Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers or soon to be mothers like my sister Brooke. Congrats again to you and Raf, I can't wait to meet baby Moon Tiger Grass Blade.

EDIT: Comic from xkcd, of course. 

Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Then I read Diary by Chuck Palahniuk. LOVED it! I've read other books by Palahniuk and have seen Fight Club a million and a half times, which is based on his book of the same name. Diary is a bit of a horror novel but not too scary or overly gruesome. The book takes shape as a "coma diary" that Misty Wilmot writes for her husband Peter so he'll know what happened just in case he wakes up from the coma he's been in since his attempted suicide.

Misty was once a bright and promising young art student but now she's "queen of the slaves" and works at the hotel on a small island overrun by tourists as she tries to scrape up a living to support herself, daughter and mother-in-law. The locals have other plans for Misty and her artistic talents though. 

This novel has some brilliant lines that I absolutely loved:

"Just for the record, the weather today is calm and sunny, but the air is full of bullshit."

"What you don't understand you can make mean anything."

"All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired."

Never Let Me Go

Next up was Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. It was nominated for a 2005 Man Booker Prize, and was Time magazine's Book of the Year for 2005. It either won or was nominated for all kinds of things and I found it to be awful. Well, maybe not awful but I was bored out of my mind until roughly page 200 and the book is less than 300 pages so that's not good. The story unfolds very slowly, certain things are kept from the reader and slowly unveiled. This irritates the shit out of me. I would much rather know all of the facts and go from there rather than trying to figure out what the book is about, not that it was particularly difficult given the language the author used. 

The book is about a young girl, Kathy, and her life growing up in a special boarding school, her coming of age years, and her adult life. The boarding school section was especially slow going for me and that's the part that comes first. 

*If you might read this and you like surprises stop reading now*

So, once you get through all the mumbo jumbo b.s. this book is about cloning people and basically growing them for organ harvesting. The thing that really pissed me off about his book is that he just barely scrapes the surface of the ethics of this idea. I understand that the book isn't about that but it just made me dislike the book even more. I mean, they create these babies who grow into adults and are segregated, for the most part, from the outside world. These clones are used for parts, grown to die, except they have thoughts, feelings and possibly even souls. Whether or not this is okay and how society copes with it is an idea that is barely touched upon. UGH! Debating the ethics of this would be a good book, some sappy love story bullshit is not. 

Bailey's Cafe

I've been too engrossed in reading lately to post much about what I've actually read. My friendly local librarian (Buzzy) dropped a stack of books off at my work and I've been plowing my way through them. First up was Bailey's Cafe by Gloria Naylor. I absolutely loved this book. It reads as several short stories about the lives of all of these misfits that congregate in the same place, Bailey's Cafe, which is kind of a way station for those who have been treated poorly by the world. They come to his cafe and Eve's bordello for safety when they have absolutely nowhere else to turn. Bailey's Cafe is a kind of mythical place as it only appears when a person truly needs it, otherwise you will never be able to find it, even if you had previously been there. None of the characters' stories were happy, they were all heartbreaking actually, but the book leaves you with an uplifted feeling, like they just might be able to find redemption. I would definitely recommend reading this, it's an easy read too, very quick. I might not suggest it for younger readers as there are frequent references to sex and sexuality. 

May the Fourth be with you!

Happy Star Wars day my friends! I'm going to honor this important day in our culture's history by watching Empire and drinking a beer. 

Sutured Heart Necklace

Yet another great handmade etsy find, this time through their Etsy Finds email they send out regularly. I really like this necklace, it's fun and makes me smile. It can be found in idlehandsdesigns shop along with other quirky jewelry like mustache necklaces and owl rings. 

What's for dinner?

I detest cooking. I have no patience for it and it drives me insane. I feel like it's a waste of time. This has, in the past, led me to eating applesauce for dinner everyday for two weeks in a row. Anyway, when I do decide to cook I can't figure out what to make. Today I have found my answer thanks to the people over at reddit. They linked this website What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner. Its first suggestion was spiced roast chicken breast, I then informed it that "I don't fucking eat meat" and it suggested grilled eggplant and sweet pepper sandwiches. Yum! 

