Happy Halloween peeps!

There is a security guard at this building that I work in. He makes me totally uncomfortable.. at first, I thought he was really nice.. he always said Hi and bye to me as I came to and left work. Then one day I decided I was going to start reparking my car during my lunch. He saw as I went out there to do it and when I came back in, he offered to do it for me everyday. I told him no thanks...I'm just going to try to see if it saves me time doing it. So he said... I could go to your desk and pick up your keys and repark your car for you everyday, it's no problem. Again, I told him, no, it's okay... I don't really know if reparking my car will save me much time anyway.

So after that first time, I never reparked my car again. I just didn't want him to ask me again or ask why I didn't want him to. The real reasons were of course that I felt uncomfortable with the thought of some stranger I don't really know driving in my car.. probably snooping all over my stuff. Secondly, I had the feeling he never really asked anyone else if he could do that. I asked another female coworker of mine who reparks her car if he ever offered that for her and she said no. That's when I really felt sick... I felt like he viewed me like something vulnerable... like I'd start liking him if he did that for me. It really grossed me out. I may sound like I'm jumping to conclusions, but sometimes you just have to go by your instincts. I don't necessarily think the security guard LIKED me, but he sure acted overly friendly.

So like... a few weeks later, I noticed he was making his rounds around the building so I felt it was safe to run out there and repark my car. I walked as fast as I could and then suddenly -- BAM -- there he was... across the hall from me.. and he waved to me... so I waved back.. and started rushing towards the front of the building and when I got there.. he was already there so I was a little mad.. and then I realized I forgot my keycard, so I had to ask someone to let me back in.. and of course HE let me in.. and he even said, "No Problem Rosalyn"... so he even knew my name... how I don't know.. but I know I never told him my name. So when I came back to my desk to get my keycard, I had 2 coworkers come with me to repark my car.. that way he would leave me alone.. and he did. And after that one evening, I started parking in the back so I would totally avoid him. And I JUST found out we will be moving to a new building in a couple weeks.. YES@!$ No more Mr. Security Guard... leave me be!

Unsupportive Wives

Chris and I noticed that there are SO many movies where husbands/boyfriends have a very important job, and when there is an emergency or a reason that they have to work late or go work, the wives throw a fit and either leave the man or give him shit when he gets home. It happens no matter HOW bad the situation really is. Why is that? I know it wouldn't happen in real life, but when they portray women like that in movies, they make us look like total bitches!

Example:

Wife: I really wish you wouldn't go and stay home and have dinner with your family.

Husband: Honey, there is a tremendous fire downtown and people really need all the help they can get right now.

Wife: But John, you NEVER spend any time with us. You're always at work and never have any spare time (nag nag nag)

Husband: Susan, I can't talk about this right now, I have a serious fire I need to go to!!!

Wife: You never listen to me, you don't care about me!

Husband: (very serious) Honey, I need to go. (leaves and closes the door)

(hours later the husband comes home, totally worn out, ashes all over his face, coughing up a lung from smoke inhalation)

Husband: Honey, I'm home!

(silence)
(He looks around the house for her, and she's not there, and he notices the closet was open and her clothes and things are gone. Then he finds a note that explains she has left him)

See what I mean? How many times do you see that in movies... especially dramas and actions? Women aren't really that stupid are they? I hope not.

The Japanese Humor Me



iNoodle's anyone?? Not that Japan was the only one to leech off the whole idea of iMac's, but they've got other products that are pretty goofym too. For more crazy Japanese products, head to www.klein-dytham.com and click on Fetish.

Ignore all emails from me with an attached file called msoobe.exe.. PLEASE. I got the virus from a customer!

