Blind but Dateless

You know, I've always secretly wanted to go on a blind date. But here's the problem. In order to go on a blind date, you need a friend willing to set you up with one of their other friends. This creates multiple problems.

#1 - Your friend needs to have a SINGLE friend of the appropriate sex.
#2 - Your friend needs to believe that the person they are setting you up with is not a total loser or jerk when it comes to relationships.
#3 - Your friend needs to believe that YOU are not a total loser or jerk when it comes to relationships.
#4 - If you're such good friends with your friend, you've probably met most of their other good friends which means that either they aren't good friends with with the person they'd want to set you up with and/or they don't know a heck of a lot about that person.
#5 - Three words - bad date retaliation.

And my biggest problem....

#6 - Your friend might not like you and think you're a total idiot or that no one should be subjected to the crazy that is you.

Of course, I say all this tongue-in-cheek. I've never asked any of my friends to set me up before. And oddly enough, no one has ever even suggested it. Then again, I don't really have a big problem finding dates, either... But it still begs the question in my mind.

Eh... gotta just stop thinking about this. It only feeds my paranoia. :P

Betty Bowers on Gas

Like many people, I subscribe to the Betty Bowers Newsletter. For those who don't know, Betty Bowers is the self-proclaimed "America's Best Christian" on the satirical website, BettyBowers.com. Her recent newsletter was concerning commercials now being produced by The American Petroleum Institute that, from what I gather from the gist of the newsletter since I haven't seen the commercial itself, seems to attempt to sooth the fears of Americans on the rising cost of gas. Betty's response made me laugh out loud.... literally. (Not many things can do that, really.)

Whether you enjoy Betty Bowers or not, I highly suggest you click on this link to the YouTube video of Betty's response to the commercial. Highly amusing and insightful. Let me know what you think.

* Warning: The YouTube video does contain some "Naughty language". Not recommended for people who are offended by the "F" word.

Random Thoughts of the Insomniac

It's 6 a.m. and I haven't been to sleep. Got a big day ahead of me with my best friend getting married today. I should probably be bright eyed and bushy-tailed, right? Ugh.

After BFF's wedding, gotta figure out whether I'm heading straight for Madtown or coming home first. Not sure what the point is in coming home, other than to save the hotel expense for the evening. Today is also another friend's birthday. Heading down to Madtown to celebrate.

PLUS, while down there, may spend time with another friend whose birthday is on Monday. Um.... Apparently some people ring in the new year differently than others? But he might be back HERE (if I know him at all) with his family. Who knows..... Haven't heard from him yet.

Well, I think I'll go apply a large mallet to my forehead and see if I can't get some rest before ALL of the festivities begin. To my BFF, congrats! To my birthday boys, the spankin's are a-comin'.

Sad news

Well, today marks the end of my run with B.A.C.A. Problems in my personal life and issues within my chapter are forcing me to turn in my patch. I hope that now I will be able to focus on the things I need to focus on and get my life back on track as it needs to be.

Wish me luck, all. I'm going to need it.

And to all my B.A.C.A. pals out there, keep up the good work. Those kids need you!

Ray

Computer Literacy is Not His Forte

Earlier this past week, my computer fried. I mean, took a complete blind leap into the void of yesteryear. Had to get a new power supply, motherboard, and processor. Basically, I replaced everything but the hard drive. Oye.

My husband, on the other hand, knows only that 'the computer was broke and now it's fixed.' He knows we've had to re-install most programs on the computer, including Windows and Microsoft Office. He also knows that, including the week-long vacation we took just prior to the computer crashing, he hadn't checked his e-mail in about two weeks. The poor boy was jonesing just a bit. So last night, I came into the bedroom and said, "I left the computer up in case you want to check your e-mail. But if you do, you better go now. It's downloading updates and it'll restart when it's done unless you hit the 'restart later' button." It was the fastest I had seen him get motivated in a while. However, he came back in only a few minutes later.

"I can't find it." He says, "It's not there anymore."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "It's Yahoo Mail. It's a website, not a program."

"It's gone." He just says. I stare at his face for a moment while my brain whirrs, trying to think Hubby-speak. I finally get up, and follow him back into the office. He sits down in the chair, and points at the computer screen, which is currently showing the desktop. "You see?" He says, "It's not there anymore." And points towards the other icons still showing on the screen.

Without a word, I lean over, grab the mouse, click on the Internet Explorer icon (yes, I use Internet Exploder, leave me alone... I like it.), go to Favorites and click on the Yahoo Mail link I put there earlier for convenience. Like "Maaaaaagic" (imagine the jazz hands, if you will) the Yahoo Mail login screen pops up.

