Shopping to Mend my Heart

When I decided to start this blog, I promised myself NO SERIOUS POSTS. Especially sad or depressing ones. Because seriously, who wants to read that???

But I break promises to myself all the time. Maybe it's a proof of weakness? Who knows.

All I know is that I'm sad. My best friend moved to New Jersey 2 days ago. He was here for me when AM left for Washington D.C. in October. He was here for me when JP left for San Francisco in August. He helped me through quite possibly the hardest period of my life.

I tried a few things to deal with this. I watched comedy. I immersed myself in work. And yes, I went shopping.

I dragged VN to BestBuy (where he works part time). I bought a bunch of accessories for my most recent splurge item - the Nintendo Wii. I bought Wii Play and also Super Monkey Ball 2 for my Game Cube because it was $9.99. My shopping spree did not end there. I also bought an organizer for the Wii, which came with controller gloves and a Wii hat... I also got a 2GB SD Card. Oh yeah, and a Psyclone Component Video Source Selector... I still wasn't done. I decided that I needed to consolidate my remotes. So I am now a proud owner of Logitech Harmony 550. My next item to purchase (soon!) is the Philips home theater system.

So how am I doing? Maybe a little less sad and a lot more broke.

To all my friends who are no longer in Ann Arbor: I MISS YOU!!!

Lots of Cameras

So my camera phone did a horrible job of taking this picture... This is a picture of Canon 5D, Canon 10D, Canon 20D and Fujifilm FinePix F31fd. At a bar of all places...

Controlled Burning

Yesterday, I saw "prescribed (or controlled) ecological burn" for the first time. I guess the City of Ann Arbor does this every year. There are several little wetlands that surrounds the building where I work. The flames & smoke were pretty impressive. One of our co-workers actually dialed 911 to report the blazing fire. Yeah, they should really warm us before setting fire to areas surrounding our work place. People have communication issues around here.


I guess they do this to mimic the "natural process" because before humans start putting out fires natural fires would occur periodically. Argument for why this prescribed burn is so awesome: here (PDF).

All I know is I got to stand outside and watch fire for like 5 minutes during work. Sweet.

Aww.

My Warm Office

My office gets pretty warm in the afternoon. At least I turned the space heater off.

Another Trip to the D

Last Thursday, NK, AS, HG, VN, JK, and I rushed out of work and drove through Ann Arbor and Detroit traffic to get to the Detroit Science Center Planetarium. The last show started at 6 PM. I think I must have hit 95 mph in traffic a few times and inadvertently raced a douche-bag in a red Mustang with a blonde bimbo as a passenger. (Totally unnecessary aggressive sentence). We got there around 6:10. There were probably about 2-3 people/groups ahead of us in line. Not too bad, you would think... But this is the DETROIT SCIENCE CENTER. After letting the 2 members go ahead of us in line (there's not separate members line, they get to jump in front of the line), we finally got to the front. But by this time, it was a little after 6:30. Totally not worth the $12, so we just went to the museum shop, then to dinner. That's ok, because we just went home and played Mario Party.

So we tried again. Yesterday (Sunday), NK, VN and I made another trip to the D. The plan was to hit the DIA, and go to the Science Center for the 4 PM Spring Skies show at the planetarium. NK and I grabbed brunch at Cafe Marie and the 3 of us left Ann Arbor around 1 PM. The line to get into the Science Center was long. We hoped that the line will be short later and headed to the DIA.

The DIA currently has the Ansel Adams exhibit so we've been wanting to go there for a while too. Ansel Admas' photographs are amazing, but the exhibit was crammed into a space that just did not accommodate the number of people that were allowed in the exhibit at the same time. I felt a little claustrophobic and rushed. A little disappointed, but it was worth the $10 to see the exhibit and the rest of the museum.

We were back at the Science Center around 3:30 PM. The line was still LONG. Argh. Not only was the line long, it wasn't moving much. We experienced this about a month ago when we went to see the Our Body exhibit. We probably waited in line for about an hour for that one. Around 3:45 PM, we decided to give up since we were not going to make it to the 4:00 PM show.

You know, the Science Center really should try to figure out how to move the lines a little quicker. Meanwhile, I'm just going to become a frickin' member so I can cut in front of the line. Oh, and I'm so buying tickets online or over the phone ahead of time.

2 photos from the visit. Sorry-ass "garden" at the Detroit Science Center and a description of some art at the DIA that I thought was funny because it used the word "probably".

PisCola

I'm so immature. I saw "PisCola" on the menu at Leopold's and I immediately start chuckling--"piss-cola, hehehehe". Really, it's just Pisco and Cola.

No cry babies allowed

No cry babies allowed in Traffic Jam!

Detroit Science Center - Museum Shop

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.
- Kurt Vonnegut

Average

This morning, I was thinking about how average I am. Average looks, intelligence, income, athleticism, (ok, so below average height) ... Which is weird, because my Google Homepage gave me this Quote of the Day.

Only the mediocre are always at their best.
- Jean Giraudoux

Oh Google, what are you trying to tell me???

BONUS:
Here's my horoscope.

