Chop chop!

The other night zieak made himself a meal consisting of egg noodles and kielbasa sausage. It is actually very good for how cheap and bland it is. Well, he didnt use the entire package of sausage, so zip locked it and threw it in the fridge. When i went to use it the next night, i started laughing so hard tears poured down my cheeks. You got me sweetie.

I F#$&ING HATE DELL

Feel free to skip this post as i am only typing out my frustration at one of the worst companies in the world. They have wasted almost 3 hours of my life with no resolution. Its not a problem that stops me from doing anything, it is just a slight hassle that their goddamn technical support technicians should be able to fix for me.

I bought this brand new computer just 2 months ago. Last thursday i downloaded an update for my anti-virus software, AVG. When the system tried rebooting after the update, it stalled on the DELL logo screen. I tried troubleshooting myself first, but did not get anywhere. I called their 800 number for technical support and got "Andre." He proceeded to troubleshoot with me for over 2 HOURS, determining that it would not boot up if the Dell printer was plugged into the usb port. We uninstalled and reinstalled the printer, changed all kinds of settings, nothing. Then he put me on hold for the trillionth time, and i was disconnected. Dial tone. Yay. I called back from my cell phone just in case he tried calling me back on the land line. Of course he didnt. The lady i got this time said he would call me back, that i just needed to wait.

So, i waited until today. 5 goddamn days. I dreaded calling back because i knew it would be a hassle. And they did not let me down. Of course i wasnt allowed to talk to "Andre" i had to reiterate my entire problem to "Mark." Even though he said he checked the documentation about the last call he proceeded to walk me through the exact same things as Andre. I stopped him and said i refused to uninstall and reinstall again, that this is all a big waste of my time. He asked to put me on hold "for 2 to 3 minutes" which stretched over 5... I hung up completely furious. Now i just have to unplug the printer every time i start up the computer. Oh well. I also want to discourage my friends and family from ever buying a Dell product in the future. Not only do they waste HUGE amounts of paper sending out catalogs to people who have requested that they stop, their customer service and technical support SUCKS.

Whew. Rant over.

AWESOME UPDATE: I tried fixing it myself and now my computer is all levels of f#$&ed up. Yipee!

Question: Why does Florida exist?

Answer: To give us news stories like this....

I have been following the story about the group of teens who beat up another girl in Florida since the beginning. I know that violence happens everywhere, but for some reason the headlines that really grab my attention lately have been occurring in the Sunshine State. There's the guy who videotaped his grandma holding a gun saying she was going to shoot "all the pigs." Then there is the father who started beating on his daughter because she wouldnt pray.

The argument of who is to blame with all the violence will last an eternity - video games, movies, television... I really dont know which i would debate against, because none of them are ever going away.

P.S... As a follow up to my previous blog - Because she will not admit that her controversial abortion project is fake, Yale has decided not to allow the project to be displayed.

- - -

I just got done reading about the Yale student who is preparing an art exhibit about her self-induced miscarriages... I am completely and utterly disgusted. Now, i am like 98% pro-choice (with the 2% exclusion just because of women who abuse abortion as birth control) but this is just ridiculous. There are some who claim that it is a hoax. Whether or not it is - and i doubt that it will ever be proven - doesnt matter to me right now. I am just appalled that an obviously bright, well-educated student would consider and actually complete a project like this. You'll have to read the article to get her reasons for doing it. I am upset over so many things. She is practically laughing in the face of every woman who cannot naturally conceive on her own. Not to mention women who want an abortion but cant afford it or the expenses occurred when getting one. And her lack of concern over the potential long-term harm she has done to her own body... I might feel less heated towards it if she had openly admitted she was doing it for shock-factor. But she doesnt. She claims she is trying to "spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body." Ok crazy, launch your naked body covered in menstrual fluid you've collected for nine months onto a canvas made out of woven human hair. There, you've accomplished your goal without proving that you are a masturbatory attention-seeker.

Hmmmmm, maybe not.....

