Friday, September 28, 2007

T.G.I.F.F.


You can probably figure out what the extra F stands for.

I have had nothing to do all day today and yesterday, so I feel crumby and can't wait to leave. Today has been going by considerably quickly, though. Just an hour and a half left. Then I get to work at Bikesport for the weekend.

Kelly and I did get into the craft festival at the Mew Gallery. For an overview:
The craft fair is on Saturday, Oct 5 and Sunday, Oct 6 in the Italian Market. It is also sponsored by Di Bruno Brothers and The Gleaners. It should be a lot of fun. Margaux will also be representing herself there. Excitement has ensued.
Also, for more of an overview, Kelly and I are in the business of jewelry, which we make out of Shrink Paper, which is what Shrinky Dinks are made of. They are tres cool (pardon the Green Day reference). I'll be taking photos of them soon (hopefully tonight) and creating some sort of website. We've had a lot of fun making them, but we will need to make a bunch more. We just keep having so many ideas! We will also be selling our knitted goods (hopefully it's chilly out on the 5th so that we sell some g.d. scarves!) and I will undoubtedly be trying to unload some of my 1" buttons. So come out for a nice time. I will plug the event again next week!

Yesterday I received my mail from the Mail Swap. It's a fun thing to do, I recommend it to anyone who loves snail mail (and who doesn't?!). You get a name and address and you have to send that person a letter/package/whatever you want by a certain date. What I didn't realize was that that person has your name. I thought it was all scrambled. So that was kind of cool. When I realized that, I got a little nervous like maybe mine wasn't cool enough, but I think it was pretty even. I sent some office supplies, basing my letter on working in an office. I sent post-its and pens and paper clips. I received my letter yesterday and it was an assortment of postcards from different U.S. "attractions" (some of them were not so attractive, but the postcards were nice anyway). It was pretty cool and very exciting to get something in the mail that wasn't a bill or a red Netflix envelope.

I honestly couldn't say what I have spent the last 7 hours doing here at work. But before I started blogging, I was (though I have no idea why) reading the Timothy McVeigh Article on Wikpedia, which led me to articles about capital punishment in the U.S. And then I looked into the cases of capital punishment in different states, which was just horrifying. I know that Texas has it's reputation, but please take a moment to examine the following two links anyway:
List of Individuals Executed in Pennsylvania
List of Individuals Executed in Texas

--I also found it interesting that the Pennsylvania executions all took place under the governing of Tom Ridge. (THAT is why George W. chose him to be in charge of Homeland Security, isn't it?!)

OH! I forgot... the first thing that I did this morning was make a paper wallet! I found a link to these simple paper wallet-making instructions on Billy's del.icio.us Page (which is otherwise pretty boring, sorry Bill). It's from a site called Instructables.com, which turned out to be awesome). The wallet I made is pretty neat, maybe I'll try to make some of those and pawn them off on people at the craft fair, too.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

No more IMDB pls!!!!!!


I keep getting stuck on IMDB and it makes me feel like such a waste-oid.
In addition to reading about countless, nameless celebrities, I also perused the New York Times, the New Yorker, and a handful of Wikipedia articles today (I don't need to hyperlink those references, do I? Just enter .com at the end of each one if you're so driven to visit the sites).
Some of the more casual writing on the New York Times site was a little too casual, I think. I mean, I'm not one for stodgy writing, but if I'm going somewhere for information (somewhere as allegedly dependable as the New York Times website), I hope for it to be professional and objective. This article, which I found out after the fact is actually a live blog from the other night's presidential candidate live debate, is a little too blog. Several of the articles on presidential candidates were like that... starting off paragraphs with "Wow!" and "Tim Russert did a great job..."

