Just die already.

I've gone ahead and made my journal friends only. Apparently some people can't take a hint.

It's most likely temporary. I've decided to do this because there are some people I do not want reading.

The end.

Day 1 nicotine free.

It's supposed to be, anyhow. So far, so good. Normally, I would have had my first cigarette of the day about an hour ago.

I'm nervous just thinking about going to work and being around work friends who smoke. That will probably get worse as the day progresses. I think know work will be the hardest part of my day. Problem is, after work I'm going to a friend's for an engagement party, where I will be drinking, and likely fiending for a smoke.

Alright. I'm over-analyzing this. Be cool.

Current Mood: nervous

EAR-RELATED CONTENT AHEAD. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

I've done it... I changed up my BAF wishlist. Not because I want different jewelry, but because I want them in a different size. I'm really sick and tired of dealing with the variations in size at 00 gauge. The difference between 9mm and 10mm doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge fucking difference in your earlobes.

It's even more annoying when you pay more money than usual on a pair of plugs, only to find they're less than the minimum of your size, i.e. when I bought my pink/green/silver trichros in 00g, only to have them show up smaller than 9mm. I realized after I ordered them that I should have ordered 10mm, but my order was already in the mail, and I figured I'd just deal with it. (For reference, my "00g" IS silver dichro with the nautical stars, like the ones in the example, are also smaller than 9mm).

I've revamped my wishlist, so I can get the plugs I really, really want, in a consistent size. (Or, at least, more consistent than what I'm putting up with now.) I could theoretically order red/black power plugs in 10mm from BME, but if I'm spending more anyway, I may as well get them bigger and better and bad-ass-er. (It's a word now.)

I figure I will just stretch up. I can't for the life of me get PTFE tape to cooperate (it bunches up like woah), but I'm not keen on using a taper, even though they make them in that size.

I also think it will be a good idea to stretch up, in the sense of aesthetics. I'm sure my lobes have the room. Why not use all that skin to its full potential? Then, there's the aesthetics of the plugs to consider. Everything looks better in bigger sizes, especially jewelry with more detail, like planet plugs, which I've been lusting after forever. Incidentally, they're not in my wishlist because I'm still not sure which ones I want most.

Anyway, I want to get at least some enjoyment out of my incredibly varied 00g collection while I can. I don't plan on doing this soon, but I'm going to do it eventually. I give it a few months before I'm re-buying the ones I like. (God, how much is that going to fucking cost???)

Current Mood: frustrated

Random thought...

I was on Facebook, and they have those "pick 5" things. The most popular on today is "Things that I want to give to my mom for Mother's Day". Rather than fill it out, I was looking for what other people had said.

A guy answered: nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. (Well, that's what I got mine)

One guy answered: chloroform, green duct tape, rope, chair, basement. (Fun!)(Not really)

A third dude said: new lungs, a house, money, mother's day card, and good credit score...AGAIN!

Cheerful. If you're still on good terms with your mommy, I hope you at least took a second to wish her a happy mother's day.

Back story:

Recently, on of my dad's friends suddenly died. He didn't have a wife or kids or a girlfriend or even a kitty cat when he passed, and left behind about four milk crates full of vinyl albums. I was actually allowed to pick what I wanted, and hopefully I'll get what I chose. I also have a few albums and singles back in Ontario, and I also have a turntable.

Here's why I'm posting:

I've decided to start a community to buy, sell, and trade vinyl. It's called vinylswap. There was a similar comm, but it hasn't been updated since '06.

PLEASE TO BE JOINING MY COMMUNITY. Please. Pretty please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Go now. Click here.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Nazareth - Hair of the Dog

I'm considering getting a new iPod. Not that there's anything wrong with the 2GB Nano I have. Don't laugh. 2GB is great and all, because I don't travel long distances (it's a 15-minute walk to work), but it'd still be cool to have 120 GB of memory instead.

I got my 2 gig when it was the newest thing. My dad bought it for me, and it's served me well. However, you can't even get 2GB iPod Nanos anymore. The smallest you can get is one of those 8GB now.

So,I'm looking at the classic one here, in black, of course. Thoughts?

