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Jun. 24th, 2005 @ 08:42 pm Your mail has been forwarded.
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: My Backpack's Got Jets. I'm Boba the Fett.
My new digs.
About this Entry
misato
Sep. 15th, 2004 @ 06:25 pm No experience necessary
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: Evanescence - Bring Me to Life
The Adventures of Clueless Wonder Dude

It's amazing to see what can be accomplished in spite of not knowing what the hell you're doing.

Personally I subscribe to the hands-on school of learning, which is basically - 1) give the rundown, 2) step back and 3) let me give it a shot. I've learned, albeit the hard way, this style doesn't work for as many people as I'd hoped.

But I digress. Inexperienced people still manage to accomplish astounding things. This is why I refused to let xbf help himself to my computer. He had this nasty habit of fucking things up and having no damn clue as to how he did so. That second part made it extremely difficult to remedy whatever it was he fucked up. Considering it was MY computer, you understand my frustration. So I made him get his own to fuck up all he wanted.

I am solidly convinced that stupidity is a dangerous thing. It's a serious liability. It is a lack of awareness and/or knowledge that affects all aspects of life and society, and has the immeasurable potential to fuck up everybody else, i.e., the SMART people.

I foresee the need for genetic engineering to be federally mandated to combat the incomprehensible surge of idiocy in the world. After all, it's not a good sign when you have to pass laws to tell people they can't sue and/or blame fast-food establishments for an individual's inability to make responsible choices.
______________________

Fashionista

I have a fascination with nail polish. I have come to this conclusion after realizing the significant amount of counter space these bottles are taking up in my bathroom.

I'm moving towards the color red (what a contrast from dark blues and blacks). I still like black and blue, but red and pink are starting to claim some ground.

I need more shoes! You can never have too many shoes. This is a fact.
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7up
Sep. 14th, 2004 @ 09:47 pm Penis-car revisited
Current Mood: amused
Take your pick in proportion to your dick!

I just can't resist - I have to revisit this penis-car subject. Imagine that sales pitch at a car dealership. I should write tv commercials.

There should be a list somewhere to measure the degree of dong compensation vs. the type of penis-car owned. It's the Penile Incompetence Index (PII).

I'm thinking of benchmarks like:

Car type Shortcoming rating
Ferrari 100 (< 3")
Viper 80
Prowler 70
Porshe 60 (< 4")

(I'm going to skip to the bottom)

Any beat-up, falling apart car 0 (OMG!)

Well...you get the picture.
_________________________

Car alarms must die

I'm for anti-theft and all, considering that an automobile is a major asset/purchase, but really - just how much of a deterrent is a car alarm? From what I understand car thieves have no problems disarming car alarms. In fact sometimes they're so proficient at defusing them that installing a car alarm ends up being just a waste of money. Your car will get stolen anyway, alarm or no alarm, so what's the point of blowing $200+ on one?

Couple this with the unscheduled wake up call I had last night at 1 am from an insistent car alarm whose owner failed to disarm within a reasonable amount of time, i.e., long enough for me to wake up and have difficulty falling back to sleep!

I don't remember if I fell asleep despite the damn noise or if it was eventually turned off, but several hours later while I was getting ready for work, it went off AGAIN. Sure, I was awake that time but I'll bet the majority of the neighborhood wasn't.

DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE
About this Entry
misato
Sep. 13th, 2004 @ 08:48 pm Keep your distance from my penis-car!
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: Shimomura Yoko - Friends in My Heart
Over the weekend a friend gave me a ride home from work. She's not used to driving in town AND she has a van, which have notoriously bad turning radii. Add to this that I had to give her on-the-fly directions because she hadn't been to my place before. About a block from the cross-street where she should turn left, she attempted to change lanes.

She turned on her blinker (yes, she did!) and started to change lanes to the left. Almost instantly we hear an obnoxious horn blasting from behind. I'm not talking the short, "honk honk honk" type of horn; I'm talking the 'HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNK!!!!" type of horn.

To make a long story short, a Porshe was in the left lane but AT LEAST ONE CAR LENGTH BEHIND her when she attempted to change lanes. My deduction is the fucker panicked, thought his midlife-crisis, pretty-car-that-compensates-for-his-small-penis Porshe was about to be taken out by a VAN.

Oh, you can't damage his penis-car, Shelley! It's the symbol of his manhood! But not much of a symbol if he thinks it can be taken out by a goddamn VAN.