Super Mario Crossover.

I'm playing Super Mario on my computer all day long but as Link from Zelda instead of Mario. This is the best day ever! Go HERE to play. You can also play as Mega Man or several other characters. 

Charter Internet Cont.

Dear Charter, 

You still suck. I'm on the phone with one of your representatives right now. I'm on hold while they run around like chickens with their heads cut off because they don't know a damn thing. I made an appointment to have a tech come out and guess what, he/she didn't show up. I'm really pleased that I got up early on my day off for this. I just absolutely love your superiorly shitty customer service. The hold message is awesome, letting me know how many customer care representatives you have to make my experience wonderful is hilarious. Thanks for that because it's about the only funny thing in dealing with your company. Everything else is just absolutely frustrating and a complete waste of time. Looks like it's time to call Verizon.  

Fuck you, 

Jordan. 

Fabric

Working in the mall I work at usually isn't too bad on your budget since half of the stores in the mall have closed down. For me, the problem comes in the form of JoAnn Fabrics. I buy so many craft supplies on a fairly regular basis. I've even made friends with one of the ladies that works there. Anyway, on my latest visit I picked up this fabric because it was too cute to not have. Now, I don't sew, so I'm going to beg my dear sister to make me something with it. I have 4.7 yards I think, that's all they had. Please make me something cool. It's a very thin cotton, ok go!

Spammers

Dear Spammers,

Please stop leaving spam comments. All comments are moderated by me. I try to not be a comment nazi and so I allow all of them, even the crazy religious ones. I do however deny your fake Gucci shoe comments, all 3 zillion of them. I know you won't read this because it's very likely that you can't read. Just in case you are literate: please stop. It's obnoxious. Those of you spamming me in German though, please continue as it's hilarious. 

Sincerely,

Jordan.  

I need these.

These awesome postcards are made by etsy seller artbutte. I have a few people I'd like to send one to. 

Charter Internet

Dear Charter,

Fuck you. Your service sucks, your "tech support" department is full of idiots and you're overpriced. I hope your tech does come out tomorrow, I also hope it is pouring down rain. Then he can stand there in the rain knocking on the door while I'm at work because I spent 3 hours on the phone with my friends tonight and fixed the problem on my own with their help. No, it wasn't the cable line like you said it was considering how I just had a new one installed two weeks ago. Nice troubleshooting though. Fucktards. 

Ashland.

Sometimes when it's overcast and dreary here I think back to the beautiful, warm summers in Ashland. I really miss that place sometimes, I can't wait to go visit for a day in May. 

Speeding Ticket.

So today I got a speeding ticket. FML. I only have one ticket on my record and it is set to come off on May 25th which would leave absolutely nothing on my driving record. Yet here I am with a new ticket for the exact same thing: going 70 in a 55. I should've gotten a car with cruise control. Here's to 3 more years of paying the same rate for insurance. 

Headset Part Dos.

My sister requested a picture of the headset. Well, here you go. I know it's the sexiest headset you've ever seen. Apparently they make a WoW headset so when you talk you sound like an in game character. I definitely did not shell out the $200 for that thing, even if I kind of wanted to. kidding. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

This is my mom and I on one of my birthdays. Today was her birthday, Happy Birthday Mom. I love you! 

Headset.

I've been putting off purchasing a headset for gaming for the longest time. Mainly because, to me, wearing a headset is the pinnacle of nerdiness and there was no way in hell I wanted to be up there with the others but alas, here I am. I set up a ventrilo server for my guild tonight with a lot of help from my friend Buzzy (pesky firewalls) and got to talk to some people while playing. It's a completely different experience. I'm now going to never embarrass any of you by talking to you in public again. 

The New Pornographers.

"Myriad Harbour" The New Pornographers from Fluorescent Hill on Vimeo.

