For the second time, Timbuk2 announced some limited edition bags, and for the second time, I am in serious lust.
I am prevented from purchasing the perfectly adorable, purse-like Eula bag, however, by the fact that the teeniest bag costs $175!
It’s cute, but it’s not that cute.
Oh, my poor, neglected blog. Look at all the daily links posts standing in for real entries. So sad.
I have hinted at some ongoing stress in my life, and I don’t think it would be too unprofessional to say that it’s job-related- there’s a lot of upheaval and uncertainty, to say the least. The fact is, it’s sapping my energy for almost everything- hence the spate of WoW-related posts. Escapism is fun.
So partly so I can stop boring y’all who are still around with that crap, and partly for my own benefit, I’m going to write about something I am actually pretty excited about.
Starting in the middle of next month, I’m going to take a stand-up comedy class through the DC Improv. It’s a four week class, with a field trip to watch an Open Mic night, and then a graduation showcase in which the students will perform.
I’m excited about this because I’ve loved stand-up comedy since I was a kid watching the “MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour” with my dad, and have always secretly thought it would be fun to do.
So I’ve started walking around with index cards to jot down joke ideas as they come to me. I’ve got a few cards now with some ideas, some more well-developed than others, of things that are funny to me, and with luck I can make them funny to everyone else.
I came up with something yesterday that I thought was hilarious, but it’ll be stale by the time I actually get around to using it. So I’m going to share it with you now.
“I was so irritated that the State of the Union address was on instead of House. I mean, when I watch a jackass on TV, it should at least be a smart one who actually SOLVES hard problems.”
Yeah, I know, it needs a little polishing. Whatever.
For those of you who are interested, which is about none of you, Tomatosauce made level 59 on Wednesday night, and got 40% of the way to level 60 last night on her first trip to Scholomance.
Four days until my copy of the WoW expansion arrives. 60% left until 60. Yeah. (When the expansion arrives, I’ll have to get back to the grind because the maximum level will become 70. Oy.)
There ought to be a new measure of a product’s impact on the marketplace: how long does it take before random people start getting spammed with offers for a free $WIDGET.
I received my first “get a free Apple iPhone!” spam yesterday, a mere two days after the product was announced.
I totally went to high school with the guy in this WaPo DateLab. Not in the figurative, “Oh, I know a guy just like that” sense. The literal, “he graduated the year before me” sense.”
It’s funny, I had sort of a mixed reaction as I read the article- on one hand, I’m thinking, “dear heavens, he really hasn’t changed a bit.” And on the other, I’m thinking, “clearly, she didn’t get the joke.”
Though I must say that anyone who went to my high school and still managed to grow up thinking it’s okay to order for the woman on the date must not have been paying very much attention.
In the process of replacing my beloved-but-befouled black Skechers Step Up Mary Janes, I ran across these sneakers and have ordered them in black. Because, ZOMG, SO CUTE. How do you not love the little dragons? Especially when my Amazon Prime membership gives me free two-day shipping?!
Incidentally, Amazon no longer sells the shoes I was actually looking for directly, and none of their third-party sellers could get them to me fast enough, so I still have to hit the Skechers store in Tysons this week to get shoes for work. Of course, I do have at least one client (and probably more) who would think the dragon sneakers are excellent shoes for the office.
Who am I to argue with a client who does that much business with me?
Also, the last pair of sneakers I bought in that sort of skateboard-y style, while tres cute, were actually terrible in the arch support department, most likely because they were CHEAP AS HELL. If I spent more than an hour walking around in them, I would soon be whimpering in pain because they had no shock absorption whatsoever. I am hopeful that these will be better. Seriously, I’ve walked all over town in my mary janes with minimal discomfort, so I hope that bodes well for the quality of the sneaker experience. Many women have long sought the magical combination of cute AND comfortable, so I’ll be sure to report back with my findings.
I also recognize that my taste in shoes tends to run to the more “cute” than “elegant” or “professional” and that as such, they might not be suitable for everyone. But you see, this has more to do with the fact that I am sort of short and cherubic-looking. Some would even say I resemble a Keebler elf. So you see, “elegant” is not a look that works for me. I look like I’m playing dressup in my mommy’s power suits. So I have to find ways to make “cute” work for me in a workplace environment. I’m getting better at it, I think. It’s 50% clothing choice, and 50% workplace/field choice.
We have returned, safe and sound, from our Christmas trip to my ancestral homeland. We had a nice visit with my family and enjoyed some serious Christmas Coma.
I love Christmas Coma. It’s that delightful feeling you get after Christmas dinner when you can nod off to sleep without any part of your brain saying, “You know, you should get up and do laundry/clean the house/pay the bills/whatever.”