I really wanted to get an iPod Touch, but the problem is that I actually want the memory. The 120GB is $20 more than the 8GB Touch. And, I'm sure as hell not paying $429 for 32GB. Sorry, Apple. I'd rather have memory than a touch screen. It sort of pains me to say that, since I love touch screens.

Completely non-iPod related: my most recent update on my hair is here.

Current Mood: curious

Last week I re-realized why I don't buy new technology. (If you're going to tl;dr, your loss.)

In November, I jumped at the chance to buy a new BlackBerry Pearl flip phone. I've always liked crackberries, and never had the money to get one. Then I decided it was time for a new phone, and one day, while watching TV, I saw a commercial for a Pearl flip. I'm clumsy, and even with keylock on, can manage to ass-dial people. I'm also clumsy as hell, and needed a phone that wouldn't get scratched or otherwise marred easily. Shortly after discovering RIM got their shit together and released the Flip, I went out and signed a contract, and brought mine home.

Here's the problem: when you buy new technology, it tends to have bugs that have yet to be worked out by the manufacturer. I've seen it with iPods, iPhones, and an XBox. My BlackBerry proved to follow this trend. For the past week straight, I've essentially only been able to make emergency calls on it - as in, I can only call 911.

This is useless to me, since I've not needed to call for emergency service (nor do I want to), and I've been unable to use my cell phone for anything else one is for. No phone calls, texts, Facebook; nothing.

On Thursday, I shelled out $42 for a new SIM card, being told that may be the problem. Nope. Call customer support back. They told me to try my new SIM card in another phone. Went in to the cell phone store, and the nice guy that worked there let me use his phone to try out my card. It worked. So, it's definitely the phone itself, right?

Called customer support back this morning. Told this one that the SIM does, in fact, work... as it should, especially since it's new and I spent $42 for nothing. She says it must be the software on my phone. Download this, that, and the other and try to upgrade the software before bugging them for a new handset. The thing is, if my carrier takes the phone back, and sends the thing back to RIM, and RIM says it's only the software and I could have fixed the problem myself, it would cost ME and extra $200 for them to replace it. (So much for warranty.) So, I set up the download before I left for work, came home, and tried to work the damned program. It's not compatible with Vista. Fuck!

Found another version of the same service pack to download. Lost it into the ether of my computer's files. Shit! Download it again, but make sure I save it to the desktop. Got it.

Plug phone into computer. Start up program that I've now downloaded three times. Phone's connected. Program starts. And... nothing.

Apparently, my phone is just as fucked as I've been saying it was for the past week! I like being right and all, but it's only fun if people believe you!

And now that I'm tired, I'm going to call customer support for a third time, and tell them that the phone won't even mesh with the bullshit program I've downloaded for it. I'll have to insist that the phone is fucked, that I did nothing wrong to it, and that they'd better fucking replace it, or I'm not paying my goddamned bill.

Well, my day was a bit hellish.

Long story short:

- There was a province-wide Amber Alert. This is linked to the news story on cbcnews.ca. Luckily, they found the baby. Earlier versions of this story say he was disabled. Awful. And I don't even like kids.

- My cell phone hasn't been working since yesterday afternoon. So after half a dozen attempts taking the battery and SIM card out, then putting it all back together, and still not getting any reception, I was told I needed a new SIM card. Fuck!

To make it worse, I won't be able to get it replaced until Thursday after work. Until then, I have an overpriced alarm clock. That's not what a Blackberry was meant for!

- Now I'm tired, and almost feeling sick. I blame the overabundance of mac & cheese I just ate for dinner. I just want to go to bed now.

The upside of today? I bought Nerds!

Oh, for the girls who read this: if you use a Diva Cup or Moon Cup would you recommend it? Does it work as well as the propaganda says it does? Is it easy to use? I'm looking for real feedback, not the shit on the websites. Hence why I called it "propaganda."

Current Mood: tired

So, I have started getting into the habit of spending money. I figured I'd share a few websites where you can buy stuff fairly inexpensively.
( You must follow me to save epic amounts of money )

It took me four hours to compile this list. Use it wisely.