He looks at me. "That's not how I used to get to my mail. There used to be a thingy on the main screen that I clicked on. It's not there anymore."

I'm rolling my eyes as I walk back out the door. Later that evening I realize what it was and go back into the office (after Hubby was finished checking e-mail, of course) and download Yahoo Messenger, which automatically puts not only a Yahoo Messenger icon on the desktop, but also a Yahoo Mail icon there as well.

*sigh* I go back in the bedroom and inform hubby that I have 'returned his precious icon'. I wear my new hat for the rest of the evening, even though it doesn't even come close to resembling Indiana Jones' hat, just for the effect. No one gets it but me. But that's okay. I'm used to giggling to myself by now.....

My LOL Moment of the Day

A quote from my current read, Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett:

Detritus blinked at his finger, which was still white with the dust, and sidled over to Carrot. "Did I just lick dis?" he said.

"Er, yes," said Carrot.

"T'ank goodness for dat," said Detritus, blinking furiously. "'D hate to believe dis room was really full of giant hairy spide . . . weeble weeble sclup . . ."


For those of you who enjoy a good bought of literacy, I highly encourage you to read the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Comedy sci-fi, in the likes of Douglas Adams. You can't get a better compliment out of me than that.

New Chapter!!!!

Please join me in a heartfelt round of applause for our newly-patched third chapter for B.A.C.A. of Wisconsin - The Fox Valley Chapter! These dedicated people just made it through this past weekend and received their patches on Saturday, May 24th.

Congratulations, guys and gal! Now the real fun begins!

< < < BIG HUGS TO ALL > > >

It's not easy being Green

Centered around the recent Earth Day events, there has been a lot of advertisements on tv about various things people can do to "go green." Most have the things I have seen have been the usual "separate your garbage and recycleables, reuse containers when possible, try to limit your use of live squirrels in your decoupage projects to once a week," etc. However, I actually came across an ad that mentioned a website that seems to be worth checking out.

www.newdream.org is a website dedicated to "going green." It has information on it about how to reduce junk mail, something even the most wasteful of us seems to be annoyed at. We're talking spam e-mails, phone calls as well as the crap that seems to gum up our snail-mail postal mail boxes.

The website offers several different options including mail in forms, links and phone numbers for a variety of different ways to opt-out of unwanted solicitations. I am going to try several myself and we'll see if the number of things I throw away in a week starts going down.

Just thought I'd pass it on....

Those BASTARDS!

I get woken up this morning by a phone call from a company calling themselves BNL Express. The woman on the phone tells me that she received my resume about a position in my career field in Denver, Colorado. She wants to tell me more about the position and ask me a few questions. Each statement she makes ends with, "Okay?"

So, going on about two to three hours of sleep, I listen as she describes my freaking dream job. Okay? For $18 an hour. Okay? Exactly where I want to be. Okay? She tells me what I need to do for the next step of the hiring process. Okay? Go online and fill out the application/contractual agreement and fax it back before noon tomorrow to 1-267-653-1757. Okay? After that someone will call me and explain the next step. Okay?

Of course, I'm all nods and smiles on the phones. After a while, I begin to say, "Okay." like a freakin' parrot. I think, this is too good to be true.

*sigh*

I go to the website and the first thing that catches my eye (how can it not) is the creepy little automated chick that starts talking as soon as the page loads, telling you where to go to fill out the contractual agreement. Mind you, this is the HOME PAGE. I say creepy because, if you take your cursor, and move it around, her eyes follow your cursor. Try it. Hmmmm.... I forgot to see if she crosses her eyes if you point at her nose.

Anyway, you click on the contractual agreement, and it is a phisher's dream. Asking for your SSN, Driver's license (under the guise of I-9 and other such employment forms), etc., banking information (for direct deposit), plus a few standard questions like um.... date of hire? Go ahead. Pick a date. Any date.

I checked out the rest of the website, trying to figure out just what it was they did and didn't get too good of a clue, cuz the "home page" refers to financial services, but then the rest of the site refers to "errand running" type crap, all the way down to an escort-type looking service.

On the FAQ page, they forgot to answer the apparently most frequently asked question (upon further research later), which was "Is BNL Express a legit company?" The plain and simple answer I seemed to find (now anyone can correct me if I'm wrong) is no. I even found one specific example of someone who claimed to have had their identity stolen because they had submitted the information requested and had gone through eight separate (failed) trials to try to correct erroneous items caused by this. Can you say "not a happy camper"?

