying to these quizzes
23. Who do you expect to send it back? see above
24. What fabric detergent do you use? Currently ALL concentrated
25. Named after anyone? No, my mom picked a nice Swedish name
26. Do you wish on stars? When I can see them
27. When did you last cry? Monday
28. Do you like your handwriting? Most of the time
29. If you were another person, would YOU be friends with you? I hope so
30. Are you a daredevil? No way
31. Do looks matter? A little bit
32. How do you release anger? Bitch and complain, and maybe throw things
33. Where is your second home? My office
34. What were your favorite toys as a kid? Barbie dolls, books, and way too many stuffed animals
35. What class in High School was totally useless? Algebra and geometry
36. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Me? Never!
37. Favorite movies? Ruby in Paradise, Muriel’s Wedding
38. What are your nicknames? I don’t like nicknames
39. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No
40. Do you think that you are strong? Usually
41. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Chocolate or Edy’s cherry chocolate chip
42. What are your favorite colors? Aqua
43. Who or what do you miss the most? My niece and nephew
44. Do you want everyone you sent this to send back? No! See way above
45. What color pants are you wearing? Jammies with blue with black flowers
46. What are you listening to right now? Traffic and the squeaky gate
47. Last thing you ate? Dinner last night - macaroni & cheese
48. If you were a CRAYON what color would you be? aqua
49. Last person you talked to on the phone? Mr. Morley
50. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? Is he wearing a wedding ring?
51. Favorite drink: water
52. Do you wear contacts? Eewww no
53. Favorite Day(s) of the Year? Any day I can do whatever I want
54. Scary Movies or Happy Happy endings? Definitely happy
55. Summer or winter? Neither, I like the fall
56. Hugs OR Kisses? hugs
57. What Is Your Favorite Dessert: chocolate
58. What Book(s) Are You Reading? Portrait of a Lady
59. What’s On Your Mouse Pad? Dell
60. Favorite Smells? Anything clean
61. Rolling Stones or Beatles? Beatles
62. What’s the furthest you’ve been from home? Europe

THREE NAMES YOU GO BY:
1. Kirsten
2. KL
3. Kirsty

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. my pretty green eyes
2. my hair color
3. I don’t have cankles

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF:
1. the flab
2. my smile
3. my super narrow feet (AAA) because shoe shopping is hell

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE:
1. Swedish
2. German
3. A little bit of Irish and Scottish

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE YOU:
1. legless reptiles
2. making a mistake
3. see #1

THREE OF YOUR EVERYDAY ESSENTIALS:
1. checking email
2. eating
3. waking up

THREE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING RIGHT NOW:
1. underwear
2. slipper socks
3. jammies

THREE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS:
1. anything by Chantal Kreviazuk
2. Crowded House, “Four Seasons in One Day”
3. Sarah McLachlan, “Hold On”

THREE THINGS YOU WANT IN A RELATIONSHIP:
1. trust
2. attraction
3. longevity

TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE:
1. My desks at work and home are a mess
2. I like to drive really, really fast
3. I don’t like to lie

THREE PHYSICAL THINGS ABOUT THE PREFERRED SEX THAT APPEAL TO YOU:
1. blue eyes
2. a nice bum
3. strong arms

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO REALLY BADLY RIGHT NOW:
1. sleep
2. eat dinner
3. go on vacation

THREE CAREERS YOU’RE CONSIDERING/YOU’VE CONSIDERED:
1. decorator/designer
2. accountant
3. EMT (what was I thinking?)

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO ON VACATION:
1. Australia/New Zealand
2. Europe
3. on a road trip

THREE KIDS’ NAMES YOU LIKE:
1. Michael
2. Jessica
3. Pickle

THREE THINGS YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE:
1. fill up a passport with no duplicate stamps
2. have a family
3. buy the house I will live in for the rest of my life

THREE WAYS THAT YOU ARE STEREOTYPICALLY A GIRL:
1. all my jammies have flowers on them
2. I love being domestic for a man
3. I love to shop!

