What’s this blogging thing again?

I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to blog about anything other than television.  Maybe it’s time I hang up this random-thought blog I have going and just set up one specialized on TV, since it’s one of my passions.

The only problem with that is since we DVR everything, sometimes I don’t watch an episode for days (or in extreme cases, weeks) after it’s aired, so it wouldn’t be the best blog for current and relevant discussion.

Hmmm, I’ll have to think about this more.

Home Again, Home Again

Well, we made it to Texas without any complications.  The truck seemed to run just fine.  I was paranoid for the entire trip, but that’s just my nature.  I’ll be paranoid for the entire trip back as well, at least until we get about 150 miles from home since at least then someone might be able to come pick us up.  We left around 5:30 yesterday morning and pulled in front of Mark’s parent’s house somewhere around 6pm.  The trip didn’t seem to take that long and I suspect that’s because we travelled during the day.  The drive seems two or three times as long when travelling overnight.

Next year, I really want to save up enough money to fly and rent a car once we’re here.  It’s a huge expense, but I’ve come to realize that option is so much safer than driving.  If Mark and I were to get stuck out here because of his truck, it would almost be easier just to quit our jobs and move here than have to deal with finidng a way to fix the truck and make it back to Georgia.  It would be even worse if his truck broke down halfway between here and there.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderul and safe Thanksgiving!

A diamond is forever, so can’t this wait a few days?

Has anyone heard a commercial on the radio about a guy who is at the airport on Christmas Eve grounded due to a snowstorm and he wants to get home to give his wife a diamond necklace?  The radio announcer guy keeps telling me this dumb ass decides to walk home and to go check out his story at ADiamondIsForever.com.  They promote it as if this is the most romantic guy in the world for walking home (hundreds of miles presumably) in a snowstorm to be with his wife for Christmas.  It sounds like lunacy to me.  I tell you if Mark tried to pull something like that, I’d probably leave him.  Stay in the flippin’ airport where it’s safe!  Don’t be an idiot, tie bags around your feet and think you’re fit enough to walk hundreds of miles in the snow.

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I could expound, but that would be boring

I think there are those who live life in the moment, as it’s happening.  And then there are those who can’t recognize life as it’s passing them by.  It’s only afterward, sometimes hours, sometimes days, weeks, months or years later.  They don’t realize what it was they experienced until some vague memory triggers that feeling within them.  It’s like a delayed reaction.

I’m of the second type.  I take life for granted.  Then years later, I remember a feeling I don’t think I ever had at the time.  And a yearning develops within me to recapture what escaped me before it was realized.

Good News

I really should write a journal entry, but my brain apparently can’t process a whole lot right now aside from plotlines on Lost, so sorry.

I did want to announce that Mark got a promotion yesterday!  He’s now a supervisor!  (Actually, he won’t be until Monday, but whatever.) I’m so proud of him, I can hardly contain it. 

Napoleon Dynamite

This thread on Ask Metafilter makes me feel a lot better about hating this movie.  I thought I was missing some huge, grand revelation, but I’m glad to see other thinking people say it’s pure crap, too.  It was so boring, I couldn’t even finish it.

There, I’ve said it.  And I’m no longer ashamed.

Hi, Mom

I just accidentally replied to one of my mom’s emails with an email signature including links for this site and the journal.  I haven’t been trying to hide my sites from her, I just doubted she would have any interest in them at all, so I never bothered giving her the links.

So hey mom - if you’re here from my email reply, say hi! 

In other, unrelated news, I’m working on an update over at the journal.  Coming back from a long break is always difficult for me.

Progress Pics!

I haven’t posted any full body shots since I started my weight loss because I was waiting until I lost enough weight to have something to compare it to.  I went to Wal-Mart last night and got a new pair of jeans and a couple shirts that fit pretty well.  I’m pleased with the pics:

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“Never mind, I figured it out!”

I’ve done a lot of forum reading lately and I’m just shocked at the number of inconsiderate people who do this.  I don’t understand why, in an age of information, people don’t feel the need to spread the knowledge.  I’m sure you’ve seen something like this situation.

Someone starts a thread or posts a response with a very specific question or situation asking for answers or advice.  These questions are usually technical in nature and they’re usually asking for a very specific answer, like a website URL or specific directions.  No one responds.  Minutes, hours, days or months later the person responds to their initial question with, “Never mind, I figured it out!” or, “I’m so stupid, I found it!”