So lately I've been obsessed with The New Pornographers and this is one of my favorite songs. They have a bunch of albums which you can find on grooveshark. This video is pretty much amazing as well. They have a new album due out in May. 

Dress!

I got April's Anthropologie catalog today and I saw this dress and I MUST have it. It needs to be in my closet making me ridiculously happy right now! So cute. 

Vacation.

No, I'm not going on vacation but I need to. I would like a few days where I don't have to get up, put on my new work clothes that I hate, and be nice to people all day. Instead, I would like to lay in bed, not shower until the afternoon if I don't feel like it, read in bed all day, and not talk to anybody unless I want to. 

While I'm being ridiculous I would also like a teleportation device, a mechanism to freeze time, and for all people to learn the difference between your and you're. 

Happy St. Patty's Day?

All of this sweet leprechaun apparel can be found on sale at Target for less than $5.00

I like to be sure to wake up early to be first in line for all the after St. Patty's Day sales. 

Eating Animals

It’s not often that I struggle for words, wrestle with them, search for them. Generally speaking, I have no issues with taking my thoughts and turning them into sentences, but what about when your thoughts are tangled? I recently read the non-fiction work Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer and it left my mind in knots, numb, hurting, sad and hopeful. You see, the book is about just what it says it is, Eating Animals.

I made a personal decision 10 years ago to stop eating meat; I became a vegetarian.  At first, when people would ask me why, I would give impassioned speeches on animal rights which would be received with an eye roll or a dismissive “good for you!” I felt like I was getting nowhere on changing the world and at 14 that’s a tough blow. Over time my answers turned into, “it hurts my stomach,” or, “I don’t like how it tastes.” I would leave out the rest, “it hurts my stomach because I know how these animals were treated and it makes me physically sick,” or “I don’t like how it tastes because when I eat it all I can think about is that it’s the flesh of something that was once living and was treated terribly, I can’t eat it knowing the conditions in which it died.” People don’t like hearing that and I would save them, and myself from having to hear or say it, from the uncomfortable moments that followed. I was reminded when reading this about the power in advocacy. I can, and did make my personal choice but it’s not enough unless I share it with others.

Eating Animals began when Safran Foer and his wife were expecting their first child. He wanted to know what kinds of food were best for his son. The book isn’t long, about 265 pages of large font but it explores the world of factory farming thoroughly enough that a person can make an informed decision by the end on what they are comfortable eating.

The question is posed, “How much suffering will you tolerate for your food?” He invites you to take the morals with which you live everyday and apply them to the food you eat. Is it nourishing to your body? Not remotely. Meat is now stuffed with broth to give it any kind of flavor, it’s filled with antibiotics, which causes antibiotic resistance in humans, and it promotes obesity, causes global warming, and makes people sick.  Perhaps more importantly to some, is it nourishing to your soul and mind? That’s a question for each to answer on their own and it’s harder for some than others. It’s not wrong to love meat or even to eat it, but it’s not okay to not know what you’re eating and where it comes from, how it was treated in life and death, it’s irresponsible to be ignorant.  Safran Foer says that, “not responding is a response” and perhaps the easiest one to make is to just ignore it, to not care to know.

Don’t worry my meat eating friends, he’s not heavily pushing vegetarianism or veganism right from the start, this isn’t a manifesto, it’s not so much a book against eating meat as it is against factory farming, promoting responsible animal husbandry and being educated on what you are consuming.

I highly recommend reading this book and I wish I could give a copy to everyone I know. It’s the kind you can read in snippets here and there but still has a profound impact. It causes one to examine their beliefs and reassess, which is oh so important to continue to do throughout life. 

Wicked!

My mom is currently making Kraft mac n cheese for 3 of her 4 adult children at one in the morning because we are too lazy to do it. That, my friends, is a good mother. 

My mom, brother, sister, brother-in-law and I went and saw the musical Wicked tonight at the Orpheum in San Francisco. For those of you living under a rock it's loosely based on the Gregory Maguire novel of the same name which, by the way, is amazing. 

