lucky # 10193

Tonight was a fairly low-key Monday evening. Despite having a list of things that I SHOULD have been doing, I opted to do only the things I WANTED to do. I am not sure my should and want lists will ever become the same list, but now I can write them on the same piece of paper and I think that is a sign of real progress.

Something I always WANT to do is read blogs. In case starting a blog of my own didn't immediately make you think "THAT WOMAN IS ADDICTED TO BLOGS NOW," I should probably warn you that I really love blogs. I especially love reading them on my new laptop . One of my favorites, Dooce, is one of the greatest blogs in this whole blog-oh-sphere. If you don't read it you need to start. Not tomorrow, or even after you finish reading this post, right now. Don't even scroll back to find the original link, just click here.

Today on Dooce Heather announced a context for a Wii and Wii Fit. Well I, for one, was pumped for several reasons.

1. Winners are chosen by random which has got to up the odds of a nobody.
2. I really want a Wii so that I can take pictures of people (myself included) looking like an idiot while using it
3. Wii Fit increases the chances of people looking like idiots by a factor of 1 million.
4. My only current game console is Nintendo, yeah, NES. I can play Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Jeopardy, or Sesame Street. Moving my gaming up a few decades might be good for my karma.
5. I have grandiose visions of Wii parties where we play Wii Fit and drink to toast Heather every time someone falls.

Moral of the story? I really want a Wii so I posted on her comments to officially get myself in the running.

(click to see all it's glory in full size)

The winners will be selected randomly by their post number, therefore, until this is all over, my lucky number is 10193.

Comedy legend Mitch Hedberg one time explained, "My lucky number is 4 billion, that doesn't come in real handy when your gambling. I'm gonna need some more dice, 4 billion divided by 6, at least."

Well I would be in a similar predicament if it weren't for the fact that I do not roll any dice, let alone enough to ever roll a 10193. No, I don't roll dice, I read blogs. And I think that reading blogs brings me more luck than any pair of dice ever has. It's no wonder I WANT to read blogs. I am not sure any of the things I SHOULD do have ever gotten me even this close to a free Wii. I guess a Wii is the very thing that is preventing my WANTS and SHOULDS lists from coming together to form one, harmonious list. Maybe if I got a free Wii everything would just sorta fall into place.

Come on 10193!

a little essentialism and a lot 'o truth

For those of you who don't know (read: apparently live under a rock), the midwest has been mere days away from calling up Noah to build us an arc. Recent flooding had really taken its toll on communities across the midwest and a lot of folks are still trying to get back to normal. As I found out 15 years ago, floods change not only major parts of life but also day to day life. This evening I was faced with one of the more horrific "changes."

My very favorite coffee shop, which I cannot speak of highly enough (despite them being the only coffee shop on the planet to not have wireless internet), has been forced to make a dramatic flood-related change. Since the floods began, the men's bathroom has been labeled a "danger zone.". This has obviously forced all the male customers to seek refuge in the women's bathroom for all their intestinal needs.

I know I have an unusually high demand for bathroom privacy but this is a one-person sorta set up - so how bad could it be, right? It's bad, real bad. I just do not understand what goes on when men get in the bathroom that forces urine all over the same areas that I will later sit, touch, and put things. Do some men attempt a simultaneous bladder-emptying/macarena move? I feel confident that the new male users are the problem because after more than seven years of frequent trips to this place, I have never encountered such a scenario.

I have faith that not all men suffer from this clearly atrocious affliction. I welcome those men into my clean coffee shop bathroom long after the floodwaters have receeded. To the other men, if you cannot control yourself in more socially acceptable ways please lay off the coffee and wait until you get home to make your messes.

Cue the forced signature...
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

not so mobile upload

I only like to pretend that I am a tech goddess - the truth is that I have to work very hard at faking it. (Faking other things, such as my desire to have a purple and silver swirl chair, see below, come more naturally). So I tried out blogging from my phone and it was quite the success.

The picture is of the remains of the first meat I ate in I don't know how many years. Yes, it was Applebees. I know that is not the best place to start eating meat again but not everything can be perfectly-planned.

Now if I can just figure out a way around AT&T's penchant for an idiot signature on all emails sent from my phone. I do not need to alert everyone I email that I have a blackberry. This is why I get pegged as tech-savvy in the first place. I bet the iphone doesn't do that. sigh

mobile upload of triumph

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

an open letter to all grad students (and my future self)

As the saying goes, sometimes the truth hurts. But I think it hurts the most when it sneaks up on you. So I would like to take this opportunity to give you (and remind the me that will be back in grad school a little over a year from now) the cold hard truth about graduate school. I may not be the ultimate authority on grad school but there are a few things that I am quite certain of and this is one of them:

You are going to hate it. And by hate it I mean you will be convinced you somehow cheated your way in or were admitted out of pure pity. You will think you are mere days away from having everyone find out that you cannot actually cut it. You will tell yourself weekly (if not daily) that you have no hope of ever finishing whatever degree it is you are working on. Some days you will not even know why you decided to get that degree in the first place. Most of all, you will think about how much better your life would have been if you had not gone to grad school.

But know this, if you did not go through that process you would not be doing it right. The fact that you never think you can do it and you still continue to find the guts to come back every day is proof you were meant for this place and that you are just crazy enough to succeed.

***This was on the "old" blog - something I wrote in the middle of the night and we all know night-writing is the most honest. It is at least if you have recently drank a can of Diet Rockstar.

post #1

There is a lot of pressure to make the first post good so I wanted to get it over with. I also wanted to set low expectations for future post titles.

***This was from the "old" blog and I wanted to bring it on over so that you could understand exactly how low expectations should be for this blog - probably even lower than the last blog, which you never knew existed.

Post #3

Although it might appear as though this is the first post on this blog I can assure you it is not. In fact, the other two posts from the old blog (and by old I mean new last week) will eventually get shuffled over here. I am only posting to announce my new membership in netflix. I thought it was going to be totally rad when I found out I could watch unlimited amounts of movies online. Then DOOOOHH!!! (That is the sound my head makes when it falls back in disappointment.) As it turns out netflix immediate viewing stuff is only available for PC users. Something about DRM stuff. After everything they have available cant some techny guy figure this bull crap out on their lunch break? Very frustrating to say the least.

I also have two new life goals - and by life goal I mean something I would like to do in the next few months but if it never really gets started then okay and we are no worse for the wear.

1. Recover the purple/silver/swirl chair in my living room so that it looks like something that I put into the room and not something someone guilted me into keeping. The chair is good - but not for my place. I will post some pics - probably of me looking confused over a pile of fabric, pins, and needles.

2. Memory box with tassels - this is something that will either catch on and everyone will be doing it or it will be dumb, which will force me to delete this portion of this post, and we will never speak of it again. I really feel like I can trust the interwebs enough not to bring up failed ideas long after they...well...failed.

Okay back to working on my netflix que/cue thing and then bed.