THREE CELEB CRUSHES:
1. Lloyd Dobbler (not a real person, but he should be)
2. Zach Braff
3. ?? Don’t know who else

A - Available: yes
A - Age: 31
A - Annoyance: people who don’t shut up
B - Best Friends: Melissa, Beetle, Lynn
B - Bar: I don’t go to bars
B - Birthday: sometime in May
C - Crush: don’t have one
C - Car: kia spectra
C - Cat: no, too much fur
D - Dead Pets Name: Bambi
D - Dads Name: Richard
D - Dog: don’t have any of these either
E - Easiest person to talk to: any of my friends
E - Eggs: salad, made with miracle whip and a touch of dijon mustard
E - Email: yahoo
F - Favorite color? aqua
F - Food: chocolate, pasta
F - Foreign Slang: I wish I knew some
G - Gummy Bears or Worms: bears
G - God: He da man!
G - Good Time: dinner and candid conversation with friends
H - Hair Color: red
H - Height: 5′8″
H - Happy: usually
I - Ice Cream: cherry chocolate chip
I - Instrument: none
I - Idol: none
J - Jewelry: usually diamond studs or pearl earrings, sometimes a ring
J - Job: I have 2
J - Joke: my dad’s good with those
K - Kids: hopefully some day
K - Karate: earned 2 belts but quit because I hated sparring
K - Kite: I still have a small one that fits into a wrist pocket in my closet
L - Longest Car Ride: Mom’s house to Las Vegas
L - Longest Relationship: none of them have been very long
L - Last Person you spoke to on the Phone: whoever called into the office last
M - Milk Flavor: chocolate
M - Mothers Name: Lydia or Lena, according to telemarketers who can’t read
M - Movie Last Watched: Garden State
N - Number of Siblings: 1
N - Northern or Southern: northern
N - Name: Kirsten
O - ONE Wish: just one?
O - One Phobia: legless reptiles
O - One Goal: pay off credit card
P - Parents, are they married or divorced: divorced
P - Part of your appearance you like best: hair
P - Part of your personality you like best: practical
Q - Quote: I didn’t even put one in my yearbook
Q - What is your quest? I have to have a quest?
Q - Quick or Slow?: too slow sometimes, but I walk really fast
R - Reason to smile: TWM calls
R - Reality TV Show: hate reality shows
R - Right or Left: right
S - Song Last Heard: The Cardigans, “And Then You Kissed Me”
S - Season: Fall. We don’t have that here in Vegas
S - Sex: female
T - Time you woke up: 6:15am
T - Time Now: 6:45pm
T - Time for bed: about 11:15
U - Unknown Facts about me: They’re unknown for a reason
U - Unicorns?: my sister used to like them when she was little
U - U are a……?: I am ME!
V - Vegetable you hate: mushrooms, avacados, brussel sprouts, butternut squash (especially when it comes in frozen bricks)
V - Vegetable you love: corn
V - View on politics: neutral
W- Worst Habits: Stress eating
W- What do you wanna be when you grow up: I hope I never grow up
W- Where are you traveling to next?: Dunno, nothing planned
X - X-Rays: yeah, I’ve had some
X - X-Rated Porn: no thanks
X - X-Marks your spot: at my desk in my bedroom
Y - Year you were born: 1974
Y - Year it is now: 2006
Y - Yellow: really not one of my favorite colors
Z - Zoo Animal: chimps
Z - Zodiac: Gemini
Z - Zest: I have a zzzzzzzzzester! It’s required kitchen equipment for any Digster.

Do you have an air freshener in your car? Yes, one of the dolphin ones
Do you have plants in your room? A dying aloe in the kitchen. Not enough light in my apartment due to a northern exposure, but I’d rather be a plant killer than pay the electric bill in the summer.
Do you own a picture phone? no
Does anything hurt on your body right now? My knee.
How much cash do you have on you right now? $1.01
I can’t wait till…? payday tomorrow
Look to your left. What’s there? A wall
Name one thing that you do every day: wake up, I hope!
Recent time you were really upset? Some jerk cut me off and had the nerve to give me the finger
What city was your last taxicab ride in? I don’t take taxis
What color shirt are you wearing? grey
What did you have for dinner last night? Macaroni & Cheese
What website(s) do you visit the most during the day? Yahoo
What’s the color of your bedroom walls? Apartment off-white
What’s the last text message on your mobile say? I don’t text at all
What’s your favorite sport? Ice skating
What’s your favorite Starbucks drink? Hot chocolate, but not with vanilla syrup or whipped cream
Whats the last piece of clothing you borrowed from someone? I don’t borrow clothes
When was the last time you saw your mom? Last August
Who got you to join LiveJournal? I’m not on LJ
Whose bed did you sleep in last night? Mine