Current Location: living room
Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: the tv

Dear god, I'm fucking bored. Holy shit, am I the only person who's got nothing better to do on a Wednesday night than sit online and hope for updates?

Shit. I need a hobby. Like serious.

I do have plans for this weekend though. Mostly involving spending money, and doing updates for get_up_dread_up and maybe stretched.

What will be in my posts? An epic update on my dreads. But first, I plan to re-dye them and do some form of maintenance. I can't believe it's been a year already.

Current Mood: bored

First, a back story:

When I was in my teens, I was obsessed with all things celebrity. I followed tabloids, gossip shows, everything. Then I stopped. I just couldn't keep up with it anymore, and bothered to learn about tattoos instead (I only have so much brain space.)

Recently, I started following celeb gossip again. That is what this entry is about.

This article on dlisted led me to John Mayer's Twitter page, and came across this:






Who knew John Mayer actually had a penis?

Current Mood: amused

I got my new laptop yesterday, so now I don't have to go updating everything at the office - I mean - um... yeah, I'd never update my blogs and such on company time. *Ahem* Nope, not me...


Anyway, I'm having fun playing around with the crap my new computer can do. I'm also mostly trying to figure out Vista. Heh.

Look forward to more updates.

Current Mood: accomplished

Why the hell does Ed Hardy think he's entitle to charge $100 for a fucking t-shirt? That shit is ridiculous.

Current Mood: contemplative

This month, I go on a bit of a spending spree... just for the hell of it. And I promise, my employee bonus has nothing to do with it.

I bought an HP Pavilion laptop today. It's fine for me, and I figure I should learn Vista eventually. It should show up next week. Plus, this at least comes with a carrying case, optical mouse, and headset. Our techy guy said it's a good deal. I trust him.

I have an Asus Eee PC that runs Linux. It has a 7" screen. Even though it's cute as hell and a steal since I bought it off a guy for $50, it's just impractical for doing real computer stuff. The small Eee is fine for just doing basic word processing on the go, and it's a fun toy since it doesn't run Windows or Mac programs, but there are things it can't do that an HP can. Plus, we use HP Compaqs at work, and they work just fine (most of the time).

New ear pretties came in the mail today. I wanted to build a bit of an acrylic collection, so I bought:
- Black and purple DF elektroplugs
- Black DF holographic plugs
- SF mokey bones plugs.

I had to get the monkeys, they were just too cute to pass up. It's depressing how long my BAF wishlist is getting. I've decided to settle at 00gauge, even though one thing that annoys me to no end is how much the size varies. Luckily, I've finally managed to get my hands on PTFE tape, so it's really no biggie.

Since I'm on a plugs spree, this is what I bought last time around:
- IS DF SS eyelets
- NF Steel rounded end plugs*
- SF Acrylic crossbone plugs**

*A regrettable purchase. The wearable is too small for my lobes, they're heavy, and the o-rings fall off way too easily.
**A disappointing purchase. The wearable is too short, and the front faces are lopsided. Apparently, you can mess up making acrylic plugs.

I originally ordered UV and glow powder resin plugs in cherry, but apparently BAF's count was off, and they didn't have any when they said they had a pair left. So, being awesome, Seth The Awesome Customer Service Guy (his full title) emailed me and told me the problem, and I was given the options to get my money refunded, get something else, or get a credit. Of course, I chose to get an "exchange," and am now getting them in black. =D

In other news, I was up for a job in Calgary, at an all-news station. Unfortunately, I lost out to someone else who apparently is better than me. Maybe next time.

Oh, and I'm obsessed with Twitter. You have to request to follow me, but I can be found here.

The following is completely off-topic, but needs to be said.

I watched essentially all of the Oscars last night, which is a first. I don't know how I got suckered into it, but I only missed a few of the categories. I'll point out right now that of all the movies nominated, I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Night, and Iron Man. That's it. I also tend not to care about who wears who on the red carpet, but...



I've never seen a Marisa Tomei movie, but hear me on this: her dress looks like a fucking stack of napkins. That is all.

Current Mood: mellow

So much has happened over the last six weeks.

First of all, I moved into staff housing on December 22nd. I save a whole 25 dollars a month on rent now. However, I have to chip in for cable, which is a whole 24 dollars. Awesome. A whole dollar for me to keep!

