I have been having an amazing winter break in Iowa, loving the weather (yes) and enjoying time with family and friends. So far, I have:
- found my University of Iowa diploma (oops, and whew)
- organized my clothes and filled two large bags to donate to Goodwill
- tried making chocolate truffles with my mom (attempt #1 for me, attempt #2 for her) which was... interesting...
- went to a potluck where I used to work, and ran into some familiar faces (that's Amos, on the left):
- went to a sushi and rock climbing party, where each person brought a different ingredient and I brought fried chicken strips :)
- upgraded my laptop big time, and--mostly with the help of my brother and thanks to my friend James--I now have a bigger hard drive, windows XP, a new operating system, and Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver installed... below is what the inside of a MacBook Pro looks like, if you ever were curious:
- read Kurt Vonnegut's A Man Without a Country:
- bought a sweet 'gingerflower'-colored (it's like a dark gold color) peacoat and winter boots for gallivanting through the snow
- felt like a little kid again running around my yard taking pictures when it looked like this outside:
- watched old school Mission Impossible TV shows on DVD with my mom and brother
- caught up with good friends from high school and college
Today I started using free software to record audio played off the sound card in my laptop. This means that I can make high quality audio files in any format from streaming audio anywhere on the Internet.... *cough*YouTube acoustic versions of my favorite songs*cough* like:
Note: there are many more free programs for doing this on a Windows computer as opposed to a Mac. But by golly do I feel powerful now. Any sound that plays on my laptop. Anything on YouTube or Google Video I can make into an audio file for my music library or iPod. Tee hee.
P.S. Is this legal, as long as I'm not selling them? Hmm...
There is the comic itself.
The accompanying creator's blog.
There is geohashing.
There's the cartoon off against Mr. Munroe and New Yorker cartoonist Farley Katz.
And probably one of the most endearing things I've seen this week--when he spoke at Google in 2007:
...so endearing, in fact, that I now have a crush on Randall Munroe. But as suspected, I'm not the only one--Google searching* for "crush on randall munroe" yields 57 results of all types, including: "geek crush," "man-crush," "secret crush," "little-girl crush," and "Internet crush." And I haven't even used any formal or informal aliases such as "Mr. Munroe" or "xkcd creator." :)
* As I was inspired to do by reading xkcd comics such as these . . . (It's a point well made: it's funny, the things you can learn from the appropriately worded and quoted Google search...)
If you don't like to read about people wanting to buy things, this is not the post for you. Who knew I was such a materialist? What follows is the result of the time I spent on the Internet on Thanksgiving Day, 2008.
I will never be too old to buy these shoes. I stumbled upon them today with glee, thinking: what could possibly be better than cupcakes on Chucks? They're also on Zappos. OK, you're right, I don't need shoes. I do, however, need a new wallet. I also love sparkly things. It only makes sense that I get one of these, or maybe two, because they are only $8 each. Now if I could only choose two colors...
The day was still young, so I turned to eBay to browse currently listed Chococat merchandise and found this adorable purse. Too bad it's not real leather. And then I found this cute tote while searching for Paul Frank bags... mmm donuts. I still wasn't done with eBay, so I searched for a clever Curious George mug I remembered my friend Kim having, and I found it on eBay as well. It's freakin too cute.
On the subject of mugs... my favorite mug ever out of which to drink coffee is the antique Taylor chatteau buffet coffee mug. Brown on the outside, pink on the inside. I've lusted after these for YEARS, and after two failed eBay attempts to purchase them and losing $80 in the process I gave up. For the time being... until I saw these. Why must they fit my small hands so comfortably, as if they were designed for my very grip? Why must the rim be so perfect to sip from?*
What, you are probably wondering, if any, of these items will I actually buy? Um, probably just the shoes.
* The first time I saw one of these mugs was in a restaurant called Redhead in Solon, IA. The mugs were already a part of the real estate when the restaurant opened, so they just used them for their restaurant. Seriously, the next time I am there, I should just ask the waitress if I can buy a mug.
From my over 4500 messages that made my inbox extremely unorganized and obese for years, I archived every message that was not current and now have eight beautiful babies to nurse.
But if I click on "All Mail" I have 11,751 messages. Scary stuff? Nah, I'm only using 53% of my 7265 MB account! I love Gmail.
Now it's time to work on the stars--I have over 350 starred items. Basically... I need to stop marking all things remotely interesting and--as my friend once joked the feature should be used for--save the star for "emails from God."
For over five years, I have had a credit card and paid my balance in full, on time, every month. This past month I was a day late and was charged a $50 late fee. After calling the customer service to ask what effect it would have on my record and whether or not I could be credited back the fee because of my excellent credit record, I was told that "the system" was telling the employee that he couldn't credit my account. I asked him why; he answered that it was just something the system was telling him. Um, OK. "Well, someone has to set up that system, right?" I asked him. I wasn't angry, just curious, and I'm pretty sure my voice was calm and friendly. He asked me if I wanted to talk to a supervisor, and I said yes. After spending less than a minute on the phone with the supervisor, I was told that the system is probably not letting the employee credit my account because I have never been charged a late fee, which in his opinion "isn't a very good reason" but that he could override the system and remove those fees. I probably spent a total of less than 5 minutes on the phone. I'll spend 5 minutes to get $50 any day. I wonder if that would work with anybody who has a great credit record or for any first time 'offense'?
Sure, you can shop using Google, and as this article states, Nextag will help you find the best price as well, but you've got to do some extra work with interfaces that are less easy on the eyes.
For something fast and simple, check this out.
Happy shopping!
It started with a lecture:
then also became a book, which I blogged about reading:
And as many of you know, he passed away on July 25, 2008. However, his legacy, his life lessons... are in so many forms for millions to have been and continue to be inspired. In the media mentioned above, in one-liners, in anecdotes, in photos and videos... and--for those fortunate to know him--in memory.
EDIT: Many months later, here are some photos...
The post below was originally posted on Feb. 8, 2008:
1. It was so exciting! Things to do, people to talk to, and it was AMAZING to be part of such a massive freakin' experiment that's so big of a deal that people in D.C. found out about it THIS MORNING and FLEW HERE TODAY to see it going on.
2. I got paid $300 for working 12 or so hours. Which I didn't even know I was getting when I signed up.
3. I lost a pen, but I got a FREE PHONE. The Nokia folks GAVE all of us phone operators the Nokia N80 phones we were using all day, which I think (based on some pretty quick Google Products searching) are worth about at least a few hundred dollars. What??? I still can't believe it, but it's sitting in front of me. We also got a free black Nokia Bluetooth headset, which is also pretty wicked.
4. I'm in this video. Can you find me? :D
5. It's so cool to see stories about this in the news! I... wow.
I'm feeling a bit light-headed today... but it's because I cut off over TWELEVE inches of hair last night. Well, my cousin did. Then we proceeded to go to a salon, where I paid for the first haircut in my entire life of 23.5 years. $25 spent on haircuts in over 23 years is pretty good, I'd say :)
Also... does anyone know of a good organization to which I can donate hair? Locks of love? Pantene beautiful lengths?
Edit: (because of the comments left) here are some pictures:
The hair. It kind of grosses me out--I don't know about you...
Before:
After:
And a Halloween-inspired combination:
