"...no dead end in sight..."

link dump

So this weekend somehow I ended up being pulled into the lovely whirlwind madness that is StumbleUpon. I wasted hours upon hours stumbling various things, and now that I have 2940672496 windows open I need some place to put them all. I'm pretty sure the website stores these links for me but 1) I am lazy, and 2) these are too good not to share. So here is a cross-section of the best of  what I'm stumbling upon right now:

• 30 Outdoor Beds for a Romantic Summer I saw the first pic on this site and went HOLY HAMMOCKS BATMAN. To heck with outdoor beds, if I ever have a backyard I am putting a hammock in it. I also had an idea where this design could operate on a pulley system and patio furniture could be placed under a hammocky shade structure?
• Planet eBook My current obsession with someday having a giant library room in our magic Barbie dream house is parallelled by my obsession with having a giant ebook collection to carry everywhere on my ipad. This does not help this any.

• Lace Lamp DIY I want to do this but I don't know which room in my house I'd prefer to be lit in creepy doily light. It'd be a fun project to make a light to read by though? OH or a tiny nightlight. Yeees.

• Scallop Carbonara with Asparagus I mean, just look at the photo. OM NOM NOM.

• American English Dialects I found this to be pretty interesting because of the various places in the country where my friends and relatives live.

• Tokyo City Guide (Japan-Guide.com) This one isn't from Stumble Upon, but I've had it open because lately I've been thinking about saving tons of monies for planning a week in Japan; ie: our honeymoon that we've never taken. (Although we can safely call any extended vacay since our wedding a honeymoon now, right? XD) Jay is down for the Yebisu beer museum and I'd like to see the Ghibli museum too.

novembrrrr~

Today is Wednesday, a lovely day! In which I am determined to get things shipshape! And of course, since duty calls and I must work on Friday so lots and lots of people can get a paycheck (including myself XD ahem), I am taking today off instead. Glorious!

In trying to recap what has been going on lately I can't really sum up the life experience so I will just go about it anecdotally and hope it will suffice.

I have been on a mad ebook kick spawned by the saving of lots of monies to purchase an iPad. I know, I've been obsessing about this for awhile, but with finances becoming secure it looks like this will absolutely become a reality in less than a week, barring some sort of catastrophe. Project Gutenberg has been beautiful music in feeding my ancient book hunger. I've downloaded about 65-70 books from them, free, and pdf'd them to transfer to ye olde iPad upon its purchase.

OH ALSO. I have found the most awesome case. It's simple, black, and just a cover (no bells or whistles at all) but I also had it engraved with the United Federation of Planets logo XD Yes, I am a huge nerd. But it's fairly obscure and only the true die-hard nerds will comprehend, and ergo fangirl with me. It's like a giant divining wand of TNG retardation. LOVE IT.

I have also become obsessed with Scentsy as of late. Particularly ebaying Scentsy, as a means of curbing both my Scentsy addiction and my ebay addiction. Having extra money does not help this at all, by the way. I'm just like YAY I CAN BUY ALL OF THESE FRAGRANT THINGS. I have a small one for work that arrived Monday night, but as my extra scent (Central Park Pralines, which is pecan-y and syrupy sweet) didn't come until last night I won't be able to torture show it off to coworkers until Monday. Sigh.

Work is amazing. I have the best bunch of coworkers imaginable, my boss is the nicest guy ever, and I am finally making a paycheck without the burden of credit card debt. Although HELLO STUDENT LOANS. I can't wait to start taking a chunk out of those.

I can't think of anything else particularly interesting. I attempted Nanowrimo this year, got about 2k words, and then realized I have hit my activity threshold. My little dog + grad school + housewifely duties + work all tugging at my arms means I need more arms, which of course is physically impossible. So Nano will be on the back burner this year, but maybe this time next year my schedule will be a little less impaired.

It's supposed to be COLD and possibly rainy today, but we are going to buy Christmas presents for little brother as he is going to New York soon to be a fabulous actor again. He was in South Carolina but stopped into wee fair Abilene to be the Snow King in the Nutcracker and an Arabian (well, THE Arabian) in Lubbock's production but then he is trekking off to notoriety unknown. Someday he will be on Broadway so we have to give him these little bits of Christmas early, you know. Being well versed in the art of melding one's holiday around work I can comprehend.

So. I hear the rustlings of impatient Pom in the other room, and thankfully he has been quiet thus far, but I probably shouldn't tempt him further. I hope everyone has a safe and most excellent Thanksgiving weekend! I promise I will think about attempting to update more :P

it's...alive? almost?

So after Jay's computer up and died and he bought a new one, I took the old one apart.

Here are its guts.

I am very slowly acquiring the parts to make this thing work - my last big purchase until I am gainfully employed was a case to put the brains in, probably more for safekeeping than anything else. It's smaller than a standard tower, has clear panels on three sides (the better to showcase the sporty blue LED cooling fans XD), and has a spring-loaded handle under the drive bays at the front so it's easily transportable. OH and the motherboard sits in a removable tray. Take out 2 screws and it slides out from the frame. Beautiful!