Well, that’s fine and dandy for them, but did they ever, for one moment, stop to think that there may be other people who need an answer to the same exact question?  Why wouldn’t they instead post, “I figured it out?  X caused my problem and I did Z to fix it!” Are they that freakin’ lazy?  Inconsiderate?  Self absorbed?

The internet is a huge knowledge database and if someone posts a specific problem, chances are one day you’re going to use that dandy little search tool in the forum or that even niftier search tool called Google and find that they’ve experienced the exact same hell you went through.  You get hopeful that you’ll be able to figure out whatever’s bugging you and click on the link only to find some smug asshole rubbing it in your face that they were graced with the information to solve their problem, but weren’t appreciative enough to spare others the same sort of torture.

This hasn’t happened to me personally as of late, but I am seeing it several times a day on the forums I frequent.  If I know the answer, I try to make the thread complete by posting the full information, but a lot of times, I don’t know the answer.  I just feel like smacking people upside the head when they do this, regardless of whether or not I’m effected. 

Completely Random Nothings

Why am I the only woman on this floor who knows how to pee without getting it all over the seat?  I don’t understand how they even accomplish this.  We have those seat protector things… do people feel the need to squat a foot above the seat in a regularly cleaned office building bathroom even with a seat protector?  Can’t be, because in that case all their piss would get on the seat protector instead.

I can barely keep myself awake due to lack of sleep last night.  I was way too tired when I went to sleep so naturally I wasn’t able to.  Harmony also felt the need to wake me up every single time I drifted off.  She’d either meow, scratch on the study or laundry room door or jump up and bat my face with her paw.  I just couldn’t get her to leave me alone.  I don’t know why I didn’t get up and check their food and water levels.  She never acts like that unless they’re missing something.  When I got up this morning, they were out of water.  I was pissed at myself.  A full night of crappy sleep because I’m too stupid to get up and check the water.

Real SuperPass

I signed up for the Real Networks SuperPass so I could watch the Big Brother live feeds.  As Big Brother season is coming to a close, I want to cancel my pass so they don’t keep charging me.  Although signing up is super easy and I don’t have to talk to anyone to do it, in order to cancel, I need to call in and speak to someone.  What a pain!  I remember having to do this last year, but I must have gotten someone right away because I didn’t think it was much of a big deal.  I’ve now been on hold for about 40 minutes listening to the same 5 MIDI-quality songs looping over and over again. 

I know they do this to deter people from cancelling, but that practice just plain sucks.  I don’t think it’s very good business practice to deter people from cancelling with long hold times and horrible hold music.  I plan on writing a letter of complaint, but I know it’s not going to do a lick of good.

I guess it’s a good thing I have until October to cancel before being charged again.  I might be on hold that long.

Oh good, the recorder version of Eternal Flame just looped back to me.  Thanks for completely ruining a guilty pleasure for me, Real!  I think I’m going to include a bill for 4 ibuprofen (at hospital prices) in my letter seeing as how their hideous muzak has given me such a headache.

Edit: Well, the number that’s generated through the Real site itself seems random.  That’s what I was using.  Hamster Time has a phone number of 866-230-4586 on their main forums.  I called that number and got someone in less than a minute!  So I guess if you need to cancel your Real subscription, use THAT number, not whatever random number Real generates for you.  The guy tried to talk me into waiting until 10/9 (when my pass expires) to utilize all the features of SuperPass and then make a decision of whether or not to cancel.  I told him thanks, but no thanks - I just waited on hold for an hour to cancel and if I want to sign up again it’ll take less than a second online.  Guh.

Sim Staircase

As I alluded to yesterday, I’m trying to get better at building in The Sims 2.  I finished my first custom made house this morning!  I’ve made a few houses in the past, but they’ve just been hideous.  Not that this house isn’t, but I’ve been pouring through tutorials and I applied some of what I’ve learned in this house.  Unfortunately I’m still no good at architecture and roofs… they baffle me.  So while the inside of the house looks good (in my opinion) the outside looks a little funky.  I’m going to take a bunch of pictures this evening to share.  If I ever get good at designing houses, I’ll likely use a second Windows login to have a “clean” install of the game (without any custom content so I don’t have to worry about accidentally distributing other peoples’ work) and build houses to package up.  I really don’t know if I’ll ever get good enough to actually distribute anything though.  This is a part of The Sims I’ve never truly explored.

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Sim Swimming Hole

Following this tutorial I decided to use my newly started Legacy family to plop down a nice swimming hole at the edge of their property.  As a disclaimer, I’m not much of a builder.  Although I’ve said in the past I don’t like playing the Legacy Challenge because I hate having to build a house from the ground up, with my newest Legacy I’ve decided I actually like building.  I just have no sense of architecture. 

