hellziggy

Wow, I knew I was behind on even reading LJ. I just started going back to catch up and I haven't read y'all in a WEEK! I was at skip=400!
So, I'm browsing back through, reading what I can. Don't be surprised if you get random comments to stuff that's days old! LOL

I've been shit at posting lately. I keep thinking i will, but I never think this when I am sitting at the computes. I've got the LJ update app on my iPhone, but that's too much of a pain to type out a whole entry.

So, life lately...

I really don't love Twitter more than LJ (and by extention Facebook since Tweets go there too) but it is much easier to do a short 140 thought via iPhone where ever I am than the LJ posts that require actual typing. Maybe if I was a hunt & peck typer I wouldn't find updating on the iPhone so tedious, but since I am used to touch typing on a real keyboard typing on the iPhone feels like work!

OK, almost 2 weeks ago, Monday, October 26th. There was Jonathan Coulton & Paul and Storm! Yay! I also met twitter friend xmodem in real life, as well as one of the fiends from FabLo's journal, AletaMay. No time to talk to either though as I was at merch at the time. I also spent a bit more time chatting with Bill Corbett of MST3K who I had met at the last JoCoPaSto show, and I met his wife Virginia this time. Not a whole lot of time chatting with the Rock Stars after the show because they had to get their stuff packed up and shuffle off to the hotel for their various flights home. As always it was a great show.

Tuesday, October 27th started as an ordinary day, but by the end of the work day I had developed a slight cough. By bedtime I was also achey and had a fever. Fever was relatively low, only 100.something, but one must also take into account that my every day temp is only 97.9 rather than 98.6.

Wednesday, October 28th I didn't die. But I felt like I would. I called in sick to work. I was feeling too crappy to even be online. And if you know me, you know that is sick indeed!

Thursday, October 29th I still felt like crap. Also by that point I had self-diagnosed myself with H1N1. All the symptoms matched, and I'd had a seasonal flu shot. So I decided that even if I felt ok I had to stay home because I hadn't hit the 24 hours since fever mark that the CDC recommended.

You know I'm really damn sick if I take two days in a row off of work. Those 2 days actually doubled the number of sick days I've taken in total since starting at West, if I'm remembering correctly. yes, I know that if you are sick you should stay home to heal and to keep from spreading it. Wonderful idea. Not practical for me because a) I'm pretty much the only one who works in the mini-lab. If I take a day off it means that I will be doing twice as much work when I am back the next day. and b) I don't get sick time or vacation time. A day off is a loss of 10% of my paycheck. Those two days I was sick are going to be felt financially next week. So yeah, lovely idea to take sick time, but not an option for me if I'm not REALLY sick.

Friday, October 30th Worked. Didn't die. Used a lot of Purell. Didn't infect any coworkers.

Saturday, October 31st. Saw A Serious Man with romeoa & hellbob. They both liked it a lot more than me. Then we watched John Carpenter's The Thing because I'd never seen it.
I know far too much about Antarctica to really enjoy movies that take place there, I discovered. From the first scene I was already spotting inaccuracies. There are NO dogs in Antarctica! None, zero, zip. Back in Scott's day they used dog teams, but not now. Then at one point they said it was -100º. But they were in the part of the year where there was both daylight and full night. For it to be -100º they'd have to be at the actual pole in the dead of winter. And then there was the way they would destroy the monster. A fricking flame thrower!!! Fire is one of the most dangerous things down there because it is so dry that fires quickly burn out of control, and also shelter is so necessary for survival that a building burning down can be a death sentence. Those fires they started when killing the monster wouldn't have been so easy to put out. Also, THEY WOULDN'T EVEN HAVE A FREAKING FLAME-THROWER! Having a flamethrower in Antarctica is like wearing a steak suit when you go to feed lions. But other than those details, good movie! Then we hit the Halloween party at the Geek House.

Sunday, November 1st. Vikings vs. Packers. We went to Cooper in St. Louis Park to watch the game with romeoa, pinkshaya, kaldeth, and stark0228. Mostly an excellent game, although at the beginning of the 3rd quarter it looked like the Vikings were going to fall apart and let Green Bay have it, but they managed to pull it together and maintain their lead. I also endured much abuse from, well, everyone, about my plans for Sunday evening. Uncle Kracker!!! I had a ticket to go see him at 1st Ave. Unfortunately he was only the opening act. His set was full of awesome even though it was too short and didn't include many of my favorite songs of his. I think it had been about 5 years since the last time I'd seen him. (I don't count when he was one of Kenny Chesney's opening acts because he only did about 4-5 songs and I was sitting waaaaaaaaaaay far back.)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Nothing too remarkable. Spent most of my time at work running my ass off.