It wasn't even a very nice looking Porshe at that.
________________________

Observations

There's a disturbing lady who I occasionally see on the bus. She's definitely middle-aged, I'd say 40+, and I'd guess she's single. Why? Well, because of the "Johnny Depp - Eye Candy" t-shirt she often wears (and there are others...) and the tote bag she carries that is covered with little pictures of him.

Her, single? Call it a wild guess.

One of the things I wonder is where she works. She comes downtown dressed like that and I assume she has a job, but what employer would allow you go to work in that attire? Not an office job? It's baffling.

Not to mention the fact that - it's just plain disturbing!!! Don't get me wrong, Johnny is all that and then some, but I haven't flaunted my fandom to that degree since high school. Oh, I've had my share of Duran Duran t-shirts, tote bags, my cutout albums full of their pictures from magazines, posters and what have you, but there's a teensy, weensy difference - I was 15, not 40.

It's difficult not to laugh when I see her on the street or on the bus. But I try.
_______________________

Mysterious Hygene Issues

I'm getting patches of dry skin in weird areas of my hands, and in matching sets to boot. At the bottom of both my palms, right above the wrist creases at the opposite ends from my thumbs, I've got small dry patches. It's the kind that I could probably peel right off, if I had the nails to do so. It's not the patches per se that bother me; their location, on the other hand, is perplexing. I can think of no reason why there should be dry patches here.
_______________________

Damn, I need a day off.
About this Entry
7up
Sep. 12th, 2004 @ 10:43 am Rain and memories
Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Music: rain and shine
Since last night it's been raining something fierce. I'm not talking about a constant, torrential downpour (although there was a short one last night) but constant, off-and-on periods of rain.

Rain doesn't fall all that much in town, or at least not lately. Yet I'm always surprised how the smell and sound of rain keeps reminding me of Hilo. It's really true how memories, images, and experiences just seem to come back when you hit on just the right thing - in this case, it's the rain, I guess.

I never thought of myself as particularly sentimental, but perhaps today I will spend some time with the Hilo rains.

And we just KEEP stealing Juliet S. Kono's book title. How terrible.
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 12th, 2004 @ 10:16 am Technology frustration due to my limited abilities
Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Hamasaki Ayumi - Powder Snow II
Okay, how do I get to the "About this Journal" field so that it isn't blank???

And I still do not buy this crap about window screens not being necessary if you reside on anything higher than the 6th floor. I had 2 bees (BEES, dammit! Bees!) and 1 B-53 (yes, bigger than a B-52) bomber roach fly up here. Now I have a part-time roommate - a teeny lizard. I don't mind that, as long as I don't find lizard poop all over the place.

It's a damn zoo up here.
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 10th, 2004 @ 06:12 pm I love the smell of new carpet in the morning!
Current Mood: refreshed
Current Music: The rush of rain outside my window
For the past two days my office has been a construction site. To remove the potential liability of someone tripping and falling in our office (Premises liability! In a law office! Imagine the ramifications!), they found a contractor to do a marathon carpet changing job on an overnight, 2-day schedule.

Thus the offices turned into dumping grounds full of desk effects, pc parts, chairs, boxes, and printers. It looked strange and very ghost-town-y with all the desks there with their surfaces completely empty.

Obviously the carpet installers had to move our furniture around so I had the privilege of, among other things, breaking down and reassembling my computer for two days. It's not like I'm unable to do it - but when I have to waste time playing hide-and-seek with the hardware and untangle network and telephone lines, I don't particularly enjoy myself. However, I wasn't about to sit on my hiney for 2 hours until the IT guy came in.

I picked a great day to wear all black - I mean ALL black - and I got to personally see all the dust I was kicking up, especially after I had to get down and dirty on the floor to thread my network cable behind my desk.

For once, my favorite work color, black, betrayed me. Until today it had been my trusty ally against unsightly toner spills, dots on my lap and shirts from dropped pens, scuffs from picking up boxes and the like. But dust! Black has no power over dust!
______________________________________________
Curiously, of late I appear to be in demand. Not at work, mind (I am always in demand at work); I mean with people I know. Recently the calls have been coming in like mad. It's nice to catch up with people, but it a side-effect of catching up is realizing how different your life is from everybody else's.