Not that my family makes that hard. Any holiday gathering is marked by enough food to feed a small army, and my grandmother’s fretting that people aren’t eating enough and there’s going to be too much left over for my grandfather and her to finish. Not that it isn’t delicious, of course, it’s just that there’s a metric buttload of food. (Not to be confused with the imperial buttload.) It’s especially relaxing now that my younger cousins are old enough to not be all wound up and yelling on Christmas morning. Not that I wasn’t fond of them during the commotion phase, but now that they’re a little older and feel like they have to play it cool, they’re more fun to be around.
We did have one mishap on the way up, but what holiday would be complete without a ridiculous story to tell? Tom and I had decided to leave after Christmas Eve church services. We wanted to take Jack with us, so we headed back to the house to load up the car and get the cat. We tried putting him in the cat carrier but he Would. Not. Go. He fought, he howled, he struggled. Maybe it’s that every time we put him in the carrier, he gets stuck with needles, I don’t know. Finally we decided that he’d probably be fine in my lap for the ride and we took him, still struggling and terrified to the car and I held him and tried to comfort him as we got under way. (Some grossness to follow behind the jump.) (more…)
Is this a case of unintentional comedy, subversive designer, or is Microsoft really trying to link the Zune to BJs?
(Image IS actually SFW, even if you have to make your boss really LOOK at it to prove it.)
So I’m playing WoW this weekend, and I’m about to do what’s called an “instance” with Ian and one of his friends. Essentially, in an instance, you get an appropriate group together, you enter the dungeon or cave or whatever, and once you’re in, you don’t run into any other players- each group has a unique opportunity with whatever is in there, so no other players can take the loot you want or kill the guy you’re trying to kill or whatever.
So I’m waiting around for Ian and his friend, and this other party rolls up- people I don’t know. They ask me to come do the instance with them, and I respond that I have a party already, but thanks for the invitation. They persist, and I stand firm. They wander off. Then Ian arrives, and we’re hanging around by the entrance, and one of the members of the other party comes back.
He continues to ask that I come play with them. Now, keep in mind that I’m not much more advanced in the game than he is- he didn’t really NEED me to do this (He’s a 15 Tauren warrior, I was a 16 troll priest, for those of you who know what that means). But I’m watching him use all the chat /emote commands- he begs, he dances, he flexes…and finally flips me off and runs away.
I say to Ian, “So, what’s up with the begging? Is it just that I’m a chick?”
Ian says, “Definitely. Women get all kinds of attention in MMOs. It’s kind of pathetic, really.”
“Clearly Blizzard needs to make a new trinket for the female characters- the Wedding Ring of Unavailability.”
Why not just say, “Hey, my group could really use a healer for this run?” It would be a lot less pathetic…
—-
The Tip of the Day when I logged in to the server to play was, “Being polite while playing with a group will get you invited back!” So sad that you actually have to TELL people that.
There has been a request to provide more detail about why Snakes on a Plane is worth seeing.
First, it’s best to see it the first time in a theater with people who are as enthusiastic as you are. The crowd we saw it with cheered wildly for Samuel L. Jackson’s name appearing in the credits, Samuel L. Jackson’s first appearance onscreen, the plane’s first appearance, the snakes’ first appearance, particularly egregious examples of product placement. etc. We shouted along with Samuel when he said, “I am SO TIRED of these MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES on this MOTHERFUCKING PLANE!” At a particularly touching moment between two characters, we all “Awww”ed together, and then laughed riotously when Tom shouted, “FIRST to die!” We screamed and laughed during the scary parts and made no efforts to be quiet so other people could hear the dialogue. After all, it’s not like we were missing much. Seeing it with others to mock it with is the first step to enjoying the experience. Sort of a roll-your-own-MST3K experience, or a Rocky Horror showing.
Essentially, you spend the whole movie marvelling at how incredibly bad it is, and the only hint that it might be intentional parody is that Samuel L. Jackson has this irrepressible twinkle in his eye for the whole movie which indicates that he’s just having a lot more fun than anyone else. It’s like when they decided to make it a parody, he’s the only one they told.
Also, the whole feel of the actual film and camera work is so low-budget you can practically see the date flashing in the corner of the screen.
And you can imagine the director and screenwriter sitting in a room with a whiteboard saying, “How can we make this ridiculous premise more scary? I know, let’s make a list of all the especially horrifying places to get bitten by a snake, and have snakes bite ALL of them!” *shudder*
Samuel L. Jackson’s self-parody is worth special note here, too. It was almost like he was playing himself in a Saturday Night Live sketch. You’ll see what I mean when his eyes get wide and he says, “Oh great! Snakes on CRACK!” Trust me on this.