Anyway, continue reading for pictures of my little swimming hole!

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Long Weekends

Mark and I originally had grand plans of attending DragonCon over the Labor Day weekend, but those plans were sort of shot out of the water, mostly out of our hatred of huge crowds.  Plus, they’re the most unorganized event ever, having no information on the seminars on their main site, only relying on 3rd parties to supply the event schedules.  Which would be fine and good if half of them didn’t use Geocities which apparantly only gives you a bandwidth amount of about 700k before they shut you down.  I’m not going somewhere if I can’t plan out my day and figure out what I’m doing beforehand.  I’m anal like that.

Other than visiting some Sims 2 forums, I haven’t really been online all weekend, so I don’t know what’s going on with any of you.  Anyone have anything fun and/or exciting happen?  Feel free to link to a specific entry if you think I’ve missed something important. Hopefully throughout the next week or so I’ll get all caught up.

I’d planned on starting my journal entries back in September as well, but those plans don’t seem to be going so smoothly.  I do want to start again soon though, so be on the lookout for some entries of more substance coming soon.

I hope everyone is doing well.

The Sims 2 Nightlife Expansion!

I finally got around to reading the Sims Nighlife chat transcript from the 25th.  As usual, they revealed a bunch of cool stuff about the upcoming expansion!  If you don’t want to sort through the horrible spelling and teen-speak, here’s an overview of what was discussed.  I highly recommend checking out the Gamespot preview for some of the bigger additions to the game!

• Vampires exist in Nightlife. They burn up if they go out during the day, but apparently can make the short trip to their car or carpool to get to work.  Once they’re at work, they’re fine.  Vampires can hypnotize and bite people to make them a vampire too.  They can “fly here” instead of just being able to “go here”.
• You’ll now be able to see surrounding lots from your own lot.  You can turn off this option if your machine can’t handle the extra processing.  If another family lives in the house next door, you can click on their lot and load right into it!
• New hairstyles for toddlers!  Maybe there will be some pigtails.
• You’ll have an inventory again, like The Sims 1.  You can put anything in your inventory.  Therefore when you move, you won’t have to sell ALL your belongings.  You can pack up career rewards, photos, paintings and anything else and take it with you to your new home!
• New aspiration reward(s)!
• A cemetary to send your dead! No longer do you HAVE to endure ghosts of your dead loved ones on your lot!  You’ll be able to move any existing graves to a cemetary.  Ghosts can appear there, but they are happier and more relaxed than they are at home most of the time.
• Your sims will now be able to have two turn-ons and a turn-off.  Pre-existing sims will be given turn on/offs randomly.  They’ll get a free potion in their “Inventory” to set them to whatever you’d like!
• New pleasure seeker aspiration!
• New gypsy matchmaker service.  You can hire her to come visit your sim and help them find a perfect date.  She also sells love potions and potions to “cure” vampirism.
• Downtown is a combination of community and residential lots.  Sims will be able to move into downtown!
• Sims can have rivals (as opposed to enemies) and get “furious” at each other.  Example: if a sim cheats with the girlfriend of his best friend, the best friend and the sim will suffer serious relationship damage that heals over time.  They can become romantic rivals and fight over that special someone.  You can fight or pay off your rivals to leave you alone.  Hopefully this will add a better dynamic for sims who have multiple love interests in the neighborhood!
• Aside from bills, sims can now receive love letters and hate mail in the mailbox!
• New building options: Half walls will now be available!
• New objects:
  
  • Cars! You can use them to take you to work!  I believe this means you’ll be able to go in late or go in if you’ve missed your carpool.  They’ll cost between 1,000 and 11,000 simoleons. Burglars can steal Sim cars, but sims can get car alarms installed.  Some types of dates might prefer certain types of cars.  Family sims like minivans, romance sims like sports cars, etc.  You can also “try for baby” in your car.  Teens can take their little siblings to school.
  • Poker tables where sims can win money and play real poker!
  • A photo booth where sims can get their picture taken by themselves or with another sim.  (You can also woo-hoo in it, but I doubt they’ll capture any pictures of that!) The photos go in your inventory and you can display them in your home!
  • Bowling alleys!  They’ll be available on community and home lots, but naturally they’re expensive to build in your house...
  • Karaoke machine.  Like in real life, it’s a hoot to watch when the sim doesn’t have much talent.  Other sims will cheer for them.  Multiple sims (may be a 2 sim cap) can use the machine together.

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