Sweet Catastrophe

My allergies are really taking over today. I’ve taken meds to no avail for the first time in a long time. My nose is running like crazy and I’ve been rubbing my eyes with a  fierceness.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but I suspect Ms. Willow has something to do with it. I think she slept on my head and just moved right before I woke up.

All my allergy meds and the inhaler have my heart rate all jumpy today. Supposedly I have some condition that makes my heart rate go all wonky, which makes me feel exhausted,but it has no other effects–I suspect that’s not exactly true and I’ll one day fall dead or something. Then again, that could easily be the hypochondriac in me!

There’s a pretty steady rain out right now. Looks like the perfect opportunity to get a good nap, which is exactly what I think I’ll do.

Can I just say……I really hate going to bed alone. I hate it when Ryan’s not here. What do I have to look forward to? An empty king-sized bed, cold feet with no one to warm them, and no goodnight kisses. How can I possibly go to sleep without someone tuning into a really crappy movie I’ve already seen too many times?

I’ll end the mushiness there, but ya know–my blog.

I haven’t been much on watching television lately. I’ve got a lot of shows on my pc right now, and I’d much rather watch uninterrupted programming than subject myself to the crappy commercials stuffed in my tiny little half hour of humor.

I’m surrounded by creativity, for free! Why am I paying to watch uninventive ads, doing nothing to hide the fact that they’re desperately trying to force something on me?

Every semester, I see a handful of projects from the Theatre students here, at VSU. I’d actually pay to see what they could come up with. I see ads all the time with great concepts, but they just don’t follow through right, or they get lazy and just don’t do the concept justice. Viewers should create commercials.

Ah, there’s the idea! Black Turtle Media thought the same thing, and thus they promote amateur and professional producers of commercial-grade advertising. And Black Turtle Media wants your work! They’re currently offering a contest for commercials on the Apple iPhone, Halo 3, and Decision 2008. The winner receives $5,000. I think I’m gonna pass that on to Brian. He’s one of the more prolific in turning out new projects, and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind the opportunity to earn some cash. Besides, he and Josh are always looking for their next project. They can’t just relax!

Everyone is encouraged to submit their own masterpieces, or just vote on the ones you like best. You could be voting on what you have to watch between segments of your favorite prime time drama *serious look*

This is the email I just received with the subject line: Your life is about to change

The line, “You’ve received this letter because you are employed at Dunder Mifflin Infinity.” follows it and makes me giggle! I love, “Stay with us long enough and you’ll want to be committed, too.”

This is from www.dundermifflininfinity.com, something Kristi and I are getting into. Most everything is “Coming Soon” at the moment, but I’m looking forward to some internet greatness!! Something’s supposed to be going on tomorrow, so we’ll see what gets updated!

Come join us! We’re in the Macon, Ga branch! You can put in Kristi’s manager code (65ghqfeqdg ) and hopefully she can be our manager!

Why didn’t I buy chocolate when I went to Wal Mart on Tuesday? Better yet, why is it now Thursday, and I still don’t have any? I’m still debating a trip uptown right now. It’s ridiculous that eating factors into my laziness, yet I’m too lazy to go buy things to eat….?

I think I don’t want to go ’cause I know I’ll have to shop for all the other things I forgot to buy on Tuesday. I’m running low on pretty much all the medical supplies I try to keep on hand. I have two band aids and I’m running dangerously low on Excedrin; I just can’t have that.

I really need to pick up an inhaler as well, but I’m still holding out hope that Ryan will make it to the Dr. to get another prescription for a good inhaler. The OTC one just isn’t up to par. It’s starting to make my chest hurt.

*Sigh* And that reminds me that I soon have to subject myself to the medical know-how of the school clinic. I’m still uninsured and my womanly medications are about to be out of refills. *Groan* I’m not looking forward to that….

Kristi, remind me to make an appointment. Pretty please?

For my typing class, we had the option of purchasing the software for home use. I picked it up online for less than half what it cost in the Bookstore. Anyway, I knew I’d need it to keep up with assignments over the Oklahoma trip. I’ve taken to actually leaving class early on a regular basis. I’m just more comfortable at home, where there’s no one to berate me for not sitting with my feet perfectly straight, or my fingers on the home row keys. I’m sorry, I’ve had a highly respectable typing rate since Elementary school and I have no need to stick to home row keys. I’m perfectly capable of typing without looking at my hands, and I’m much more comfortable with my technique.

Anyway, the sound options are locked on the software, and I had a feeling it was due to my instructor’s settings, but I emailed the company anyway…….after an overly extensive search for any contact information–thank God for search skills! This is the idiotic exchange that occurred:

Issue: I want to turn the sound off of my home edition of this software, but it appears to be locked. What can I do?

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Hello Jade,Sound controls are located under the Edit drop down menu then select Preferences. This menu is accessed after you load your profile in the upper left hand corner. If these preferences are locked sound can also be turned off by either the volume control on your speakers or Windows volume control in the lower right corner by the system clock.

Thank you.

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Right, so in me stating that they’re locked, I obviously know how to locate the settings. I’m also not computer illiterate, so I know how to turn the volume off on my computer. I want to know WHY the settings are locked, and how I can change the settings on this software I’ve paid for. I should be free to listen to music or whatever else I choose while working with this software.

Jade

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Hello Jade,

If these preferences are locked at your install the options would only be able to be changed by instructor.

Thank you.