In any case, the result of all of this was me standing in the middle of my kitchen this morning with my hands clenched in the air screaming, "No!!!!!!!!!" when Strings walked in this morning. Can't a gal get a break?

If... if anyone can prove to me that BNL Express is a legitimate business that is opening a branch location in the Denver area, please, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know before noon tomorrow! :s

Panic Attacks

Yesterday roommie decides I should accompany him on a relatively short jaunt to a nearby burb. It'll get me out of the house and give me a bit of ride time. Plus it's B.A.C.A. business. The ride down is quite froggy and only one or two complications, but otherwise uneventful. We have a nice time in said nearby burb, but by the time we start to head back home, it's getting late, which means it's getting dark.

We decide to take an alternate route home that we figure will be less foggy since it's more inland (there's lots of backroads around here) and head out with me in the lead and roommie behind and the chapter VP, Scary, passengering on his bike. We're probably more than halfway home when it sets in....

It's dark. Boy it's dark. Are the roads wet? Are they going to be slick? I remember having a problem the last time I came this way. Was it the roads? Where am I? Was that a deer? I can barely see where I'm going. Was THAT a deer? What if I hit something? What if I fall? Even if I manage to stay upright, what if I make them fall behind me? Can I see them? Where are they? Is that them or another car? Count the headlights, Ray. That's way too many headlights. Gosh that car's a bit close. Is that them? Did I lose them? Where am I? Gosh it's dark. Is it getting darker? Why can't I see? WAS THAT A DEER? Is there a curve ahead? What if I lose control of my bike? I hate riding at night. I can never see anything. Damn night blindness. Where are they? Where am I? Shouldn't I be recognizing things by now? Where the hell am I? Shit! Curve! Oncoming car! WHY CAN'T I SEE ANYTHING? WHERE AM I?!?

By the time I realize I'm not breathing anymore I recognize lights up ahead. Thank God. It's our home bar. I can stop there. Somehow I manage to pull into the parking lot and turn my bike off without hitting anything or falling over. Strings comes over. "Everything okay?" he says. I'm managing to breathe now, but I still can't see. The term "blind panic." comes to mind. "Panic attack." I say. He offers to remove my helmet, but I'm already feeling my breathing coming back to normal and my sight, well, that will just take time. Strings and Scary say they'll meet me inside and I sit there, leaning on my bike, willing for my sight to come back. I sit there until I can at least make out the street in front of me. I then make my way inside.

It's amazing the things that fear can do to a person. One minute I'm fine and the next, boom, can't see, can't breathe.... worrying I'm going to die or kill someone else. What I found most amusing today thinking back on it was that they usually refer to riding a motorcycle as "being out on the open road." Me, I was trapped inside my own damn helmet. At 60 mph.

So for those of you wondering why I haven't been posting lately, well, I guess you can say I've been going through a few... things. Don't like to worry people. I'll get over this stuff. Been reading up on anxiety, fear, that sort of thing. Been seeing my shrink and takin' my pills like a good gal. Got an appointment with the psychiatrist tomorrow, in fact. Takin' my car.

Hey! That wasn't fifteen minutes!

Look, ma! I'm on TV! Okay, so it's only the side of my head, but it's more screen time than Strings had. Then again, I can't really blame the TV station.... Those cameras are expensive!

Watch the video and see if you can figure out which one I am. I dare yah.

Red Suit Slideshow

Pssst... Look at the slideshow with Al in the Red Suit in one of my prior posts below. Does anyone but me notice that the default slideshow option that Photobucket uses (which is what I used for this slideshow) makes it seem like there's a ... um... certain part of Al's anatomy just comin' right atcha?

Ah, good ol' Photobucket. It's like they can read my mind....

The Most Awesomest Thing EVER!!!

My friend, Amanda, just sent me a link to one of the best things I've seen on the internet in a long while. It's a website that allows you to take audio files from your computer and turn them into ringtones! I have been wishing for this very thing for quite some time. And it's not just cutting out a piece of a song that would sound good as a ringtone. It has three different editing modes - easy, advanced and expert - so that everyone from a novice (like me) to an audio guru can make an actually decent sounding ringtone.

Check it out here.

The only annoying bit is that it took me forever to figure out how to apply the file as a ringtone on my phone. And if you choose to try it out, I suggest choosing the option where it is sent to you in an e-mail so you can actually save it to your computer.

Oh! And I forgot the best bit.... It's FREE!!!