Last
1. Person you saw: Time-flying Dudette
2. Talked on the phone with: whoever called the office last
3. Hugged: Mad Scientist
4. IM: someone at work, we IM all day long
5. Song you listened to: Cardigans - “And Then You Kissed Me”

Today
1. What are you doing now: all these silly quiz things
2. What are you doing tonight: watching NBC Thursday night shows
3. What did you eat for lunch: Chinese

Tomorrow
1. Is: Payday!!!
2. Got any plans: deposit check, pay bills (after work of course)
3. Goal: pay bills
4. Dislikes about tomorrow: I have to wake up early
5. Work: yes, but it’s Friday

Currently
1. In love with someone: no
2. Missing someone: yes
3. Mood: lazy

DRAMA DORK–
[ ] Ever been in a play?
[ ] More than 10 Broadway shows?
[x] Have you ever been/are you in school shows?
[ ] Does your current job involve theater in some way?
[ ] Want to end up working in/for theater
[ ] Can you recite all of the lyrics to your favorite play/musical?
[ ] Do you break out into random songs whenever/wherever!!
Total [1]

REDNECK–
[ ] Do you have a couch in your front yard or porch?
[ ] Do you drive a four-wheeler?
[ ] Do you ride four-wheelers?
[ ] Do you like to get dirty in mud?
[ ] Do you like country music?
[ ] Do you have a broken car in your backyard?
[ ] Do you own a cowboy hat?
[ ] Do you live on more then 1 acre?
[ ] Do you have more then 4 different animals at your home?
Total [0]

GOTH–
[ ] Do you wear black eyeliner?
[ ] Is most of your clothing dark?
[ ] Do you think about death?
[ ]Do you want to die?
[ ] Are you a social outcast?
[x] Are you pale?
[ ] Do you like Hot Topic?
[ ] Do you enjoy Tim Burton movies?
[ ] Are you mean sometimes?
Total [1]

SKATER/PUNK–
[ ] Can you skateboard?
[ ] Do you wear Vans/Etnies?
[ ] Do you do stupid stuff with your friends?
[ ] Do you watch the x-games?
[x] Do you have any piercings?
[ ] Do you wear a mohawk?
[ ] Do you wear Band T-shirts
[ ] Have you called someone a poser recently?
Total [1]

PREP–
[x]Do you say the word “like”?
[ ] Do you shop at Hollister/Abercrombie & Fitch
[ ] Do you pop the collar?
[x] Do the people in Hot topic scare you?
[ ] Is the only nerd you like Seth Cohen?
[ ] Do you watch LAGUNA BEACH?
[x] Do you like pop music?
[ ] Do you have a dog?
Total [3]

HIPPIE–
[ ] Is your hair long?
[ ] Do you own a tye-dye shirt?
[ ] Do you want to save the animals?
[x] Do you think war is unnecessary?
[ ] Do you like classic rock and trippy music?
[ ] Have you ever participated in a protest?
[ ] Have you ever been overcome with a desire to hug a tree?
Total [1]

GANGSTA–
[ ] Do you act ghetto?
[ ] Do you wear do-rags?
[ ] Do you like hip-hop?
[ ] Was Tupac truly the greatest rapper in the world?
[ ] Do you believe he’s alive?
[ ] Do you like afro’s?
[ ] Have you ever said “Fo Shizzle”?
[ ] Do you like to dance?
[ ] Do you own any Baby Phat, G-Unit, or Southpole?
Total [0]

EMO–
[x] Do you cry often?
[ ] Do you wear hoodies?
[x] Do you like soft music?
[x] Do people not understand you?
[ ] Do you write your own poems?
[ ] Ever dyed your hair red, black or dark?
[ ] Do you cut your own hair?
[ ] Are you lonely?
[ ] Is ‘Ohio is for Lovers’ by Hawthorne Heights a good song?
Total [3]