Almost all of my friends are married. One's sister is expecting; she'll be the first one in our group of friends to have a kid. I predict the aunties will descend upon him/her in a swarm. We'll also begin gaining more hands-on kid experience. Is that a good thing? I wonder how Omi feels about her baby being the guinea pig in our child-raising experiments!
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 8th, 2004 @ 07:08 pm Idiot explosion!
Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Oldies radio 107.9!
For some reason, all idiocy converged upon my morning. And I mean ALL idiocy. What did I do to deserve this? If someone is testing me, they have a twisted sense of humor.

Perhaps this is my station in life. Perhaps I have some hidden, latent talent for dealing with dummies (great book title!). Perhaps I will constantly be tested, forever pushing the upper limits of my tolerance.

This is my gift. This is my curse.

I will not give in! Hear my motto! My battle cry!

Help maintain higher standards! BE ANAL!

BTW, that subject line sounds like a GREAT anime/manga title.
__________________________________

Boy, I'm an old fut. I'd rather listen to this stuff than most new music.
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 7th, 2004 @ 10:44 pm Nag nag nag
Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Letterman on tv
I had a nagging feeling today. Unfortunately I don't know what it is or what it's trying to remind me about, but it's still bothering me.

Maybe it's the fact that I wasn't able to get to something I needed to start on today. Lately things have been going in that direction and I am not pleased.

(Jenn is not pleased. Be warned. Beware. She be bitchy.)

It's supposed to be a short week but damn - it already doesn't feel like it. That being said, I can't think of anything interesting or sarcastic to say.

Dammit.
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 6th, 2004 @ 10:23 pm Before we return to our regularly scheduled programming (aka Tuesday)...
Current Mood: sigh
Current Music: The Pillows - Ride On Shooting Star
Exhaustion! Exhaustion!

WICKER PARK SPOILERS

I saw Wicker Park with my friend this weekend. That is one SERIOUSLY fucked up movie. Okay, the movie itself wasn't that fucked up, but that psycho chick TOTALLY was. I don't buy the "neat" ending to it all - there is NO WAY she would just come clean and "be over" her whole stalking/manipulating issue with a simple confession. From what I've heard, there's no on/off switch for that kind of problem.

And what was with that 5 minute ending scene in slow-mo?? I know it's the payoff and all but GEEZ! 5 minutes!! Call me ADD but after one minute I had had enough. Then again, perhaps I'd have been more forgiving if I didn't have issues with the rest of the film. It's not that I don't like romance! I just have issues with this movie, I guess.

I had a problem with the director's use of time. The story was almost told backwards but not like Memento - it was more like Pulp Fiction as far as chopping up of time is concerned. For the first half of the movie I was bored. But unlike Pulp Fiction, which maintained my interest despite the chronological manipulation, all Wicker Park managed to do was confuse me to the point of irritation which then affected the rest of my experience with this movie.

(Ha! The cynic bitter critic strikes again! I was wondering where she'd gone off to.)

Sheesh. This movie must really have annoyed me. Those comments are almost scathing.
_________________________________________

I got to try Baldur's Gate II this weekend. Very cool game. It's not as bad as Spyro, but apparently I still have motion sickness problems with first-person povs. I may have to get some Dramamine. How sad. Motion sickness sucks!

Body is demanding sleep. Other functions have declared mutiny but I believe the odds are in the body's favor.

Zzzzz.........
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 5th, 2004 @ 07:07 pm Gadgety gadgety!
Current Mood: waiting for laundry
Current Music: Kanno Yoko - Hitomi
Okay all you tech-geeks: check this out!

What can I say? I want one!

And, as predicted, I spent a frightening amount of $ at the mall today.
About this Entry
tifa
Sep. 2nd, 2004 @ 06:30 pm Fun with magnetic poetry
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Pulp Fiction soundtrack (YEAH!)
Although I have tried, I never said I could write poetry. The jury is still out on whether I possess an iota of talent in this area but in the meantime, Magnetic Poetry kits always inspire and move me to assemble some great phrases:


smooth like petaled feet

sordid fluff

repulsive apparatus

leave the blood behind the garden

sing me

play the dream

soak the sausage

white symphony
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 31st, 2004 @ 06:29 pm I am the walking dead
Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Cowboy Bebop Movie OST
Superglue tubes should come with a new warning: "Caution: Keep out of reach of Jenn, as she has no aptitude for properly opening superglue!"

Yes, I nearly had a tube of glue fused to my fingers, along with other fingers on the same hand. All because of what? Because I can't open a damn tube of superglue correctly. Fuck.