One of my roommates is a 'tard. He moved his gf in without asking his roommates, or the woman we work with that oversees our lease agreement. Dumbass. His gf's alright, but there's too many bodies in that house. Four was the max. Five is too many.

The other day, I started getting mildly depressed. January 7th was the one-year mark of me being here. That's not why I was starting to get mildly depressed though. That part came from me being in this shithole town for a whole year and having nothing to show for it; save for two new piercings, a guitar, a few books, some clothing, and a shitton of new DVDs. Seriously. I'm no further ahead financially than I was about a year ago. But life goes on.

It's all what you make of a situation, right? Last weekend, the group of girls from work went out to dinner and drinks... followed by karaoke and drinks. It was fun. I wasn't planning on going to karaoke, but got talked into it. (Yes, I was drunk, and very impressionable.)

This random creepy guy ended up sitting with us - during Girls' Night Out. He got what he deserved. Apparently we freaked him out. Ace.

Oh... and our furnace is a fragile piece of machinery, apparently. It's broken down a total of 4 times this winter season. Twice since I moved in. It broke down the week of New Year's for four days before it was finally repaired on the 2nd of January -- which included four calls to management, four more calls (at least) to the emergency maintenance number, and one call to the health inspector. AND, it was essentially my week off.

Then it broke down on the 9th. Then I came home drunk from Girls' Night Out to find it broken. Lame, especially since it's the same problem every single time. Here's a hint: don't replace the ignitor chip with another cheap ignitor chip. Spend the money the first time and replace it with something of quality. Yeesh. Anyhoo, it was discovered broken by me around midnight. We put in a service call and a call to the health inspector at 9am. It was repair by 4 pm that day. Wicked.

Today's dragged on,. and it's about time for me to start making my way home (a 10-15 minute walk, I might add. =D ) So much so that I bought new earshinies on company time. =D

I work tomorrow morning because the new weekender's grandma died a couple days ago. Very sad. Reminds me of almost a year ago when my grandmother died.

Additionally, the drummer of the Nekromantix died. This is THE WORST press statement EVAR.

Current Mood: okay

It's pretty sad that I'm still at work over an hour after my shift is over, simply because I want to avoid going home because I hate my roommate.

Long story short: the woman I pay rent to has pissed me off almost non-stop since I moved in back in July. My biggest gripe is that I'm her default babysitter. I don't even like kids. And, she doesn't pay me for it. Once she said she was going to the gym (a 10-minute drive each way) to do yoga (generally an hour-long thing) and she asked me to watch her daughter, in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. I figure, sure, about an hour and a half's worth of work for a $10 pack of cancer sticks. I'll do it.

Unfortunately, the dumbass was gone for FIVE FUCKING HOURS. And still only gave me a pack of smokes. So... What? I watched her kid for the equivalent of two dollars an hour. FUCK THAT SHIT.

This really didn't phase me until earlier today when I was emailing my mom. I complained about one thing that the roommate had done, and she mentioned something about it. Then when I replied back, I ended up devoting three full paragraphs about her and her inability to raise a child and be responsible.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that I'm moving by the end of the month. I'll start 2k9 in a new place with people I like. I'm moving in with friends from work. Before you start saying "well, it's weird/wrong/awkward/stupid to live with work friends," you can fucking relax. It's fairly common here. I live in a shit town where rent is retarded, and they don't pay us enough money to have apartments/dwellings of our own -- although if they did, I clearly would have saved up enough cash to get the fuck out of here. It's not that I don't like my job; on the contrary. I love my job. I hate the town I live in. Don't even get me started.

The point is, I'm glad to be moving out of the trailer park I currently live in with someone I don't like anymore, and into a townhouse with people I like and only have a 10 minute walk to work. Compare that to taking a bus.

Wow. I didn't really think that this was occupying that much of my current brain activity, but I guess it was. Phew. I feel better now.

I'm not going back to Ontario for whatever fucking holiday is coming up. I didn't have a)the money, and b)the time to go home. Instead, I'll be relocating and getting wasted with my friends, and covering for those who did get the vacation time. I'm not going to be able to go home until I get my bonus. I believe the extra cash comes in February, and I probably won't go home at least until March.

