Traveling Thoughts

Last night my family grew by one. My mom came home with a new little puppy. She’s 8 weeks old today. She’s a Lhasapoo and she’s very cute. Her name is Paisley.

She’s very lovable and cuddly and just wants to be around people which is great for my mom. Mom’s had a rough run with dogs ever since she abandoned Dominic (my/dad’s toy poodle who used to be mom’s toy poodle) because she had to go to Florida for something like six weeks a couple years ago to take care of my dying grandfather. When mom got back Dominic didn’t like her anymore. He has separation anxiety issues and she was always at home with him during the days but then she wasn’t and he didn’t take to that too well. I think it broke his little heart and he turned on mom. So mom has been affectionate loving pet-less for the past couple of years.

But now she has Paisley, hopefully a dog she’ll train to be just as she wants: doesn’t whine when she’s in the car, isn’t a micro-manager, basically all the things Dominic isn’t (Dominic is a very good dog, mom just has problems with him now that he has problems with her).

Dominic isn’t taking things too well, his territory has been invaded, he’s been the only dog in the house for 2 years and now he has to share. Paisley just wants to make friends with him and so she chases him around (she’s almost as big as he is and will eventually outgrow him). Dominic is being a little chicken shit and is having problems even approaching her. He’s jealous, I can since that much, so jealous in fact that he went to mom to get petted while she was holding Paisley. He’s heart broken, his eyes tell me that, he was very upset when I petted her, like I had just broke my loyalty to him or something. I’ve got to be careful because I don’t want to drive him away as he’s been my buddy for 12 years.

It is a happy addition to, perhaps the happiest thing about it is that dad said that since mom got a small dog that if down the line I did want to get a chocolate labradoo I could :)

This blog has been fairly surface as far as my life is concerned, rarely do I ever write about anything that is more than surface level stuff about me. I avoid speaking about my Christianity, I avoid speaking about politics, and I avoid speaking about work, among the million other things I most likely have a tendency to avoid.

I avoid speaking about my Christianity because I have a constant on again off again relationship with God because I’m reminded every couple of hours how pissed off I am at Him no matter what good He’s doing/done in my life. Half the time I’m so pissed off that I won’t even claim to be a Christian because I’d rather sacrifice my Christianity than be the person that turns another person away from Christianity because I’m a “hypocrite”.

I avoid speaking about politics because of several reasons, 1) I used to not pay so much attention to them and 2) they’re so controversial that one has to know the issues they’re going to discuss and they have to be able to support their stand on the issues or they’re going to get run over verbally by people that know about the issues better than I do (which kindof is another reason I don’t blog about my beliefs because sometimes just because I know something is right in my heart doesn’t mean I have what I need to back up that belief).

I avoid speaking about work just because it’s bad form to blog about work and because one can get fired for it (read: Dooce’d). But here’s my take on that, there is just some shit that has to be put up with at work, because we don’t have a choice, it just has to be done, and so if I have to put up with that shit at work, I’m going to blog about it just so I can get through the day without being completely frustrated to the point where I just can’t get past the issues that will exist in any job I have. I don’t want to get fired, but it’s important that I speak about my feelings, that way I don’t go into a rage that can be far worse than me blogging about my thoughts and feelings.

All this to say, the content of my blog is going to change a little, I’m going to start discussing topics I didn’t use to discuss because this blog is my blog and I need to start writing about stuff and getting it off my chest or I’m going to go freakin’ insane.

When I was a senior in high school they were preparing us for what would be our first presidential election, the election of 2000. I remember rolling my eyes every time they mentioned it and how important it was to vote and that it was just as equally important that we knew where we stood on the issues. I knew it was important to vote, because that gave me a right to complain, the issues though, I could’ve cared less about those. I wouldn’t even spend the time finding out what the issues were because I felt that every political commercial or debate wasn’t about telling what a person was going to do to better the country and how things were going to be different, it was all about the stuff that the other candidates did that made them unworthy of the position that they were running for. I hated that, and it turned me off when I was fairly young.