So my hands had a nice nail polish remover bath for about half an hour. Joy.
____________________________________

Last week I was stoked about putting up a somewhat clever entry. The only thing missing was a link to the article that inspired it all. Upon arriving home and doing some searching, albeit half-hearted (I'm not going to search too hard just for a LJ entry, fer cryin out loud!), I could not find the article on the newspaper's website. WTF?? It defies logic. So being DENIED my clever journal entry, I instead resort to pointing to this as a perfect example as to why I will not be converting to online newspapers anytime soon. (Because they suck!)

It would have been a great sarcastic entry. Fuck again.
____________________________________

Finally, I believe I have entered the approaching stages of Work Burnout. I wander into work with a blank expression on my face, my brain is still at home, and I literally could spend the whole day staring at the piles of papers on my desk and it wouldn't faze or bore me. I need a vacation!

With car in pocket I will be hitting the mall with a vengeance this weekend. Watch my paycheck disappear. Hello three-day weekend sales and material satisfaction!
_____________________________________

Still, that's for the weekend. I could use a pick up for right now. *sigh*
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 20th, 2004 @ 11:18 pm Fuck!
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Hamasaki Ayumi SuperEurobeat Mixes
Fucking hurricanes! Go away!
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 20th, 2004 @ 05:48 pm Okay HI ppl, take this dumb quiz
WTF??

4. Mmm, pineapple! Do you prefer it:
Garnishing my blender drink
Glazed on a ham
Upside down on a cake
Fresh from the tree ----> WHAAAT?? A tree?!

Your Hawaiian Island match is Lanai

While others flock toward the roads most traveled, you prefer to go another route. You know that good things come in small packages. And those packages are even better if they're slightly exclusive or hard to come by. After all, you don't enjoy being like all the rest, and you really value putting your unique stamp on the world.

If you're not going to do it right, you shouldn't do it at all. That's probably part of your worldview. So spare no expense when you're ready to relax. After all, you've worked hard to get where you are. It's only fair that you treat yourself to the kind of getaway you deserve!
____________________
But I've never been there!!!!!
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 18th, 2004 @ 06:42 pm Don't miss the magic of the moment by focusing on what's to come.
Current Mood: centered
Work isn't as important as I used to believe. Sure, it's the means to earn a living but I'm not about to kill myself with it either. LIVING is more important; work should be what happens in between moments of enjoying life, not the other way around. For most of my life it's been the latter.

It's a nice feeling to take the blinders off and look at the immediate, surrounding area rather than staring far, far ahead - and occasionally tripping because of it. For once my path is uncharted and it's wonderful.

I'm still taking things one day at a time. And lately my stomach has never hurt so much from laughing.
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 18th, 2004 @ 05:23 am Let's see....I need some milk, bread, and...a casket! Yeah!
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Morning news
The fact that Costco is selling caskets is just WEIRD, you know? I like to be prepared and I don't see this as that big a deal but it's always a sensitive issue. Remember the Affordable Caskets advertising window/room by the freeway? The brouhaha was AMAZING.

The advertising really paid off, though.
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tifa
Aug. 11th, 2004 @ 07:07 pm Blah blah, blah blah blah blah.
Current Mood: silly
Current Music: Hamasaki Ayumi - UNITE!
Blah blah. Blah blah blahblahblah, blah blah blah. Blahblahblah blah, blah!

...Okay, I can only do that for so long.

Boy, does training suck. That's both being trained and training somebody. I spent about 2 hours doing that today. Not that the guy was a complete idiot or something, but I just didn't feel as if I accomplished anything today.

Courtesy of my mainland cousin, I now have an empty bottle of Don Julio tequila, hecho en mexico. It's got a different kind of spout, the sort that helps keep it from spilling. That's good when you have tequila in the bottle, but not when you're trying to rinse it out! 'Tis stinky!

Anyway, back to training. This is not per se about the training itself, but a completely unrelated subject that arose during that time. This guy I'm training, he's 21. His (for lack of a better word) supervisor is about 4 years younger than I am, but still about 6 years older than this guy. Somehow the subject of Amy Fisher came up during a side conversation, and he didn't know who we were talking about. BOY did this make me feel old. But I'm not that old! Even my brother knows who Amy Fisher is. Hmm..well, my brother is older than 21 so maybe that doesn't count but still! I didn't think I had to worry about being on the far end of the generational gap in the workplace for at least 5 more years.