Things I took from the old computer:

• motherboard and processor
• DVD burner
• PCI slot ethernet card
• memory sticks
• card reader (I haven't quite figured out how to wire this in yet as it's missing a faceplate)

Things I still need to bring it online:

• blank 3.5" SATA hard drive (I'm assuming until I experiment and prove otherwise that the reason why the computer died in the first place was hard drive malfunction - either way I'm starting with a blank hard drive, ulterior motive to be explained later)
• memory upgrade (currently 2x1G; I want to upgrade to either 4 or 8G, I haven't decided yet)
• upgraded processor (currently Pentium 4, I think - I'd like to get something with a dual core in there at some point)
• video card
• mouse and keyboard
• monitor (or I might use our downstairs TV if buying an adapter cable is cheaper)

b&w temp on black

So I got a new phone on Tuesday (10/13! a very XF-fan-ish day! so I celebrated Chris Carter's birthday by buying something for myself XD). And it's an iphone. And I'm like, holy crap how did I ever survive before this phone. It has a ton of free stuff to download, including a Sherwin-Williams app that pulls paint sample codes from hues in photographs XD I am totally rocking the iphone now. It is like a tricorder for starfleet. Even though it doesn't pay the bills or feed the animals for me (yet).

I had been saving up for several months so it was a really, really good feeling to purchase something knowing it's paid for in full. And have enough money saved also so I could buy a case for the phone, too (because it's like a squishy bug and will be DESTROYED if you don't buy a hard case for it, nyerr).

I am jonesing for this weekend to be good and also to be productive. We're getting a good dose of fall weather around here, and thank god for the first time this month there is glorious golden SUNSHINE outside. It makes me want to cook up something savory in the crock-pot and just stay at home and clean out closets. Or paint. I know I keep saying that but I think this time it's true. I found a really awesome artist on Etsy and it appears that s(he) does watercolor prints and I think that's inspiring me a little bit. Watercolor has always intimidated me because it's such a tricky medium. And you have to wait for stuff to dry. BORING. Or maybe I've just never been grown up enough to be patient and wait for it.

With the weather being as weird as it's been, my teeth are hurting like whoa because of sinus stuff, I guess. I really hope this isn't my old lady-esque "I can FEEL the RAIN a-comin!"-type of ailment that flares up every time a front comes through. I will grab the pliers and yank the suckers out myself if that is the case, because it has been really hurting.

I set my alarm to ~5:20 this morning and what a difference it's made! I've gotten a lot done and if pookie weren't asleep in the room with my hairdryer I'd have pretty hair today. My hair is slowly air drying though, so maybe it won't be limp and disgusting like it's been pretty much all this week.

TX/OU is playing this weekend and my boss is a serious OU fan. I don't get college football. Maybe it's because my alma mater is was so horrid and fake, like HEY LET'S GIVE FOOTBALL MORE MONEY AND THEY WILL SUCK LESS K THX. Even though it's known for its music and jazz program. But that is a whole other tangent, for another time.

DANG this is a long update. I think maybe that's a sign that I need to go finish getting ready for work. Happy Friday everyone! <3

okay so really quick!

I downloaded a few select pics from Gucci's spring-summer 2009 collection that I am going to use to base my summer wardrobe from. Seriously, I need new clothes, and that is not just me being a stupid girly-girl. I need to clean out my closet, finally take that bag of Goodwill clothes from the hall and give it away, and then go shopping like a fiend.

In an earlier post I discussed an Einstein Brothers rant, which I guess really isn't a rant. It's more like, I went in last Friday looking for something delicious to eat on the way to work, and walked out with one of their Santa Fe wraps, which in spite of an overpowering influx of ancho chile flavor was pretty tasty. Although! I give it a 3/5 total because this is NOT something you eat in the car. I almost spilled it all over myself, and driving 65 mph down the freeway with half a burrito in my lap steering the car with my pinky finger is just asking for a ticket. Or a wreck :P

After a lot of thought - I don't understand why people are so obsessed with Twitter. I really don't. I am more obsessed with my friends' Facebook statuses (statii? o.o) and I can't comprehend why it's suddenly such a HUGE HIT! I also think making up their own jargon (tweeting) to describe the act of posting self-absorbed stuff on Twitter seems to be along the line of parents making up euphemisms for their little children to explain body parts (and you all know what I'm talking about). Maybe I'm just completely missing the point of this. I wish someone would explain the appeal to me. I mean, I love jumping on the intarwebs bandwagon. I just don't get it.

Also, there is something off about my body and I don't know what it is. I am going in for more tests, so wish me luck :( The medicine is working, I think, but I still have the hurting and that is no bueno. The next few days are going to be insaaaanely busy so we shall see what's up probably by Mondaytime.

And...I think that's all, for now. Time to get beautious for work~