Mom's already sent me my present. I have no clue what it is, because she wrote "Do not open until Christmas!" so I'm not going to. She also sent my roommates (the pain in the ass, and the other, cool one) gifts too. They haven't opened them either. And the pain-in-the-ass roommate's kid didn't get anything. Neener, neener, neener.

I'm not expecting anything really for whatever-the-fuck-holiday. Although, I do enjoy a good gift every so often. I'm trying to swindle my boss into getting me the "Stand Back (Science)" shirt found here. I'm also fond of the "Compiling" shirt, and the "No Raptors" shirt, so feel free to purchase them for me, because again, they don't pay me that well. Actually, I enjoy the posters and stickers, too.

My dreads are about to hit the 8-month mark. I celebrated by getting rid of the blonde. My hair is now a dark burgundy colour, that Garnier calls "Sangria". Whatever. I'm thinking I like the red, even though I loved the blonde. Which reminds me... I stopped wearing my softie hat while I'm at work back on Halloween. I was going to wait until the stupid staff Christmas party next week, but I loved the way they started to look. So fuck it. I took the hat off. However, when I was still working weekends, I started to not wear the hat at work because the bosses weren't around. I started to get more comfortable. Now the hat's only for the great outdoors that are currently fucking cold, and will be cold until my birthday (April 10th, mark you 2009 calendars when you get them). Anyone who cares about them thinks they're cool. One person is freaked out by them. Mwahahahaha.

Speaking of which, I no longer work weekends. Last week was the official start to working a standard Monday-Friday work week. I RULE. =D

I've also taken a liking to wearing my hair in pigtails. Everyone who cares thinks it's cute that way. By the way, short dread pigtails + that science shirt = ultimate awesome. =D

Current Location: work, still
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: the stuff we play at work

( 70 Questions Guaranteed You've (probably) Never Answered. )

Current Mood: tired

I figured that I have time to kill, and I'm done my work early (surprisingly), so... Yeah. I'm updating at work.

One of the people I work with got her special Halloween contacts in, and she'd ordered them online. I'm a huge fan of ordering a lot of things online, and I don't have time to wait in line, which is very common where I live. She gave me the business card, I ordered some lenses. I have glasses that work perfectly fine, but I decided to waste money. I wasted even more money buying a new lens holder. You can see it here. It glows in the dark! Cuz, yea, I'm clearly going to be inserting and/or removing contact lenses without the lights on...

This afternoon, my roommate/co-worker (I figure only in radio does this happen) and I were out back having a smoke break. Whilst getting our nicotine fix, we were accosted by one of the more "interesting" people in our fair city. The broad was most likely drunk. She threatened to kick our asses. Um, there was ONE of her, and TWO of us. I'm bad at math, but seriously? Then she asked my roomy for a drag off her cigarette, and when she said no, the wasted broad attacked our ashtray! The nerve! It was funny though. Roomy was pissed off, I was trying not to laugh the whole time.

And because I'm a nerd:

Imagine a world without Star Trek. Is it a world you'd be very happy to live in, or a dark and terrible place?

It'd be terrible! No cell phones, video-conference calls, and no Captain Kirk! Picard!

Current Mood: Nerd-tacular!

Well, I had a blog entry written, but I suck and it didn't copy and paste correctly.

I had to buy a new laptop. My IBM's hard drive crashed and I lost all of my photos, recorded projects, demos, everything. Gone. Forever.

I managed to pick up an Asus Eee PC for $50. Some guy had it, used it once, and hated it. But hell, a computer for 50 bucks is pretty cool. And, it's tiny... the length and width are the size of half a piece of paper. I'm still trying to adapt to such a ridiculously small keyboard. The first time I tried typing, I went to hit the o key, and ended up hitting i and 9 too.

My dad and sister got a new dog. They moved, and the new building they're in allows pets. They have a Papillion named Hyde. He's cute, I was bombarded with pictures yesterday.

Beyond that, I'm tired, the weather is starting to suck, and we're getting closer everyday to hiring a new weekend person.

Current Mood: cold