Then rationalization kicked in, which is, of course, something I'm pretty good at by now. Either he's really sheltered or I'm old. It can't be the latter because that was a pop culture event - tv movies, books, court tv - he's got to read the paper or watch the news?? I don't remember when I started really reading the paper, but I always watched the news. Heck, I was forced to! My parents watched it every night @ 6 and 10! There was no getting away until, years later, they finally got a second tv. But by that time we were already watching the news or reading the paper anyway.

I haven't dwelt on it but crossing the generational gap also = closer to midlife crisis. Hasn't the decade of midlife crisis risen from 30s to 40s or 50s?? It's too early for me to be in midlife crisis, man. I still watch MTV! I still play video games! I watch pop culture movies! Actually, I really shouldn't let it bother me. Who gives a shit if I'm old. The concept of age is relative anyway.
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 9th, 2004 @ 09:57 pm If I'm so damn tired, why am I still awake??!
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: TMR - Heart of Sword
I'm dumb.

I should have gone to bed early last night but instead I watched The Fifth Element.

And tonight? I should be sleeping but I'm not.

Why?

Because I'm dumb!
____________________________

My coworker finally gets back from his 3 week vacation. He will be able to help me, but really not very much. In any case, I've only got 4 days left at this crap! I can't wait! Actually, I take that back. I'm not sure what condition my farmed out tasks are in - they may be in shambles, and when I get them back I don't want to be spending inordinate amount of time fixing them up just to be able to do my work.
____________________________

I have no food. I emptied my fridge before the weekend because I anticipated not being at home. I was right, but now I have no food. Good thing the open market is tomorrow, or I'd have to walk to the store or something!
____________________________

I've been too lazy to answer Mitchell's new set of 5 Qs. Sorry Mitchell, the brain is still drained. I'll have to check on it again next week. Or maybe I can handle the significantly easier and more mindless 5 Qs for this week. And I'll do it before bed!

See? Didn't I tell you I was dumb??

(I should be sleeping....)
About this Entry
tifa
Aug. 8th, 2004 @ 07:11 pm *zonk*
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: Jer's Lunar/FF mix
I. Am. Tired.

The whole weekend was a blur. Granted a good blur at that, but still a blur. Lack of sleep, much shopping and too much eating do not a happy mix make. I need at least a week to recouperate. The wedding, ceremony, and family get togethers were great, beautiful, and nicely organized. The couple were just so relieved that it was over; the stress was really getting to them.

I agreed to extend my temp status at work for another week, just to show that I'm a sport. So much for my "this damn thing ends after a month!" spiel. Against my better judgment I offered the extension, but I know that in the future they can't say I didn't try to help them out.

Finally picked up Leon: The Professional and The Fifth Element yesterday. The only copy of Leon available was the Superbit version (aah! $26!) but I really, really, really needed to get it already. I couldn't wait any more. However, I won't be watching it or finding out what the big deal is about Superbit until my brother returns it. He's never seen this version of the film, which I believe is decidedly superior to the cut for Americans-who-have-a-problem-with-Matilda-and-Leon's-relationship. I also bought a Hamasaki Ayumi cd of SuperEurobeat mixes, to which I've only given my first listen-to earlier today. I'm still undecided on whether or not it was a good purchase.

So I have TFE to keep me company tonight, this time with no commercial interruptions (sorry, TNT) and all the swearing! Is there swearing in this movie? I don't think I've ever seen it anywhere besides TNT. OMG, two Luc Besson films, both with Gary Oldman? How awesome can you get??

Lau is finally back home after 3 days in the hospital, but is still wheezing. He sounds congested so we have him on 2 types of medication now, but he really, really doesn't like one of them. He refuses to eat it, even in oatmeal or baby food. I don't want to have to resort to giving him shots again, but I've asked my brother to check with the vet tomorrow when he calls to give them an update. There was talk about possibly using a nebulizer to deliver medication in vapor form into his lungs, which sounds like it would be more effective, but they didn't get back to us after giving the suggestion. I'm worried. I'm sad. We lost his brother this way, painfully, slowly, and I don't want go to through that again. I'm dreading it. I know he's old already (we estimate he's nearly 2) but he shouldn't have to go this way. It should be from old age or something, not an aggressive illness.

I now have more junk food than I know what to do with, so it's in the freezer. It's not bad stuff; family always brings omiyage and I get tons of stuff that I love to eat but can't keep around the house because it's dangerous!
About this Entry
tifa