SURFER–
[ ] Do you surf?
[ ] Do you wear flip flops year-round?
[ ] Is your hair shaggy?
[ ] Do you wake up before 6 every morning?
[ ] Do you own many pairs of shorts?
[x] Do you yearn for the smell of salt water?
[x] Do you want to be at the beach right now?
[x] Do you hate tourists?
Total [3]

GEEK–
[x] Do you wear glasses?
[ ] Do you use an inhaler?
[ ] Do you stick pens and calculators into your shirt pockets?
[ ] Does your mom pick out your clothes?
[x] Are you on the computer often?
[ ] Do you look forward to going to school?
[ ] Are you shy around the opposite sex?
[ ] Do you play video games?
Total [2]

JOCK–
[ ] Do you own a lot of Nike, Adidas, or Underarmor?
[x] Do you love the smell of fresh cut grass?
[ ] Are you constantly worrying about being in shape?
[ ] Do you let people know its game day by yelling it through the halls?
[ ] Do you play 2 or more sports?
[ ] Do you know a lot of people just from playing a team sport?
[ ] Do you love grass stains, mud, and hurting people?
[ ] Does a whistle blowing pump your adrenalin?
[ ] Are you very school spirited?
Total [1]

WHAT ARE YOU? 3-way between Prep/Surfer/Emo

Elaborate on your default icon. I don’t have a default icon
What’s your current relationship status? Single
What exactly are you wearing right now? white sport socks, grey underwear, black track pants with a white strip down the side, grey t-shirt, grey fleece pullover
What is your current problem? money, it’s always money$
What makes you most happy? having my independence
Are you musically inclined? I like music and have been told I can sing
If you could go back in time and change something what would it be? I’d go to a different college
Ever have a near death experience? no
Name an obvious quality you have? I’m extremely organized
Any celeb you would marry? none, because that would mean I have to deal with publicity, which I hate
Have you ever vandalized someone’s private property? No
Have you ever been in a fight? yes
Have you ever sung in front of a large audience? middle school chorus
What do you usually order from Starbucks? Hot chocolate with no vanilla syrup or whipped cream
Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose? no
Say something totally random about yourself: I’m hungry
Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity? Molly Ringwald
Do you wear a watch? What kind? Not unless I’m traveling, then it’s a Timex
Do you like pain? no
Do you like to shop? Yes, too much actually
What was the last thing you paid for with cash? 2 gallons of water at the WaterMill
What was the last thing you paid for with a credit card? my Palm z22
What is on your desktop background? Salisbury Beach
What is the background on your cell phone? a calendar
Do you like redheads? I am one; my niece, cousin, uncle are also redheads
Do you know any twins? Stepdad, plus my mom and dad each have a set of twins for cousins. Plus my stepdad’s twin brother has fraternal twins for kids.
Do you have any weird relatives? My uncle, who makes super-organized me look like a big slob
What was the last book you read? The Last Letter Home by Vilhelm Moberg
Did you or are you planning to go to college? Got my associate’s in 1994
What is your favorite pair of pants that you own? anything that is goes to a set of pajamas
Do you like to party? not really
Where do you see yourself in five years? I stopped trying to see that because it never works out the way I plan
What is your middle name? same as my mom’s first name, grandma’s middle name and great-grandma’s first name
What size is your bed? Queen
What was the last thing you ate? Chinese food for lunch
Last person you hugged? Mad Scientist
How is the weather right now? 60, partly cloudy but getting cool because the sun went down
Do you have girlfriend or boyfriend? No
Do you want children? Yes
Ever get so drunk you don’t remember the entire night? No
Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving - lots of good food and I don’t go broke
Ever cried for no reason? oh yeah
Favorite college football team? I don’t care for football, college or otherwise
What were you doing before filling this out? working
Favorite flower? Gerbera daisy or tulips
Have you ever been caught doing something you weren’t supposed to? yeah, lots of times when I was a kid
Have you ever loved someone? yes
Are you still friends with your exes? yes, too many
Have you ever fired a gun? yes
Do you like to travel by plane? it’s a hassle, but it means I’m going somewhere
How many pillows do you sleep with? Lots
Do you have a tattoo? Yes
Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday morning? No, there’s nothing good on anymore

Whew, that’s it. I’m done.