And now we're at today. I saw chebutykin briefly when she came into West w/Eric. Then when I got out of work I flew directly to Willow Creek to catch The Fourth Kind with hellbob & romeoa. Meh. If you want creepy go to Paranormal Activity instead. Then after the movie I came home w/ Rick & took off almost immediately to go to Stillwater to see Fabulous Lorraine performing w/Paul at Charlies Pub. Fun time, but why is Stillwater so far away?

And now, bed. Hmmm. I guess my definition of "short post" might be a little off, eh?

I have been such crap about updating lately. Sorry. :(


Ok, my life lately...

School. Lots of school. This semester started on January 12th, and I have class 3 days a week. My FINAL THREE CLASSES!!! are Career Planning & Professional Practices, Portfolio Prep/Exhibit, and Graphic Design Problems 2. So this semester will consist of mostly getting my portfolio ready for the portfolio show that we will be putting on in May, and doing my part in putting the portfolio show together. Only 3 months. Eeep! And we are the largest graduating class the program has ever had.

What else have I been up to? Well, in the middle of January, Minneapolis was blessed with a visit from our Future Dark Overlord, Scott Sigler. He's a podcaster who got a book deal after releasing his novels as free podcasts, and hit the NYT bestseller list with his newest release, Contagious. He is not, however, the Scott Sigler who writes about adult incontinence. At least he claims he's not...
johnboze picked up hellbob and I for the book reading, and afterwards we walked a couple blocks to Old Chicago for beer with Scott. A good time was had by all. :)


On Friday the 23rd we had our holiday party for work. Free dinner at Lord Fletcher's. Yummy!!! And, as always, my co-workers were fun to hang out with!

Saturday of that weekend was the annual holiday party/white elephant gift exchange with the geek friends. Too much yummy food!

hellbob and I took off from there to go to see some bands at O'Gara's Garage. ninja_tech & floppycorpse met us there. (Yeah, you all were wondering about the subject of the post, weren't you? Sorry. I just couldn't resist!). We had all missed the 1st & 2nd bands, and got there just as Mass Drastic *MySpace Link. Music will play* was setting up. They played a great set, and I still want them to put out a CD! After their set we listened to a little bit of the next band, but we were all just too tired to feel up to staying. What can I say? We're old! We did chat a little bit with MD's drummer Jim and his family. Hi Jim! Hi Jim's mom!

This last Wednesday I got to MonkeySit technomonkey_m & gigglemonkey_b for a while because genevra had a meeting at her house. I took them to McDonalds so they could run wild in the playland after eating. I do still have the CUTEST niece & nephew in the ENTIRE WORLD! Even if gigglemonkey_b did tell me she doesn't like my scarf. :)

This weekend was mostly lazy. We went to lunch at Jun-Bo for Dim Sum with LJless Jeanine & LJless Curt today, and then to see The Wrestler. Good movie. I really need to get out there to see some more of the Oscar nominated stuff though.

So that's what I've been up to lately. Also, I ♥ my iPhone! And since I've got the iPhone I'm on Twitter a lot more now. So if you are on Twitter too go ahead and follow me. If you can't figure out my username there you really haven't been paying attention, have you?

This is the third time this date has rolled around since the one that changed our lives. On February 29, 1996 hellbob & I packed all of our belongings in a U-Haul truck and left Fargo. Dad came up with the truck and I rode the 200 miles to the Twin Cities with him, and hellbob came after us in our little Mazda RX-7 with the two cats.

We weren't leaving under great circumstances. It was either pack up and move into mom & dad's house or become homeless because we just didn't have money for rent. We had some tough times in Fargo but we've managed to turn things around quite nicely.

akdar taught hellbob about working with computers and he was able to turn that into a career. We were able to first move out of my parents house, and later move out of our apartment into our own house. We've bought our first brand new car. hellbob has a college degree.

Yes, given a choice we would have liked to have made the move here on our own terms and in better circumstances, but regardless, it is one of the best things we have ever done.

It's not often you can look at one single event and see how much it changed your life.

This one changed ours for the better.

So everyone, raise your glasses in a toast, for I declare today to be a holiday!

Today is Fargo Hegira Day!

Hegira ( hiˈjīrə; ˈhejərə ): an exodus or migration. ORIGIN via medieval Latin from Arabic hijra 'departure,' from hijara 'emigrate.'

Hullo everyone!

Yes, I know I've been a total slacker at posting lately. Not really any excuses, just haven't had the energy to post.
I finished the fall semester. Moose now has his own web site. I'm going to do some tweaking on it before getting the rest of the content uploaded.
Also, Moose is not only vacationing in lovely Antarctica at the moment, but the super-awesome mcpenguin got a picture of Moose on the actual South Pole! Now if only he would upload the pictures for me to see...
I also really ended up enjoying my painting class.