I can remember riding in the car with mom and pathetically asking “when are all these signs going to be gone, vote for this person, vote for that person, this district that district…blah blah blah” it’d happen every time there was something that had to be voted on. They really just disturbed me. And there was a long time where I refused to watch TV because the only commercials I ever saw were political commercials.

Every time that I have voted, I go to dad and ask him who he’s voting for because he keeps up on the issues and follows the candidates and I’ll sit down with the newspaper and copy his little slip so that when I go press the buttons the same way he does, because I feel that he knows best for me.

This year it’s changed, for some reason in the past month or so I’ve started reading news sites like cnn or msnbc, I’ve started watching a little bit of what’s going on on TV. I’m starting to read a little about what the various candidates have done in their pasts and how that might effect what they’re going to do if they become president. I can come home at the end of the day and sit down and talk to him and have a grown up conversation about what I may have read and what I think about it.

I’ve entered a new world, a world that I didn’t use to care about because I didn’t think that it mattered, but I will say this, I currently feel that no matter who becomes president, we’re screwed. I just really don’t like any of the peeps that are running, and where I didn’t care before, I’m now feeling that I have to choose among the lesser of evils. There is no straight line because both sides are equally as messed up as the other sides.

This November will be the 3rd time that I’ve voted for a president and this November will be the first time that I’ll be truly aware of what it is I’m voting for.

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s having to pay for a “pro” account so that I can view answers to the questions I have. The questions have been asked and the answers have been divulged so why are they not shared? I think that’s a bunch of bull crap. Knowledge should be free. Does the problem lie in the fact that knowledge is power and so there is a group of elitists that think they shouldn’t have to share it unless one can pay for it? This, in a sense, reminds me of the medieval hierarchy of social classes where I’m the peasant that can’t even begin to ask the lords a question, but if in some case I as the peasant can climb to a level of lordship I can be among them and learn from them and perhaps, even seek council among the nobles. Is my knowledge to be limited by my purchasing power? *sigh* I digress.

This whole thing is brought on by a Google search for an answer to a .NET question that resulted in me being sent to Experts Exchange. I have no clue how Experts Exchange works, but I do know that I end up there far to often for me to have to worry about paying to see answers that I’m not sure will even answer my questions. I’m sorry, $100 a year isn’t worth the one or two searches I do a month for the questions I have that I can generally find an answer to just as easily as I can end up on the EE site.

Today though, something dawned on me, something I was going to try, something that if it didn’t work I could click on the next link and most likely have my answer for. I clicked on the Google Cache link and managed to circumvent the Experts Exchange system. By clicking on the cache link, all the answers to my question showed up where as if I had clicked on the normal link, all the answers were covered up with a message from The Anarchist:

All comments and solutions are available to Premium Service Members only.

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To anyone that sees this post, know that at the time of this post’s creation, you don’t have to pay to access the information on Experts Exchange, you can view it for free. Remember, when it comes to Experts Exchange, google cached is your best friend.

Last week I blogged about how I was plotting out all the character connections for LOST.

Today at work I’m discussing LOST with one of my co-workers. We’re very excited that there’s only 3 days before the beginning of Season 4 (and I’m all caught and and ready for it). She navigated over to the LOST site on ABC.Com and was scrolling around, and we found this LOST: Connections

It’s a charting utility to see how everyone else relates (connects) to one another, it’s completely awesome. I’m still a little on the edge about whether or not someone being on tv or people being in the same place at the same time creates a connection, I’m even on the edge about interactions in the airport counting as a connection (although I did make note of the one between Locke and Rose on my chart).

I was very excited to see how much I knew and where I had missed pieces. The first person that I looked at was Jack.

What’s really cool is that if you hover over a character it will tell you the episode that the connection was seen in and what it is…so what are you waiting for, go fill in the missing gaps in your head where the characters are concerned…make sure that you’re all ready for Thursday!

