Al Franken!

Happy Birthday Al Franken! Thank you for not being yet another gigantic douche bag on Capitol Hill. Thank you for all of your hard work, for displaying common sense and for being able to hold logical conversations with your constituents. Please continue to be the man.   

Baby Hippo

Cute now but will kill you when it's older. Have a great day!

Peacocktail Dress

Anyone want to buy me a dress for $399 and then manufacture some sort of event I can wear it to because I'm pretty much in love with this. k thanks! 

It's handmade by Veronica Reis and you can find some more of her other cool dresses in her etsy shop. 

Fringe

My new favorite television show is Fringe. It's sci-fi but not hokey and it has the super hot Joshua Jackson; now I understand why everyone was so obsessed with Dawson's Creek when I was younger. Anyway, you also have the bad ass female FBI agent and the crazy scientist old man and lots of weird pseudo-scientific craziness. You can watch it on Hulu.

World MS Day - May 26th 2010

Beautiful Day - English from MSIF on Vimeo.

World MS Day is coming up on the 26th of May. Multiple Sclerosis is described as, "a chronic, often disabling disease. It is one of the most common disabling neurological conditions amongst young adults in the northern hemisphere. Over 2,000,000 people in the world have MS." The symptoms are unpredictable and different for everyone. There is no cure.

Just like all diseases, MS not only touches those who have it but also the families who are trying to help take care of their loved ones and understand a disease that presents itself in so many ways.

So on the 26th please take time to support those living with MS, even if it's only by thinking a good thought in your head. To find out how to get involved in the global movement to end MS or to donate go to www.nationalmssociety.org or www.worldmsday.org

Judge A Book

Judge a Book by its Cover is an awesome blog that posts book covers of some of the most random and ridiculous books accompanied by funny commentary. This coloring book was one of today's gems. I kind of want it. Here's an example, not so much from the blogger but more from an amazon comment:

"...here's another potentially useful book. Not only can you color in the pictures, but you can learn new hairstyles for your vajayjay. My favorite comment on Amazon.com: "The Big Coloring Book of Vaginas isn't just a coloring book. It's inspiration. When first presented with this, I strummed through it thinking it was a joke. But I soon realized that this is a guidebook for redecorating your vagina, especially if it's been around awhile and you feel like you've run out of new ways to dress it up. I put aside the crayons, except to use to draw in accessories like scarves and snoods, in favor of spray glitter, various stick-on mustaches, mini-flower and seed arrangements. (I didn't like the seeds -- too elementary school, hence, creepy. You don't want a bean and seed turkey down there, believe me!) My current favorite is stick-on beadwork in an ornate Tiffany-esque peacock design. (Tip: surprise your ob/gyn with a beadwork speculum! He'll flip!) Also, if it's your bridal day, try a delicate self-adhesive Velcro surprise for your honeymoon. Your partner will never forget it!""

Yellow Owl Workshop

My friend Buzzy got me some super sweet stamps from Yellow Owl Workshop for my unbirthday. I went ahead and checked out their website and already have my little heart set on the cityscape and seascape stamp sets.  I also received some adorable swallow ornaments that I now must decide just where to hang because they are too cute not to be put up immediately. Thanks Buzzy! 

Daria

Oh Daria Morgendorffer, I've missed you so...

Daria came out on dvd today. I am so happy about this! I'm going to need to buy it asap and relive all of the wonderful episodes. Daria was one of my favorite shows when I was younger. She was so intelligent, bookish, and awesomely snarky, I was in love. The super hot Trent character wasn't bad either. I had a huge crush on a cartoon character. That's slightly embarrassing now. Anyway, Daria was one of Mtv's best, they did have some quality programming 15 years ago. 

Male Choir A Cappella Lady Gaga Awesomness

This is an all male choir called On The Rocks from the University of Oregon singing Bad Romance by Lady Gaga a cappella. It's pretty good and their dancing made me laugh so hard. 

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.