Discount Luxury

Chris and I saw a new Mercedes the other day that looked like no other Mercedes we've ever seen. It looked like an economy car with a Mercedes symbol on it. It's the C230 Kompressor model, a new $25k Mercedes. The price is fine, but looking at the car, it resembles a cross between a regular Mercedes and the back end of a Cavalier. Yick.. that is not a good combo. Despite it's decently sporty 192 hp, I still think driving it makes you look like you tried to buy the cheapest Mercedes you could buy just to say you had a BENZ! And the Cadillac Cateras... those are dumb too.. they look nothing like a Cadillac, and in fact you could easily mistaken them for a Subaru or another economy car. Why are luxury car makers cheaping out on looks when it comes to their lower end models? Does it really cost them that much less to build an uglier looking car? Or are they afraid that the people who are crazy enough to pay GOBS of money for their higher end models would get mad to see someone driving around in a Mercedes that looks like theirs but costs a fraction of what they paid? The BMW 318i... remember that? With the trunk that looks like it got chopped off? It totally makes the car look cheap, and to people, it says "I was desperate for a Beamer so I bought the cheapest (and ugliest) one they had, and now I can tell all the people I know that I drive a BMW." If you own one of those... I'm sorry if you're offended, but I'm more mad at the car manufacturers anyway.. They're the ones that have decided to base their pricing on the shape of a car, and they're capitalizing on that. Doesn't that make you feel like a big sucker?

Malena

Normally, I don't watch any foreign movies. It's hard trying to keep up with the subtitles, and you miss a lot of the movie that way. For some reason, I was very drawn to this movie when I watched something on CNN about it. The main actress, Monica Bellucci, is one of the most stunningly beautiful women I've ever seen -- and no I'm not gay. I finally found Malena at Blockbuster the other night and had to see it. Without getting into so much detail about it... I REALLY liked this movie. Try not to take it too seriously even though many of the messages in the movie made sense. The way good-looking women are treated by both men and women is a tad exaggerated, but it still proves a point. Being beautiful isn't always a blessing.

I NEED A NEW LAYOUT... I think I'm just going to have to change it to something VERY plain and VERY simple to maintain. This layout, even though it looks pretty simple, is actually a big pain in the butt to maintain... even with templates.

Music + Sleep

The other night, I decided to sleep with some music playing. In my playlist I had Massive Attack, Portishead, Hooverphonic, Aphex Twin, and some Delphonics. All night, I kept waking up from weird dreams, and let the music kept playing. It was a really odd experience, but I liked it. The only sucky thing is that I couldn't remember the dreams very well... I just remember they were very surreal, vague, and meaningless.

milkjar.com >> artwork

Now THAT is a creative and original idea for art! Mini chairs... too cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOFUR!

DSL vs. Cable

For those of you who live within Southwestern Bell's reaches, you probably recognize those sometimes hilarious DSL commercials that make fun of cable modem users... apparently Charter Cable did not agree with Southwestern Bell's message and got a court order to have SWB pull the plug on two of their ads.

New Kia Advertising Campaign

Is it just me or is Kia's new advertising tactic a little too much like Burger King in the old days where they'd constantly compare themselves to McDonald's and Wendy's? The worst one yet that I've seen is where these two couples are at dinner together talking about their cars. One just got a Kia something, and the other couple just bought a Toyota Camry or Honda something. They start comparing features of their cars, and then the lady who owned the Toyota/Honda said as if almost to brag, "We just had AC installed!" Come on! Who would buy a Honda/Toyota without AC in the first place? And even if I bought a totally stripped down model, I wouldn't want my friends to think I so cheap when I bought my car that I had to get air conditioning installed AFTER I bought it. Goofballs!

CUTE CUTE CUTE!

Someone deserves a pat on the back for making such beautiful looking and sounding Shockwave games. I found this super cute site via a link on the lovely Laurita's site. I don't know what it is about this site but it makes me feel so at peace, and some of the music of the games is so adorable, it makes you feel like you're in a baby's nursery. The Chicken Wing's music is my favorite, and only makes me try to play the game longer so the music keeps going. I like the art in the games too. Kind of surreal, kind of children's storybook, and some of it as modern as some other games but with a twist. A true show of artistic talent.

This *looks* like an easy game to play, but I found it quite difficult to last 10 seconds. Maybe I'm just a retard.

A noisy noise annoys an oyster.

People + Cars = Idiots on Wheels

Some people should just not be allowed to operate vehicles. After only driving a few years, this is how I've decided to categorize different slow driver types.

Slow Drivers

- The Perfect Citizen: Prideful, stubborn, and always obeying the speed limit by driving right at or just below the speed limit, holds of up traffic, but never starts to speed when you have to pass them. Easiest to deal with.