As far as work goes, I'm currently just at West Photo. The temp gig at General Mills ended just before the end of the semester. I'm still loving the job at West and all the people there are fabulous. It was insanely busy the week before Christmas. We've got inventory on the 2nd & 3rd as well as being closed for the 1st so I'll have some time off next week. I will be going in on Wednesday though because Reina and I are going to do a complete tear down and cleaning of the machines.

School starts again on Jan 14th. I'll be taking another web class, Scripting Overview, and I'll also be taking Spanish 1. By the end of the semester I'll be able to habla Espanol!

I've had a holiday season full of family. We started with my extended family on mom's side on the 22nd. That was out in Hudson, WI. Then the morning of the 24th was the annual Xmas brunch at my mom's house with the siblings & their spouses and children. On the 25th we went out to hellbob's sister's house to see her family and his dad and step-mom. Then we were back at her house on the 27th to see them again and also his step-sister Debbie and her husband. Then this last Saturday, the 29th, we went up to Champlain for Xmas with his cousins and their families. That's a lot of family in one week! I'm ready to be done with it!

We've still got one more Christmas but haven't planned a date for it yet. That will be with Clan Foley.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we will be spending it with Jeanine as we have done with most every New Years since moving to the Cities.

Is it really almost 2008???

So there was this new character introduced on Bones last week. He's played by John Francis Daley from Freaks & Geeks:


He seemed familiar besides the whole "he's on tv thing" and I finally placed it. He was reminding me of the first boy I ever officially "went steady" with back when I was in 10th grade, R.
This is what R. looked like when I dated him (crappy quality because I took a picture of a picture instead of dragging out the scanner):


Yeah, some resemblance. Skinny, dark messy hair, kinda geeky.

But what R. looks like today? I know there are some of you out there who I've mentioned this to. For many years it was an abstract thing that I had briefly heard about in the news but didn't really have any confirmation on.
Thanks to the wonders of the interwebs though, I did a Google search a while back for his full name and I got one hit. Yes, only one. Because someone who has been in prison since 1990 really doesn't have a web presence other than the Minnesota Department of Corrections offender locator page.
Here he is boys & girls, my first official boyfriend:

I'm not sure how old the picture is. He went to prison when he was 21 and he is 38 now.
It's a very surreal thing for me to think about...

I dismantled Chiana today, looking for an easy way to get under the keyboard to clean her. Turns out that completely opening her up doesn't let you remove the keyboard. Well, now if I do ever upgrade to a bigger hard drive I'll know how...
So after putting her back together I instead pried off every key on the keyboard so that I could clean it. hellbob & I could build a kitten out of the cat hair that was in there. I guess cat hair in an unavoidable side effect of both the cat and the computer wanting to be on your lap at the same time.

The really wonderful thing about my 'surgery' on Chiana? My Ddddddddddd key appears to be working normally now! Yay!

hellbob & I actually went grocery shopping earlier tonight. Boy did we need to do that! Tomorrow night I'll be making huevos chorizo for dinner. Yummy!

Yesterday we went over to the MonkeyHouse to see genevra, akdar, technomonkey_m & gigglemonkey_b. My Monkeys are so cute and so smart!
When I asked technomonkey_m if he was a monkey he said that "No. I a shark!" So of course I had to tell him what a shark says: "Duh...duh...duh...duh...duh..duh..duh.duh.duh.duh" Hee hee!

After leaving the MonkeyHouse we went to Best Buy to get some new phones because our old ones just weren't working well. While there Hellbob made the mistake of letting me wander about by myself. I found the Serenity Special Edition, and Superman Doomsday. Of course, between work, school, and the new fall season I have no idea when I'll be able to watch either...

It's not just the D key. The whole keyboard in general seems to be working better. Who's a thought that keyboards shouldn't be insulated with cat hair?

Gotta love technology! On Friday I got a text message on my phone from felisblanco on her trip to Scotland giving me a kilt count! Someday I'm going to just have to bite the international rate bullet and call you, hon! Sounds like you had a fabulous time! :)

And now, bedtime. Good night boys & girls!

Yeah, I know. I haven't done any real updates lately. I've been pretty darn busy lately. I've been working mornings at West Photo. I'm working in their mini lab developing film and printing photos. Except I haven't done any film yet because their C-41 machine has been down since sometime last week. The photo machine is way sweeter than the one I used at Proex way back in the day before digital.

After working a few hours there in the morning I head on over to General Mills to put in about 4 hours or so at the temp assignment there. I still don't have a badge to get in though so I have to call back to the girls in charge of the project to come let me in every day. I'm pretty much just using Excel & Access at that job. It's a good thing they hadn't asked about my Access experience before placing me in the job because I hadn't used it in about 8 years. The stuff I'm doing is easy enough though. I even taught the two girls I report to a trick they didn't know. Pretty simple, just the keyboard shortcut for Run Query, but they'd only been using the button you click w/the mouse. It made me feel all smart and stuff.