Another site I've been visiting lately (this week) is VegWeb.com. I've been cooking a lot, but I have recently been attracted to casseroles. Casseroles are great for when you want Sunday night's dinner to last as leftovers (lunch and dinner) through Friday. So VegWeb has served me well. Last night was something called "Rick[']s Casserole," which could have easily been called "Make Pasta and then Bake it" but it was really good regardless of the name.
ALSO
I made tofu for the first time. I found a simple Baked Tofu recipe and researched how to Press it. I rolled it around in bread crumbs and spices and it came out looking like mozzarella sticks, but without the cheese. and the moisture. They were a little dry. Most of them went into the freezer. I plan on frying them tonight. Hopefully that will help.

If you're interested in humor writing, here are the two funniest things I've read (so far) this week:
From McSweeney's - TROUBLE REPORT FROM THE GUSSSSB(GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES SECRET SMITHSONIAN STORAGE BUILDING)
From The New Yorker's Shouts and Murmer's Section - Greenspan and Simpson: On Writing

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Oo-de-lally!



Movies I watched last week while knitting/preparing for the arts/music festival that happened on Sunday:
-The Pianist
-The Royal Tennenbaums
-Bottle Rocket
-The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
-Robin Hood (the Disney cartoon)
-Year of the Dog
-Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
-The Graduate
-Blade Runner
-Rushmore
-Ordinary People

That's all. I don't know why I watched all the Wes Anderson movies, but I did. Maybe in preparation for The Darjeeling Limited. I'm excited for that. Last week, also, Jared and I saw Across the Universe, which I would give 4/5 stars, although I think Jared might lean toward 3. During the movie, the fire alarm went off for a minute, so we all got free tickets. So. We'll see The Darjeeling Limited in two weeks when it comes out.

Lately, the topic of religious affiliation has come up more than once within my group of friends, so I've been trying to pick mine. I'm not quite sure, but I have decided that I am against people saying that they are "spiritual." The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn't really know what "spiritual" even meant. So I looked it up, and Merriam Webster defines it as:
1 : of, relating to, consisting of, or affecting the spirit : INCORPOREAL
2 a : of or relating to sacred matters b : ecclesiastical rather than lay or temporal
3 : concerned with religious values
4 : related or joined in spirit
5 a : of or relating to supernatural beings or phenomena b : of, relating to, or involving spiritualism

So the definition pertaining to my query would be "concerned with religious values." Having learned this, I hate the word even more. The only people that I could take seriously as spiritual people, I think, are Native Americans.
They seem pretty spiritual.
During one of these conversations, Kelly reminded me of a previous conversation that we had in which she asked me, "Do you believe in God?" and I replied, "I believe in Science."
So there's that.

Anyway, we had this festival thing on Sunday, and I don't think that it was what we expected, but we sold five pairs of earrings, which was nice. We're trying to get into this craft fair thing on October 5, which is held by the Mew Gallery. That would be great.. right in the Italian Market. Anyway, here's hoping.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

"Ooh, look at me. I'm off with my way cool friends to sniff floor wax."


Sometimes PMS just feels like being a teenager, except the upside is that I look a lot better than i did as a teenager, even on my bad days. Maybe I just feel that way because Jared and I watched a few episodes of My So Called Life, which always makes me feel introverted and existential and angsty. --In a good way.
In other news, my job is back on. Through the end of the year. That's reassuring. And a huge relief considering that I owe various people/corporations a total of >$750/month. And the months just keep piling up.
This also means I'll be blogging through the rest of 2007. This will really be the Year of the Blog for me.
Maybe I should acquire some readership.
Somehow I re-stumbled across the art of Shag (shown to the right). We always had Shag stuff at AIA, and I've always sort of love/hated it, but I think I really like it as a collection, not so much as individual pieces.
Last night I watched Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, which was terrible. I really don't like Jennifer Jason Leigh at all. But it reignited my interest in The New Yorker, which may or may not be a good thing. I have spent the morning reading Shouts & Murmers.
Today I had to check the voicemail messages on the shared phone line here at work and the first one was some girl like "Hey i can't believe you have the community college as your voicemail... you're funny! You better come out to Michelle's party tonight, you know everyone's gonna be there. Okay, call me back!"
And an update on the bathroom report: Yesterday, there were dozens of dried beans in the sink/trough. ..?!