- The Distracted Slow Driver: Be it a man or a woman who is babbling on their cellphone, reaching over to grab something from the back or other side of the car, picking their nose, putting on makeup, or just doing anything that involves not fully paying attention to the road... these people are ones you have to worry about more than most. They tend to swerve, drive slow, not signal, and can't seem to be capable of just staying focused on the task of driving. Trying to pass one of these people could be dangerous if they have trouble staying in their own lane.

- The Sudden Pride Asshole: He starts out driving so slow you feel like ramming your car into his, and then when you decide you need to pass him, as you speed up in the next lane to get past him, all of the sudden he finds his accelerator and starts to drive faster, making it harder to pass him. All of the sudden he has this pride issue... wanting so much to prove to you that he doesn't always drive that slow, and that YOU can't be in front of him because it would make him look bad.

- The Driving Dead: Old, zombified, crusty, half asleep, and/or dead, these people need their own snooze lane. Not realizing at all that they aren't the only ones on the road, these people drive horribly slow due to lack of consideration for other drivers, fear of the road, a rotting brain, or because they're stuck with a car that can't accelerate fast enough to save their life. They're the kind of cars that look like a big rear-ending accident waiting to happen, but never seem to have any damage on them surprisingly.

- Fresh Born Drivers: Young, just learning how to drive, totally forgiven.

- Low Rider/Cruiser: Normally I call these "hoopties" but basically I'm talking about usually beat up looking older cars that have been lowered and modified in other ways, not to enhance acceleration, but to get attention. They're usually old Pontiacs, Cadillacs, Buicks or Oldsmobiles with hydraulics and widened tires, and they tend to drive much slower... as if to impress a crowd with their amazing abilities to bounce and/or show off their wonderful sound systems that rattle their cars like soup cans.

Sometimes Texas is Depressing

For the most part, I really enjoy living here in Texas, but sometimes, the whole hickish-ness of things really gets me down. Last Friday, for most of my drive home, I was stuck behind 9 trucks in a ROW! It was as though they were reassuring me that I was in Texas. My car is a dinky little VW Cabrio, and surrounding me were so many SUV's and trucks it made me dizzy! It's really hard to see past tall cars, and it's also annoying seeing so many trucks. When I see a truck, I imagine people need it to haul shit around. MOST of the trucks I ever see around here have NOTHING in the bed of the truck... so what's the fascination? I don't get it. I also noticed many people in trucks drive like total jerks... I understand most of the time they've got bigger engines, so they wanna drive fast. I drive fast most of the time, but I just can't stand it when I'm going 80 on the freeway and some rude pick-up truck driver starts trying to tailgate me as though I'm driving like a grandma. Grr! Just drive around and PASS me dammit!

So anyway... while I was driving home on Friday, there was a lot more traffic than usual and a lot more trucks... and then I finally found out why. There was a RACE that night at the Texas Motor Speedway, so you can imagine every racing fan in the area and his dog were there. They blocked off the highway ramp that I needed to get onto, so I ended up having to go straight on a freeway I wasn't familiar with. The sun had set, and I was driving in the dark on this really long, narrow stretch of highway surrounded by nothing but farmland and occasional farm roads. I had not even driven 4-5 miles past my blocked off highway exit, and things turned country FAST. I started seeing road signs for Justin, TX and Rhodes or some cities I just didn't recognize. Texas is just too big sometimes. I couldn't find a place to turn around, and there were tons of people behind me that were starting to catch up, so I wanted to hurry up and find a place to turn into to turn around... I drove past so many farms and the roads were so dark you couldn't see them until you passed them. I finally found a road that was marked and slowed down to turn into it... It turned out to be a VERY narrow private drive... so I had to improvise and make a very tight U-turn on it so I could make a left turn and go back the other way again without "trespassing". Oof... finally I got back on the highway.. and found my way home and gave Chris a great big hug of relief. It made me feel so alone out there... so spooked. It's freaky when you realize how big Texas is, and it's even freakier when you're not a white person. Not that all people are racist around here, but it just seems like they're less likely to help or be considerate you when you're not white.

I've been to more lonely areas of Texas before... the highway between Dallas/Fort Worth and College Station (where Texas A&M is), and I must say that's one of the most dangerous and lonliest drives one could make alone or even with someone else. There are many little worn looking towns on the way and people drive upwards of 100 mph easily, and on top of that, gas stations are scarce.. so get gas often or you're in a sucky situation. I feel so immature and superficial for not being comfortable in country type settings... I'm sure I'd understand better if I grew up in that lifestyle, but for me, I find all my comfort back in the suburbs, where there's plenty of people, commerce, and roads.