Then at about 5:00 I truck on over to school. On Tuesday & Thursday I have painting class. Nothing more exciting than color wheels and color exercises so far, but our next project will be an abstract kinda thing. If mine doesn't suck I'll post a picture when it's done.

And on Wednesdays my class is HTML. We had to pick a subject to do a web page on, so I am going to make Moose his own page.

And that is what I've been up to for the last few weeks. Not the most exciting life, but hey, at least I'm working steady. :)

Problems with ddddddddddddddddddd
My d key isn't working very well - i have to sometimes hit it several times for it to work - so if a word looks funny in this post and would make more sense if it had a 'd' somewhere in it, it probably should.

OK. Important stuff first: My Happy Happy Joy Joy post from just over a week ago.

genevra is pregnant! There's gonna be another Monkey in February!!! Yay! Me & hellbob get to be Auntie & Uncle again! The doctor told her that it is just one this time, but that's what they told her at the first ultrasound last time too!


Not so good stuff: My layoff happened on schedule last friday. Because this first week unemployed is a holiday week followed by CONvergence weekend, I'm not really hitting the job hunt hardcore until next week. Thank you to you all who expressed best wishes/condolences/etc. on my "I'm unemployed" post. I really just wasn't feeling up to replying last Friday.

My what the hell I've been up to lately bullet points:
Friday
*Drank yummy beer and chocolate martinis friday afternoon (started at 2 pm!)
*Had dinner at El Loro with hellbob, lucky13charm, michaellee & frozendragon.
-----*lucky13charm had been an El Loro virgin before that!
-----*frozendragon - If you remembered to bring my book I forgot to get it from you! Either this weekend maybe, or when I get the roaster pan back from you?

Saturday
*Went down to Hidden Valley Campground w/lucky13charm on Saturday to camp with Tiki Neighbors & Friends™
-----*Had to buy a tent before going to camp. Now that we own a tent I intend to convince hellbob that we should camp more!

Sunday
*Came home from camping and showered! Yes, this deserves its own bullet point!
*Went to Ratatouille w/hellbob. We liked it.

Monday
*Did the online application for The Creative Group and got my resume and stuff together for my meeting there on Tuesday.
*Clan Foley came over for dinner, and after dinner I almost kicked butt at Star Wars Monopoly, but hellbob pulled out the win in the end.

Tuesday
*Went downtown to The Creative Group.
*Fucking Rocked the Photoshop proficiency test! I got 92%. The average of everyone who's taken it was only about 77%.
*I also did good on the In Design test. I got 80-something% and the average score for that was 60-something%. Also, more important, the chick I met with knew that I was all self-taught on In Design which makes 80+% extra impressive.
*Went to the Police concert at the X with hellbob,kaldeth, kalfoley, romeoa, and Jeanine-of-no-LJ. levertwok also managed to score a same-day ticket.
-----*It makes hellbob gloat a little to hear it, but I like the Police more now than I did before seeing them in concert.
-----*This does not in any way, however, change my complete love of Uncle Kracker's music!!!

Wednesday, aka The 4th of July, aka Independence Day
*Besides being the birthday of our country, July 4th is also hellbobDad's birthday.
*We went to Hellbob's step-sister's house to celebrate the momentous occasion of my father-in-law's birth.
-----*All his gifts were either gin, or golf related.
*hellbob unfortunately had some kind of minor stomach ookiness going on so he stayed home that evening while I...
*Went to mhuot & dragonsden's annual 4th of July Fireworks party with akdar, genevra, technomonkey_m, and gigglemonkey_b.
-----*There was much good food (meat on a stick!) and even more good company. I will forget people, cuz that's how I roll, but attendees included shrique, tripstumblefoot, and their lovely N, kalmn, monstersocks, and Mr. Monstersocks (whose LJ handle escapes me at the moment), Erik, Linda, ummmmmm and a buncha other people!
*The loudness of the fireworks scared the Monkeys at first, but by the end they were enjoying the heck out of them.

Thursday, aka today
*I slept in.
*didn't do much during the day.
*Went to the MN Zoo's member preview of the revamped Minnesota Trail
-----*If you live in the Twin Cities, go see it! They've made a lot of really nice changes. It certainly had needed this facelift after the almost 30 years since the zoo opened.

Friday. Yes, Friday hasn't happened yet, so I can't tell you what I did. But I can tell you what I'm gonna do!
*CONvergence starts tomorrow.
*That is where I will be all weekend.
*If you know me, say hi.
*If we haven't met yet, say hi. But also tell me who you are!
*If you want to contact me, my cell number is in a friends only post back in 1970.