Monday, September 17, 2007

When work feels overwhelming, remind yourself that you're going to die.




It would be wrong for me to not blog about these ecards. I've been sending them for weeks now. And people like them, unlike every other ecard that exists. you can browse and send your own at someecards.com. you'll probably wind up reading every single one.
In other news, I've been applying for a lot of jobs. So if anyone has one for me, please let me know a.s.a.p, as i will be jobless (and therefore without any money) in exactly two weeks.
Also, Kelly and I will be representing ourselves next Sunday, September 23rd at the Deer Park Music Benefit. We will be selling our wares, which include shrinky dink earrings (pics to come soon), knitted scarves, hats, etc, and 1" buttons. The festival is in New Hope. It should be fun. I'm excited. We've been shrinky dink-ing our little hearts out this week.
Here's a challenge: Kelly and I need to figure out how to display the earrings without actually buying displays. AND I happen to have 20+ empty Vitamin Water bottles that need to be put to use (since Philadelphia doesn't recycle plastic). Channel your hidden talents as an engineer and construct diplays for earrings out of the bottles PLS!
That's all for now. I'll be awaiting display ideas!

Friday, September 14, 2007

Work Log - Sept 13


Yesterday on the internet I looked up
-Second Life because I was curious. I am an ex-Sims addict. i didn't want to install anything onto this computer at work, though, so I just registered and that was that. i'm in to it, though.
-The Abominable Dr. Phibes. This is a movie that Kelly and I saw at the Secret Cinema halloween fest a few years ago. We loved it, but we had missed the beginning, so we didn't know what movie it was. Well, now I know and I can't wait to watch it again. to figure out what it was, i googled "gramaphone organ horror movie" and it was the first thing to pop up. the guy --Vincent Price-- is some kind of creepy doctor trying to kill off the surgeons who "killed" his wife years ago. to speak, though, he has to plug his throat into a gramophone. and he plays the organ in his old castle house and these pretty ladies come out in gymnastics uniforms. i don't know... the movie is crazy. i'm so excited about it!
-Halloween Costume research. I've got a mask, a glowing finger, and an Elliot. This is gonna be awesome.


That's really about it from yesterday. I found out that my job here is ending on the 28th of September, which is way sooner than I thought. So I'm back in the job market. Ugh.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Yes, I am stubborn


So yesterday I added the Visual Bookshelf application to my facebook account. If you're unfamiliar, facebook has stepped it up and added "applications," which range from the Graffiti Application (which allows you to leave other people drawings using a Paint-like program) to the Where I've Been Application (you mark on a map of the world the places you been, places you want to go, and places you've lived) to the Visual Bookshelf Applications (shows the covers of books you've read, you want to read, and you are currently reading). There's probably a hundred different applications. I can't keep up.
So I added the Visual Bookshelf and have been going through, selecting books I've read. I think that there should be an option for "Books I Will Never Read. Ever." But there isn't, so I will list them here:
-The DaVinci Code Sorry guys, it's never gonna happen, no matter how many people recommend it to me. I'm not reading it. No interest. This stands for Angels and Demons, too.
-Anything by Chuck Palahniuk. I started one of them, after so many of my friends tried to get me into him, and I wasn't into it. Yes, I went into it not wanting to like it, but I also just didn't like it. It's not my thing.
-Harry Potter My feeling about this is that I have a ton of other books I'd like to read. I'm not going to bump them down in the queue to read Harry Potter just because everyone says it's cool. I've seen and loved every Harry Potter movie. Dominique had a good idea about this. She said she'd read them with her kids. I'm into that. When I was little, my mom and I read all of the Chronicles of Narnia and I have good memories from that. I think Harry Potter can provide the same thing for my potential children. So I am sure that they are great books, but it is not important to me to read them right now.