April Fools

In the past Zieak and i have come up with some pretty extravagant ideas for April Fools jokes. This year though, we went with one that i had heard about years and years ago, when the mural downtown first went up. A guy i knew said he would love to stick up South Park characters all over the thing, since it looked so cartoonish. So i printed out a bunch of high-res images of Stan, Cartman, Kyle etc and we brought some duct tape downtown that morning. The original plan was to do it at 4am when we would surely not be seen, but then we realized that there arent a lot of people around at 7:30am either. Here is the finished product, i think they stayed up for a couple of days before someone removed them. Yeah, you can BARELY see them in the center bottom. I envisioned much larger images covering more area of the mural, but that would have been too much work (and ink, which is NOT cheap.) If you click on the picture you get a better view.

OMG! NKOTB!

Friday could be the biggest day of my life. NKOTB is appearing on the "today" show to announce their reunion album and tour! Of course with no tv I won't be able to watch the phenomenal event, but that's what youtube is for. Now, in case you don't understand the level of obsession I exhibited for these guys in my pre-teens, here is what my bedroom looked like: one entire wall covered in magazine clippings of the most awesomest boy band ever. I even went so far as to find a small black & white picture of myself, crop some lucky fans face out of a promotional picture of the band and swap it for mine. I lied to my closest friends about its authenticity. My friends and I (you know who you are) would take pictures of the tv screen when one of their music videos was on - only to be thoroughly disappointed when we got the 110 film developed and all the prints were just a washed out flash bouncing off the screen. Some privileged actors (river phoenix, christian slater, jonathan brandis) got their space on adjacent walls, but no one got the honor of a whole wall except for my new kids.

I am really hoping that one of their tour dates coincides with the road trip we are planning this fall - that way i wont have to shell out for a plane ticket!

We all had our favorite one, and i am sure some scale exists somewhere that tells you what type of girl you are depending on which new kid was your favorite. Mine was Jonathan (aaaaaaah Jonathan) the shy, quiet one. In my mind, we were going to be married one day. According to the wiki, he now works as a real estate developer quietly living in Massachusetts. No mention of marriage. Hmmmmm.....

What do Sumatra and Gondor have in common?

Saturday night we watched the gore-fest flick Dead Alive which is supposedly peter jacksons second directorial project. So yesterday zieak wanted to keep with the theme and picked out The Two Towers for us to watch. We split a bottle of white wine, and so by the time the battle at helms deep happened, i was a little emotional. I was reminded of the war happening right now, and the fact that 4000 american soldiers have been killed. 4000 SOLDIERS. One of them a cousin of mine. A cousin i have never met, but still, a relative. A cousin who should not have died at the age of 21. When will it end? My hope is that this november will bring BIG change.

grumpy

I will write this post without including all of the cursing going on in my head right now.

Every single morning at 6:30 our cats decide it is playtime. Whether it is running up and down the stairs at full throttle (which makes quite a racket since their claws catch on the carpet every step), scratching at the bottom of the closed closet door, or Ash taunting Ollie by venturing too close and Ollie letting out a loud hiss or growl. If we were to shut them out of the bedroom, they would just scratch at the door. We havent been going to bed until 11 or 12 lately, so this hinders our 8 hours of sleep we like to get. Honestly, i just like to sleep until the alarm goes off - even better if its more than 8 hours!

What i want to know is, how the hell these cats know about daylight savings time. Shouldnt their annoying rituals have been beginning at 5:30 all week? But it has not failed - 6:27 this morning i am awoken by Ash digging in the sleeping bag by the side of the bed. Needless to say, i am grumpy and not really loving our lovable, furry, cuddling friends right now. I'll get over it.

da bull

Kitos has started bringing a mechanical bull to town every couple of months. Last time i was not brave enough to give it a go, but zieak was. This time however, my friend angie was able to coax me into going if she did... it helped that she also paid my $5 charge to ride. I had heard about the soreness that follows a bull ride, but boy i did not expect how awfully painful the days after really are. I did it on friday night, and today was the first day i was able to walk semi-normal. I still cant cross my legs. Heres a little clip zieak was able to catch with his camera phone... (mom, heres a hint: press play and then press pause to let the video load for a minute or so. then it shouldnt play choppy.)