Could someone not have sent this simple sentence to me in the first place? I can’t imagine how annoying it is to work in any sort of Tech support, but it’s one of my biggest pet peeves to have someone overlook my competence and go straight to speaking to me like I don’t know keyboard from a mouse. The original response was obviously sent after simply noticing that I had a question about my volume settings. No need to read the actual question! <Annoyance>

Back in High School, for half a year, we worked with stocks. We were given a set amount of money to invest in 3 different companies and we had to track them for the semester. We were allowed to sell and buy a new stock once per company after midterm. At the end of the semester, we wrote up papers about our results, what we thought influenced our stocks, etc. It was definitely an interesting project and piqued my curiosity about investing.

Ryan and I always talk about investing if/when we have a decent amount of extra money to do so with, but truth is, we wouldn’t know where to start. I think that’s why I was really interested when Kristi mentioned this Fantasy Investing game.

MyWallSt.net is home to the rookie challenge. Registration and participation is free! Participants are given $100,000.00 to invest however they choose. The process is limited to buying and selling, for a basic understanding of the system. Data is based on a 15-20 minute delay, and operations are Monday thru Friday, 10am-4pm, same as real life operations.

It’s a great way to get a decent understanding of how things work, and I haven’t mentioned the best part yet–real cash! Every week, the top-ranking Rookie in each of the six categories gets a cash prize of $1,000. I’m pretty sure you can’t argue with that.

Remember, registration and participation is free. Registrants receive a free hat, and participating offers you a better understanding of investing! Something you might actually be able to use. Vigorous participation could find you $1,000 richer!

–I’d make my Krizlet’s Birthday absolutely amazing!

For breakfast, I’d have Zac Efron bring her waffles and chocolate milk in bed, and wake her with some Link-like singing. (Of course, I’d come knock on her window first, and give her fair warning so she could be all cute before he got there!)

Then we’d head to Best Buy to load up on all her favorite series’ on DVD, so she could safely clear her TiVo…Can you buy more memory for TiVo? We’d probably get that too. Of course, we’d pull all the regular movies she wanted too, before heading over to buy new iPods, and backup iPods, and really big iTunes gift cards for lots of legal downloads =) I mean, we don’t need the FBI busting down Kristi’s door! Then we’d need some amazing computer gadgets–the biggest external harddrive available to hold all her media, and a second one as a just in case backup! Of course we’d get the biggest/best monitor available to avoid straining my Krizlet’s eyes!

Hmm, I think I’d have to let her pick our lunch stop, but either way, the cast of The Office would meet us there, in character! Every quote request would be fulfilled! Then off to Krizzle’s Office Themed afternoon party! Complete with Karaoke!

Finally, Jim would drop us off in an undisclosed location where every worthy Lifeho would be present for a joint Lifehouse-Andrew McMahon concert! We’d take lots of pictures, to rub in the faces of those undesirables We’d rock into the night, shouting requests, and demanding an intermission to chow down!

We’d probably end the evening with some DDR at our Lifeho sleepover….in the presidential suite of the nicest hotel in our undisclosed location. Room Service anyone? And discussions of what we’d do NEXT year for the Great and Powerful Kriz’s Birthday!

Happy Birthday Kristi! One day I’ll give you the world on your Birthday, but I gotta win the lottery first!

So the weekend is coming, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to work. I’m absolutely not looking forward to that. I’m really pleased I got out of working the rest of this week. I suppose having ridiculous schedules can be advantageous at times! I was scheduled during the end of my vacation time, and then off the rest of the week. The whole time we were in Oklahoma, I was just waiting for a call, informing me of the schedule they threw on me for the rest of the week. I need to go up there this afternoon and check my schedule, and make sure they’ve got my vacation time in my paycheck. You can be sure I won’t be accepting a paycheck without my vacation hours included. I’ve seen them do it to way too many people, and I’m not in the mood to accept it. Rent will have to come out of that check. I’m hoping to be in a different job by Christmas…

Ryan’s gone for the weekend again. He left first thing this morning. I hate when he heads out before I have to get up. I don’t get a proper goodbye, and I don’t get to nag him about taking an overnight bag! He’s so bad about just grabbing some clothes and throwing them into his car. I don’t care about that, the annoyance comes in for me when I finally get caught up with laundry, and suddenly a pile emerges from his car. Dammit! I’ve been threatening to get a big Samsonite set–something he can’t ignore! I’m convinced that if I can get him to actually pack, I might get his smelly clothes back in a timely manner….maybe people could actually sit in the back of his car then, too. What a concept…

*sigh* Dishes are calling.

I now feel comfortable presenting my new blog, Aftershocks! I’ve still got a little work to do, but I’m happy with the name, and I’m happy with the setup now.

Aftershocks will be my review-type blog. Not necessarily all reviews, but my opinion on ’stuff’ in general–movies, music, websites, foods, products, etc!

It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I moved here to my own domain. I started doing this with my old blogspot blog to keep it going for a while, but I’m finally ready here. It took so long to decide on a name. I wanted something to signify reviews, but I wanted it to fit properly with my domain. Aftershocks finally came to me after an extensive thesaurus search led me to ‘afterthoughts.’ I think Aftershocks ties afterthoughts and Sweet Catastrophe in quite nicely.

I’m really excited about learning to manage two blogs. I’m still finding my balance in blogging about certain things on Afterthoughts rather than here.

I know there’s not much there yet, but I’d love a little link attention, or even comments.

More importantly though, I’d love some tips on how best to do reviews. For now, I’ll be sticking more to simply stating my opinion, but I’m really interested in doing proper reviews. I lack the skills to review something without giving away too many details, or getting too biased. I’d really like to work on that!