So the list ends there for now.
While I'm in list mode, though, I wanted to make a sort of disclaimer regarding the Work Log. When I list things that I've viewed on the internet on a particular day, it should be considered that I have also gone to the following sites. I visit these daily:
BoingBoing This is a wonderful site. In fact, it describes itself as A Directory of Wonderful Things. It's a pretty famous site, so I know I'm not releasing hidden information by sharing the site with you, but it truly is great.
Local Weather - 19147 Because, hey, the weather widget is just a straight up liar.
Facebook and Myspace - No hyperlink. Although I visit these sites everyday, I don't spend very much time on them, and I'd really prefer if no one knew that I spent any time on them, but I do. And I don't want to talk about it anymore.
Flickr That link will take you to my Flickr site, but I usually surf around Flickr in search of nice photos, photos of people I know, and potential digital camera investments.
WikiPhilly.com I've been trying to get back into writing articles for WikiPhilly again. Yesterday I did some for SEPTA busses, trains, subways, and trolleys. Today: who knows.


That might be it. You could also consider that I go to Ebay pretty often, and I also check my bank account balance regularly.
It's only 11 a.m. and I've already blogged so there might be another post later.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

An Overview of my Work Environment


I was inspired to write about my work place after my second trip to the bathroom today.
The bathrooms here are public. They are oddly located behind a giant pillar, so they aren't very easy to find and there's no direct way to access them, you have to circle the pillar. At any rate, I understand that bathrooms smell bad for obvious reasons. This bathroom, though, is the worst smelling public bathroom I have ever used, and I use it every day. I have never been one of those people who gets creeped out by public bathrooms and just sort of hovers over the seat. I always just go for it.
Not any more. I grab a big wad of toilet paper and wipe down the seat every time. I can't not. Nine times out of 10, the seat is all wet, which I don't understand. Is it from the hoverers? Is it from women who bring their little kids in there? The other thing I have never understood is why there is always toilet paper all over the floor. I can't imagine a situation in which I would have to throw toilet paper on the floor -new or used. Just throw it in the toilet, if you have to! A toilet is nothing but a trash can full of water. I'm not gonna make an episode out of this complaint, or describe the smell (because it's not a normal bathroom stench, it's got all kinds of exotic characteristics). I'll just say that when I was in there for the second time today, one of the janitors was in there complaining about how dirty it is (at first, she complained to someone, and when that someone left, the janitor just kept talking). She said that she didn't understand how someone could leave their own piss in the toilet and now flush but then when they come into the bathroom they won't use a stall that still has piss in it. So, to make herself feel better about this, she doesn't clean those stalls. "That's what you get," she said.

The rest of the situation here is this:
It is an office, so you're supposed to look presentable. I'd say that maybe 10% of the staff wears appropriate business attire, 50% wear casual -yet presentable- attire, and 30% wear styles and colors I never knew existed. This makes me feel okay about the days that I don't go all out with my business professional outfit.
The job itself requires little attention. My job revolves around New Student Registrations, which are not occurring right now. There were a bunch in August and they'll start back up in October, but September is slow. So there are days where I don't have an ounce of work. Most days I have an hour or two worth of work, but it's usually something like printing posters, which takes an hour to print, but I'm just waiting.
I wonder how many other people have jobs like mine. I could probably take on the responsibilities of three other people and still have down time.

Yes, I have a cubicle, but there's a second desk at the other end of it, which is shared by student workers most of the time.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

QWERTY WARRIOR!


Today I was all set to read the Spark Notes on Hamlet (I'm too lazy to actually read Hamlet), when I checked my bank account balance, saw an overdraft fee, and got mad (I intend to fight it). So that kind of effed up my day. Since then, I have played some typing games. I found this on flickr and thought that the comments were amusing.
Jared said that he liked my blog because all I do is say, "I found this.. it's awesome!" and I never go into why I like it.
I'm okay with that for now.
Yesterday at work I saw a tiny baby mouse in my cubicle. My cubicle is actually shared with another person, who is usually a student worker, but right now it's someone who is being trained. She's apparently terrified of mice. I don't care about a tiny baby mouse, just as long as it isn't a fat momma cockroach.
I was just complimented on how fast I type, so I guess those games are really doing the trick!