It's the story of how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West and of her friendship with Galinda, later known as Glinda the Good Witch. The lady who played Elphaba had the most amazing voice but the actress playing Glinda stole the show, especially while portraying Galinda. She was hilarious. Oh, and Fiyero was hot! 

Another interesting experience today was taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It is inexpensive access right into the city but if planning on taking the BART one should really pack a gas mask. That thing had some incredibly stale air where the smells of body odor and sweat linger. 

Most Mundane Day Ever.

So today some construction crew somewhere in town cut a fiber optic cable rendering all of my office equipment useless. I had no PoS, no computers, no credit card machines and I couldn't dial any long distance phone calls. Great. I was absolutely thrilled that I did my massive pile of filing *last* week, oops. So I spent the day reading. I'm almost finished with the book and hopefully I will be able to tell you all about it soon. I just want to know the final conclusion the author comes to before I say anything about it. 

Health Care Reform has Passed!!

The House voted on the health care reform bill tonight and it passed! This is something worth celebrating. It's not anything close to what I was hoping for but it's better than nothing. I am, however, extremely angry and disappointed about the decision to maintain the Hyde amendment. 

I like what NARAL Pro-Choice America's Nancy Keegan had to say:

"On a day when Americans are expected to see passage of legislation that will make health care more affordable for more than 30 million citizens, it is deeply disappointing that Bart Stupak and other anti-choice politicians would demand the restatement of the Hyde amendment, a discriminatory law that blocks low-income women from receiving full reproductive-health care. Today’s action is a stark reminder of why we must repeal this unfair and insulting policy. Achieving this goal means increasing the number of lawmakers in Congress who share our pro-choice values. Otherwise, we will continue to see women’s reproductive rights used as a bargaining chip."

Sarah & Andrew Fox.

Yesterday my best friend got married. It was a very sweet ceremony that really reflected the couple's personality. It's very true that brides look exceptionally beautiful on their wedding day. Congrats guys, love you! 

This is Mr. & Mrs. Fox shortly after their ceremony. This picture is amazing as just minutes earlier the photographer was teaching them how to dip. It was priceless and adorable. 

So this was our "pose" picture except we weren't all the way posed yet. haha, oh well. 

My best friend.

This is a photo of Sarah and I circa 2001 when I convinced her to let me dye her hair pink (mine had green with a super stylin' pink streak ><). Sarah has been my best friend since she moved here from Texas when we were in middle school. She was the one I snuck out of the house with, had my first alcoholic drinks with, shared broken heart ice cream with, had holiday shopping trips with and belted out Spice Girls songs with. She's getting married this weekend and I'm really excited for her. It kind of weirds me out because we're still so young but she is sure so that's good enough for me. It's crazy how much we've changed over the years but I still love her to death, she's always been an amazing friend. I can't wait to see my 2nd family give her away!  

"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,

Make it last forever, friendship never ends."

Damn, I really really really wanna zigazig ah now.  

ugh, I hate Mondays.

Do you know how I know that today is Monday? I locked myself out of the house. Well, first my bedroom, then the house. Then I climbed the tree in the front yard to get onto the roof to try and get back in and retrieve my keys. This wouldn't seem like that big of a deal except that my house isn't sitting on the ground. There is an above ground basement, then the first story of the house, and then the second. So I climb this huge tree to the roof only to find that all of the dormer windows are locked. I'm late to work mind you, so I'm doing this in heels and slacks, super fun. Then I have to climb back down the tree. It's much harder to get from the roof to the tree than from the tree to the roof. Then I have to find a ladder and carry it to another window, up stairs and through little areas. I finally get in the house but by this time I'm an hour late to work and completely covered in dust and bark. Happy Monday all!

Pi.

Happy Pi day my geeky friends! Time for pizza or pie, I'm going to have both!

Super adorable tote that I may purchase found here.