Self-Portrait with Cat (Not Really)

Close-Up
Originally uploaded by monochromaticgirl.

Mmmm....baked goods....

Well, flickr won't let me add a blog at the moment, so hopefully, this link will work: Click here, Sarah!

Muahahahaha!

Updaterrific!

Down on the left, you can now find two feeds for the blog. It turned out that it was just a matter of moving things to public_html. That was the same problem with all the monthly archives over there, too, so those should be working now too. For some reason, blogger just sends them there. Perhaps I should fiddle around some more with my settings. Hmm.

Lots of big, crazy plans for today, man. I have yet to shower, so that's still on my list. I have to go get groceries and go to Reading Terminal Market for cheap produce, I have three ads to write and a career counselor to call, and then there are some other earning money related things to do. It's almost like my day will have structure! Holy unexpectedness, Batman!

If I have time, remind me to show you a couple things I've been knitting. I futzed around with flickr a bit last night, and I might as well share, you know?

The Sequel

So for all of you frothing at the mouth about Snakes on a Plane, you should check out this fabulously depicted idea for a sequel by one of my favorite bloggers, Franklin Habit. I may be waiting for the DVD of the original, but I'll be first in line for the sequel.

Blog Feed...Hmmm....

So srah mentioned that she would read more often if I had an RSS feed, and technically, I do--it's sitting amongst the files when I'm in the CPanel. But it's not in the public_html file, so I'm not sure if that means it's not public, and I don't really know if it's supposed to be there. Any ideas? What am I supposed to do with atom.xml and rss.xml?

Meme from Crowyhead

Leave a comment and I'll give you a letter. Then you must think of 10 song titles that start with that letter (as well as the artist), without using Google or other cheats.

I got T.

1. 'Take a Picture' - Filter
2. 'Today' - Smashing Pumpkins
3. 'Talula' - Tori Amos
4. 'Tiny Little Mustache' - Stephen Lynch
5. 'The Twist' - Chubby Checker
6. 'Tiny Dancer' - Elton John
7. 'Tusk' - Fleetwood Mac
8. 'Trouble' - Coldplay
9. 'Tender' - Blur
10. 'This is the New Shit' - Marilyn Manson

Job Free

I quit my job yesterday. And even though it's been almost 24 hours since I left the center for the last time, it hasn't actually sunken in completely. But the huge weight of 'I wish I didn't have to go to work today/tomorrow/Monday' is gone, and I haven't yet felt the potential panic that being unemployed without a long-term plan might bring.

Since I haven't had a 'vacation' in almost a year (and does going home for a week really count?), the rest of this week is all about doing whatever I want, and next week, I'll start making appointments with temp agencies and looking for a different job. I need to put more thought into what kind of longer term work I should be doing. I don't need something awesome, you know? Just something where I can wake up and be okay with going to work.

Weekend End

And another week is upon us. How was your weekend? I have no complaints.

On Friday, I cooked us a good old fashioned Midwestern meal--roasted potatoes and gravy with corn on the cob, and then we watched a bunch of M*A*S*H. And we slept late on Saturday, and I made Sarah breakfast. I popped down to the farmer's market at Rittenhouse Square and got a whole mess of tasty things--corn, garlic, peaches, pears, cucumbers, summer squash, and a watermelon. And carrying it home, I managed to acquire the most peculiar bruise on my shoulder. It's a single very thin line of bruise--as thick as the line of a felt-tip pen. The whole area's very tender though, so I know now not to carry so much in one spot for so long. Ah well.

After that, we got a car and went to run some errands. Including getting groceries at Whole Foods. Now, I'm totally going to gush for a moment, so deal, but since I'm making an effort to buy and use more eco-conscious products and be less wasteful, Sarah has totally jumped in and kept pace all the way. And that makes me so warm and happy inside, I can't even tell you. It's the little things that really get me, because they add up. I was pleased when she agreed that we could get the energy star bulbs, and then when she got enthusiastic about the prospect of recycling. But when she's looking for good, wholesome things with me and on her own at the supermarket, well, I'm astounded and bowled over with joy.

Yesterday, I knit and did a little tidying after we went and got pedicures (I got the new girl...all of maybe 14?). I finished a sock, and we actually have nice, reasonable lunches for a change.

My only complaint about the weekend, and this is really more of a complaint in general, is that I wish I had knit more. I don't knit really quickly, and I get so distracted by thinking or other things sometimes, that I don't ever knit as much as I want to, you know? I have all these projects on the needles or sitting in UFO (unfinished object, for non-knitters) purgatory, and I can barely get through anything.

I kind of think that a lot of my 'why don't I ever have enough time for X?' and 'why don't I do more of Y?' questions would be answered if I stopped watching tv. I'd have more time to knit and read, and I'd have to think more, like I used to. I really do think tv has a way of fucking with your thought patterns. You get so engrossed in a world that explains itself to you, and then you have no reason to wonder or care between bursts of mindless entertainment. I remember being told that one of a writer's greatest enemies is television. It's something to ponder, I guess.

Anyway, the teens are about to get in here, so I need to go. Perhaps I shall have more to say later.

Greaaaaat Timing...

Well, since there were some terrorists planning to do shit to planes, there are some new restrictions on carry-ons in effect. And Sarah is flying home today. With the plan to not check anything.