Creative sarcasm? Or a sad display of making up for one's inadequacies???

A Ferrari/Porsche hybrid perhaps? I'm not sure if this one was a joke or not, but it's probably one of the goofiest I've seen in a while.

Chris' Response

I think it's just considered gay to drive any foreign car, unless it's japanese for a guy. I mean think of any foreign car (that isn't an over priced luxury) that isn't considered gay by some people. Porsche, you are considered a man with style, but heaven forbid you get anything less than that that's foreign. It's as if we should all be driving Ford Mustangs and Ford F150s. Oh, and make sure your Ford F150 has a "No Fear" sticker on it. Bonus points if you have an anti chevy sticker on it too. Double bonus if you're a firefighter. If you do want to upgrade to a Porsche, don't get a Boxster, I'm sure someone would consider that gay. If you get a Ferrari, don't get a Mondial and definately don't get red.Gee the rules we have to go by when driving a car to prove our sexuality. What would happen if I drove a car in the shape of a man's ass?

How Embarassing!

After doing some surfing today I ran into this link... it was the list of top 10 GAY CARS!!!... and sadly enough... our car, the VW Cabrio, happens to be on this list. Sad...sad...sad. That doesn't mean we're a gay couple does it? :)

I Have a Problem

My problem is that I get severely addicted to certain types of games for short to long periods of time... and it's hard to pull myself away. Everytime a new expansion to one of my favorite games comes out... again I start spending massive amounts of free time on them until I get burned out again. What's wrong with me? :) I don't have much free time anymore, and for some reason I tell myself it's okay to waste it on playing computer games. I'm a dork.

And to add to my game addictions, next month, The Sims is coming out with an expansion called Hot Date and I KNOW I'm going to want to buy it and play it for hours and hours. THEN, in December or so, Everquest will have a new expansion pack release called Shadows of Luclin and of course I'm getting that and playing it, too!

And for some reason, I can't just stop myself and tell myself I really don't need any of this stuff to live a happy life... yet another part of me says... "Get it! Buy it! Play it! You need it!"... so I guess what I'm saying is... I'm a sucker -- a consumer lemming. Ahhh!

For some reason, it made sense

Last night I had a really weird dream. First of all, I was living in a group home, and next door to the group home, was some kind of Muslim worshiping center.

Oddly enough, I decided to do some undercover work there, so I snuck into the place, and it was swarming with Muslims and I had to quickly find a disguise. I found one of those things that Muslim women wear to cover up their hair and face, and I put it on. I was so scared that the other people would realize I was definitely not one of them. I walked around the place and looked at everything, spoke to a few other women about little things.

Then suddenly, I felt this complete feeling of understanding. For a moment, I understood why it was good to wear those veils. First of all, men did not look at you like a piece of meat, and instead of your looks, you were judged by what you said, and what your personality was like, and I felt respect for that. It's hard for us image-conscious Western women to understand something like that, but for some reason, in my dream, it made so much sense, and it made me happier.

I can understand how having to live like that can really be repressing, but at the same time I can see the benefits, if you have not experienced anything better. The dream I had didn't really change my thoughts on how to carry myself, but it really helped me learn to try seeing things from someone else's point of view.

What ever happened to deep relationships? It feels like these days people get by on so many "on-the-surface" friendships, and being able to talk about more meaningful and stimulating things is not necessary anymore. Maybe it has nothing to do with the way things are today... and maybe it's because after being in a deep relationship for so long, it seems like no other relationships (with friends and such) could possibly compare. Perhaps I shouldn't expect so much from people, but I do think it's important for everyone to have someone to be completely open and deep with. I always wonder about certain groups of friends...you'll see them joke around a bunch, talk shit to each other, bitch about things, but it never seems like they get truly close or intellectual with each other. In a way, I can see how relationships like that survive. No one needs all their relationships to be super deep and involving, so sometimes you just need people to shoot the shit with.

So I guess I answered my own question. You have your on-the-surface friends to take care of all your small talk, and you save the deep stuff for the one(s) you want to share a closer relationship with.