I’ve become quite the little porker lately. One reason is because I can’t exercise (thank the stitches in the derriere). The second reason is, I’ve been eating out a lot (because I’m too lazy to go grocery shopping) and eating out means eating unhealthy.

I’m gaining weight that I wouldn’t normally see if I could work out (not that I would work out, but if I was able to work out, I’d be more active than I am now, like walking and biking and stuff that’s just not happening for me right now) and it’s pissing me off. I usually don’t ever have to deal with the “tight” clothes feeling. I hate that feeling and I’ll be damned if I’m going to go buy a larger size in clothes (I have an issue with the numbers on the clothes I have and I’m not going to add to it).

So, to get back on topic, I went grocery shopping tonight (for healthy food) and after an hour in WalMart picking my foods carefully (fruit is hard to pick out, how does one know if a cantaloupe is good or not?) I walked out with 36 items and $78 poorer.

Why can’t we be rewarded for healthy eating? In a world where weight is a concern why is it cheaper for us to buy the crap that makes us so unhealthy? Shouldn’t cheeseburgers cost more than the chicken salad sandwich? Shouldn’t the sugary cereals cost more than the wholesome cereals? Shouldn’t the financial punishment be seen from the unhealthy eating side.

Why should I have to choose between cost and health? When I was eating out it was costing me less than $5 a day (breakfast and lunch and snacks) to eat. The $79 I spent tonight is for one week of breakfast and lunch and snacks, that’s like $13 a day. *shakes head* it’s just not acceptable…what do they want for us to do in this world when being healthy costs us far more than being unhealthy?

On Monday, I was at Best Buy and for the first time ever there wasn’t a line of people at the Wii station awaiting their turn. I was excited, I walked up to it, grabbed the controllers I had never even been able to touch before. The game in the console was Super Mario Galaxy. I played through one level (a bit awkwardly) and was hooked. I decided that I needed a Wii and that I needed Super Mario Galaxy. It wasn’t to happen. As I turned around and marched myself backs to the Wii section, some woman was putting the last Wii in her cart. I was a bit bummed.

On Friday, I had “I don’t feel like working syndrome” and took a few minutes in the afternoon to call my favorite GameStop store and see if they had a used one (I asked about the used ones because I thought for sure there’d be no way there was a new one in stock). Stephen, who has been selling me video games for years answered the phone (and if he hadn’t I would’ve asked for him anyways). He told me that there were no used units in stock and said “not new?” Of course I was like (in my head) “NEW!!! I CAN GET A NEW ONE” to him: “Do you have a new one in stock?” Him: “Let me check…we do” Me: “Will you hold it for me?” Him: “Come see me Courtney”

I was so excited after work to go to the store and be able to get a Wii and get Super Mario Galaxy. As of right now there’s not any other game I’d rather be playing more (which is good because I only bought the one game).

I played it a bit last night and a lot to day, I’ve beat some 3 legged robot monster and had to put it down so that I could do some other things. Needless to say, I’m itching to get back to it.

Super Mario Galaxy is a wonderful game in the Mario series that has an excellent sound track (on the main star place it somewhat reminds me of a score that was heard in the movie “The Holiday”). The story line follows the famed Mario story line, The Princess has been capture by Bowser and needs rescuing and Mario goes off to save her. Even playing the same story line over and over again, I never tire of Mario.

The only thing I’m having problems with during gameplay is that Mario has to abide by the laws of gravity and so sometimes you’re running upside down, diagonally, etc…directions I’m not used to…so it’s gonna take some getting used to, but really that’s not a complaint, it’s just a learning curve.

If you haven’t played Super Mario Galaxy yet, and you’re a Mario fan, get out there and get it, you’ll enjoy it.

In light of Heath Ledger’s death which I’ve been watching a little more closely than I normally do when it comes to celebrities, I thought I might take this time to write about how I don’t much care about the lives of celebrities. Here’s the thing about celebrities, beyond their stardom in movies or as a musician/singer/songwriter or as an athlete or whatever makes celebrities a star, they’re normal people. They do everything that we as “normal” people do. I think that they get fucked up because of us, the normal people that don’t think that celebrities are normal people, that there’s something about them that makes their lives interesting or something. And it’s slightly frustrating to me. It’s like they’re not allowed to lead “normal” lives as the paparazzi are always around trying to get the latest story the latest angle the newest pictures to put in magazines and online so that they can feed the hungry crowds that are craving the news of some fucked up celebrity.

Why is it that we do that, what causes us to think wow, look at that person… I’ll give an example, Brittany Spears, she’s been to rehab, she’s done some crazy crap, she’s in a custody battle, she’s lucky if she gets to see her sons. What makes that so different from the people down the street that are having the same issues? Why do we care about the celebrities that are going through the same stuff as us, the normal peeps.

I mean, think about it, do you sit and talk about your best friend’s husband who left his wife in the name of being with some other woman (from a job, a friend, etc) the way Brad Pitt left Jennifer Aniston to be with Angelina Jolie.

Do you sit and talk about friend X who is single and yet yesterday was seen with person Y and three days before that was seen with person Z.

Is it so abnormal for there to be “work” romances in your jobs?

I think that celebrities are fucked up because we the “normal” people drive them to craziness. Lindsay Lohan, how many times has she been arrested for DWI or DUI, a few…now tell me that you don’t have at least one friend that has been arrested for the same thing…and when you think about it, unless you’re a really good person with really good friends, you can possibly have a couple friends that have been arrested for DWI.

Do you ever think that celebrities would lead more normal lives if we just left them alone and didn’t worry about them? That even if we were wanting to know about them there’d be less drama for us to read/watch/listen to?

It’s just something that drives me crazy, celebrities aren’t all that in my opinion, they’re just people, just like me, and they have problems just like me, and just as I don’t want all my problems to be known by everyone, there’s no reason for me to be concerned with theirs.

Every now and then on the local Christian rock station (M88) they’ll play something that’s not mainstream, and they’re usually some kind of indie punk rock group that’s released a new song and that you can google all you like for the words in the lyrics and you’re lucky if you find something remotely close to what you heard.

So I’m driving home the other day and I hear a song, and of course, as it habit for radio announcers, they don’t say what the song is or who’s singing it. I get home in time to go to their website and see the last couple songs that had been playing, and one stuck out (because it had some of the words in the song in the title, how convenient): All That Matters.

Something about the melody, the bass line, the lyrics, it just all goes together real well…if I had it my way, it would be a song for Rock Band or Guitar Hero. It would totally work…

The song sucked me in immediately with these words:

I may never be the one that gets a second glance
I may never be the one they call the prettiest
That’s all right with me

That’s me, of course, I’ve never really cared if I was the prettiest or if I got a second glance, but because I could relate I was driven to listen to the words and not just the music behind them (which is all I listen to anymore).

The song goes on, and I’m reminded of my Lord, Jesus Christ, and what he did for me, and that that’s all that matters (which is often hard in this life to keep as my focus).

I’ve been changed by grace
I’ve been saved by love
All that matters is, all that matters is
I know that your love has set me free
and that’s all that matters to me

You can hear the song on their myspace page. The song is “All That Matters”. Even if you don’t generally listen to Christian music, I’d give it a listen simply because even if you don’t like the words, the music is good stuff.

I’ve mentioned on several occasions that one of my favorite things about Lost is the connections between the characters that are shown in the flash backs. Today I watched most of Season 3, I’m about a disc and a half away from being completely done with all the current episodes that are out and available to be watched. I’ve decided that most everyone knows each other within 1 or 2 degrees. I pulled out my journal and started jotting down how I thought people knew each other, it’s a mess of a diagram and not anywhere near complete. I’m gonna have to watch all 3 seasons again just to catch the connections between the characters, which I really don’t mind at all because I really love the series (I know, I just got attached to it, and in the span of 9 days I will have watched all three seasons, which I think amounts to approximately 68 episodes).