The Moon in your 5th House can increase your desire for playful romance, even if it's only in your dreams. This has little to do with being rational; it's just that the volume of your fantasies is turned up today. Nevertheless, don't be afraid of sharing your heart. Even if an illusion is shattered, it still will be worth the experience.

Party in my head today. Hot.

UPDATE:
My fortune cookie:

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. (Lucky Numbers: 8, 25, 36, 37, 40, 44)

(If you play Mega Millions with these numbers and win, please let me know.)

Pet Peeve

I admit, I probably have a lot of pet peeves. More than I should... I call them personal vexations but some would just say I'm just frickin' crazy and anal.

One of my pet peeves... WHY DO PEOPLE VIEW EVITES AND NOT RESPOND????? You can say "no", even "maybe"! I know some people have to ask their significant others or consult their calendars and whatnot but come on. Of 39 people who were invited, 14 have responded (1 undecided, but replied!), and 25 have yet to reply. The part that gets me is that of 25 who have yet to reply, 15 already viewed the damn invitation. Oh, and I already made 3-4 reply by bugging them over IM... (But they have a lousy track record!)


Ok. I have a problem. First step to recovery is admitting that I have a problem, right??? (But I still think people should reply...)

"That's Puerto Rican"

NK and I were enjoying our tacos/burrito last night at La Taqueria Loma in Ypsi last night when this video came on.



That was one of 4-5 music videos in Spanish that we saw that evening while we were enjoying our dinner. For the most part, we were just chuckling and making puerile remarks. The only artist we recognized was Shakira.

Maybe the waitress got annoyed at our prekindergarten behavior. Or maybe she thought we were mocking the video. Either way, she just said "that's Puerto Rican, not Mexican" to us in a defensive manner. Maybe it was just my imagination. I just thought it was weird. Sorry if we offended you. We love your food.

Mario Party

I've been addicted to Mario Party 7 lately. So much so that I find myself humming tunes from Mario Party and I even dream Mario Party-ish things. Toadette is my favorite.


The other day (like Saturday) I was drinking (some would say heavily, I say "socially") and playing Mario Party with AS and NK. We went on the "Party Cruise" with me as Toadette, NK as Yoshi, AS as Waluigi and "CPU" as Birdo. We don't like Birdo but we just spent 1000 mileage points and unlocked her so I wanted to use her... That was stupid.

The board we picked was Neon Heights. The objective of the game is t get as many stars as possible.

On this board are three Treasure Chests, which will appear in random spots. If a player reaches a chest, a Koopa Kid will offer to open it for 10 coins. One chest has a Star, one has 20 coins, and the other one has a Bob-omb, which will send the player back to Start. Once the Star has been purchased, three new chests will appear.

So I was doing well for most of the game. I think I might have been winning for that matter. Until I decided to "duel" (you pick on someone to play against in a minigame--whoever wins takes the other player's coins, star(s), or nothing) Birdo, the "CPU". Strategically, it didn't make sense. She had no stars, and not a lot of coins. But I didn't want to play against any of my friends, so I picked on her. I won, but only took half of her coins which was only like 7 anyway. But oh man, my luck turned sour after that!

Shortly after the duel, I landed on Birdo's Pink Boo Orb and lost one of my two stars to her. The first chance Birdo got to duel, she picked on Toadette (me). Of course, I lost, and by luck, she got to steal two stars from me, but I only had one so she took the only one I had left. Poopie. For rest of the game, I lost most minigames, and kept losing coins by landing on other characters' orbs and red spaces. Not only that, every time I paid 10 of my precious coins to open up the treasure chests, I got bob-ombs or stoopid coins. The only reason why I didn't get really upset was because Birdo did NOT win (thanks, NK).

The piteous part of all of this is that in my semi-sotted state, I started thinking about how Mario Party is like real life. Partly hard work, partly luck, and you really shouldn't piss people off because they might fuck you over later...

But I bounced back and played Mario Party again last night. :) No more Birdo for me though, for a while!

Snow storm in April...

You have to love MI weather!

Google Homepage as my Life Advisor

My friends know me as G-Slut. I love Google that much. I try to get everyone to use as many Google products as possible. (Even for work!) There are only 2 people I know that probably love Google as much as I do. That's AS and NK. I was really jealous when they got to experiment with Google themes before I did.

This is what my Google Homepage currently looks like.

I have stuff like my horoscope, my agenda, my gmail preview, word of the day, quotes of the day, local weather, and several other useful information on one page. In a way, my Google Homepage shapes my day.

My horoscope was disappointing today. BORING. (And a little gay.)

It's difficult for you to separate the facts from your feelings today as communicator Mercury sextiles your key planet Venus. Everything you say can be colored by your emotions, even if you are telling the truth. The most casual conversation can turn into an empty canvas upon which you paint your subjective experience. Pay attention to your words and try to be as objective as possible.

Yeah ok, so I had to look up "sextile".

My word of the day today (courtesy of Dictionary.com) is toper!

Awesome. Now that's what I'm talking about. I am, indeed, a hard drinker. And I do so chronically.

Thanks, Google. I now know what to do today.

n00b

Ok, so I admit it. I'm just jealous of all my friends who are blawgers. So I got me a blog. Now what? I haven't figured this thing out yet. I'm such a n00b as HG would say... I'll just post random things from my fatuous life.