Friday, September 7, 2007

Work Log - 6 September, 2007


Not a lot of putzing around yesterday (or today). But my internet surfing mainly consisted of travel research yesterday.

What I read:

Lonely Planet Guide
-The lonely planet guides are very helpful. I actually went to Borders yesterday after work to read some of them in the flesh and they were very specific. I was researching routes from Cairo to Tel Aviv to Istanbul and found all the information I needed (for now).
Transitions Abroad
-I have found this one to be helpful in regard to working abroad programs.
Eurail.com
-Although this was monetarily informative, this website doesn't offer a Europass that includes Britain at all. So that was stupid.
Heather Matarazzo
-I didn't know she was gay!

Other things I did at work:

Lots of registration. That's about it. I was pretty busy. Here is an excerpt from an email that I sent Lisa the other day describing the Registration part of my job:

i have been doing registration (sitting at a counter, calling, "next!" and registering students for classes), which can be heartbreaking (when students come to the counter and their classes have been dropped for apparently no reason and now they are all full so they have to redo the schedule they so meticulously created six months ago and they are mad at everyone --one student asked me to call security on one of my co-workers and several others threw their papers at me and stormed away..) and gratifying (when they come to the counter for the tenth time after all their attempted registrations have been rejected because of full class capacity and finally everything works out and they say, "there is an angel on your back" [one person said that] or "you are beautiful, thank you for all of your help, you have made my education possible!" [another person said that]).

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Work Log - 5 September, 2007


Things I read on the internet yesterday:
Family Guy Trivia + other "Fun Stuff"
-I was wondering about why Lacey Chabert did the voice of Meg for the first season and then they switched to Mila Kunis. I did not find an answer, but I did find out that Chris Griffin's middle name is Cross.
Mila Kunis
-I wound up reading a bunch of stuff about Mila Kunis after that. Turns out she's engaged to Macauly Culkin. I don't know if that's still true. IMDB can be a little outdated.
American Nystagmus Network
-I found this website about Nystagmus, the eye condition that I have. It was quite informative and quite interesting.
WikiPhilly City Paper Article
-I edited this article and created one for The Clog, Local Support, and the Astral Plane restaurant. I also learned that the Astral Plane no longer exists.
British Monarchy Family Tree
-Since Dominique and I watched The Queen the other night, I was curious about how the monarchy worked. I looked up wikipedia articles on the Queen, her consort, her son, and a handful of other people. Including Tony Blair.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
-Just as I was about to go on to read Gordon Brown's Wikipedia Page, I decided to be a patriot and read Hillary Clinton's.
Stephen Hawking
-Somehow I also wound up reading about Stephen Hawking. Oh.. I know why.. because I heard that he and his daughter had written a book. And I didn't know that Stephen Hawking had, or could have, a daughter.
Woz
-Because yesterday I read about Steve Jobs and it kind of seemed like he gave Woz the shaft. I guess he didn't (?) but anyway now I know about both of them.
This Fishing Lure Art Exhibition
-I read about this and thought it was awesome. That's what the chicken leg picture is all about.

Other things I did at work:
Not much. I was asked if I would like to continue working here (in another position), which is pretty great news. Other than that, I really didn't do anything. I feel guilty about that, but if there's nothing to do, there's nothing to do..!
--TGIT?

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Work Log

What I read at work yesterday:

Steve Jobs
Author Events at the Free Library of Philadelphia
This NYT article on the future of author events
John Phillips and all of his wives and children
Sally Field Filmography
All ebay auctions for this camera that i really want


Other things I did at work:


Registered students for classes
Entered some event data into the college database
An equal amount of disappointing and helping students
Stayed 2 hours later than I needed to on a count of losing 8 hours to Labor Day
Snooped on a (cambodian) student worker's idle instant message, which read, "when i pee in rice field i think of you :)"