To say that I am a wee bit nervous is really, really putting it mildly. She can't bring a drink onboard. She can't bring toothpaste. And she can't bring any of her liquid make-up or proactive or anything like that. She just called to tell me that the security line at Seattle--the friendliest big airport you could go through--is three hours long, and she and the rest of the passengers are waiting at the end of the line in the parking garage...yeah. She is sooooo not going to be in a good mood when she gets home.

I just hope she doesn't get too disgruntled about her loss of fluids with a security guard and end up getting severely frisked or arrested or something. Because I mean, I would love to go to Seattle, and this weekend is as good as any, but I don't think that going there to bail out my girlfriend is any part of the makings of a good time.

Keep your fingers crossed, and I'll keep you posted about whether or not I'll be making any unexpected voyages westward...

Holding Back a Scream

Today, I don't think I can handle this. It took less than five minutes of being around these kids to be blinking back tears. They were raised to not respect authority, and they don't.

Camp is over at the end of the week with several weeks of post-camp to deal with. I can't wait to see what kind of mental snapping happens before September.

Big Brother is Checkin' Me Out

I just had to have my hand scanned so I can start scanning in and out of work and lunch. Just like at the Crimson Permanent Assurance. Only creepier.

Sigh.

Comca$$tic

The weekend is finally almost upon us. To say it has been a long week would be all too accurate.

We've been having a lot of problems with Comca$t this week, and it looks like they don't want to resolve them...or that's how they want us to see things, anyway. Our internet is technically 'working' in that we are connected. However, we've gone from having a decent connection to one that makes even my sad little 28k modem from 1996 look awesome. Pages time out, outlook times out when trying to send or receive. On our little network properties, we're sending and receiving like 400 packets in 20 minutes when we should be doing much more. It wasn't like this before.

So we called Comca$t, and they made an appointment for us for Saturday (mind you, we called them on Monday...this was the only available slot that wasn't during the workday on Thursday). We get a voicemail on Tuesday that says, 'Sorry we missed you. Please call back to reschedule your appointment.' So Sarah called back and complained, and we got our Saturday appointment back.

Twice since then, we've gotten voicemails from them stating that the problem is fixed and our modem is connected and that our appointment was cancelled. They've been having outages in the area, and they keep bumping our problem into that group, so the cancel our service request when the outage is fixed. And if they get your voicemail and not a real person, they automatically cancel your appointment...because clearly, we should be sitting on the phone while we're at work waiting for them to call and let us know our totally unrelated problem is fixed.

When they cancelled our appointment via voicemail yesterday, we lost our Saturday slot, so now we've got one one Sunday. If they don't cancel it. I've got my phone in my pocket with my loudest ringtone on so even over very loud kids, I can hear that Comca$t is calling to continue their subjugation of their customers. And I will be making a very polite but angry phone call to them letting them know that I expect compensation for their abomidable customer service in addition to their technical problems.

So no one will see me online until Sunday at the earliest. At least this means I am forced to ignore the computer for a day or so instead of wasting all of my time in front of it. I think that's one of my chief disappointments about myself (and the folks in my generation)--we're drawn to wasting all of our time in front of the new idiot box. Sure, it's a smarter idiot box, but it's still an idiot box. Hopefully, I will be able to get a lot of knitting and tidying done in the meantime.

Loops by the Loopy One

One of my morning groups is huge, but not huge enough to split into two groups, so inevitably, the kids have to share computers. This group also happens to be the age where people start getting mean and catty with each other. So I have a couple of outcast girls who know they aren't liked, and the other girls won't share with them, so they just come in and take a seat up at the front of the room while the other girls play (it's happened twice, and even if it looks like I'm playing favorites, they're going in first from now on because some of the other girls are serious bitches).

Anyhow, one of them colors pictures for me during class, and the other just sits and chats with me. Today, she wanted me to show her how to knit, and so I showed her, and then she insisted very politely and enthusiastically that I let her try. So I did. And she could be good at it, I think. There were several other girls who seemed interested, so if I teach her, maybe others will want to try it...that scares me. But she's nice and lonely, I think, and I would like to show her how. Sigh. I guess during post camp, I should just bring in the needles a former coworker gave me (a whole mess of straight size 7s) and the acrylic yarn we wanted to unload, and see what happens. It could be worse.

My own knitting is plugging along...nothing really interesting. I'm working on mouse bodies, and last night, I finished the heel of my first toe-up sock. I think I kind of want to try Wendy's method next time...it won't be a substantial heel, but maybe it will be easier. Or I could try the heel from Widdershins from the latest knitty. That might be nice--traditional feeling heel, but toe-up. Hmm. I just think it would be nice to keep working and not have to go back and work the heel later (which is what I did this time). As soon as I get the mousie count (I'm almost done with the last two for the blogathon), I am going to try a little 'project monogamy' and only work on one thing until it's done. I'd like that kind of focus right now--just working at one thing and then working at one other thing and so on.

Chomp chomp chomp

It's not enough that I hate coming into work everyday. And having noseeums and ants and spiders wandering about in my room isn't either. Last week, someone said that there might be fleas around here, too. Guess what I just tried to kill after it had a nice, itchy meal on my toe? Since it didn't squish and it jumped off me, I've reason to believe I'm getting bitten by them to. And if I prayed, I would ask that I didn't bring them home to my poor kitties and Sarah. It's bad enough one of us is depressed about this damned place. No one else needs to be.

Yes, it's another bad mood day. I didn't want it to be, and maybe I can turn it around. We'll see.