Down the Rabbit Hole with the Semi-Evil Squirrel

maybe in time you'll want to be mine*

0834 hrs:
Happy Friday the 13th! Tomorrow being Valentine's Day (Barentinusu Day, in Japan), I thought I would post a link to something that anyone who reads my blog would appreciate.

My sister is in town this weekend, but not sure what the agenda is yet. My car is at the mechanic's today to see what is wrong with my brakes and ABS system. I'm guessing that it will be a fairly large bill. I'm the kind of person who likes to be prepared for the price shock, but I really have no idea of the amount I'm going to pay. I figure if I think $500, that it'll hopefully be less than that. Will be glad to have my car fully working again.

I am so tired and sleepy today that I keep yawning really big and my jaw is starting to hurt and my eyes are watering dreadfully...*tired sigh* Well, at least tomorrow I will be able to sleep in and catch up on some Z's....

Recover from ultimate sleepies action plan:

1) Take YoYo Ma CD out and put in....Gorillaz - Demon Days
2) Get up from desk and walk to break room for more coffee

....

ETA: Mission status: success!

0953 hrs:
I think it's sad that my teeth are so sensitive to everything that even drinking room-temperature water makes them hurt.

That was not what I was going to write though. I wanted to point out that because my car is at the mechanic's, I have Nailz's car with me. What happens is that she follows me to drop off my car, then we drive to her work, then I take her car to my work and then I pick her up from work after I'm done. It actually works out pretty well. Anywho - this means that I have access to Nailz's CDs that are in her car. This morning I snagged the following CDs from her car: Paul McCartney - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Gorillaz - Demon Days, NIN - Broken, BECK - animation BECK soundtrack, YoYo Ma. Quite the variety, plus some of these I've never listened to so it is a nice change.

I am anxious to hear from the mechanic about what is wrong with my car and when it will be fixed. Usually, I can expect the car to be fixed in the same day, but I'm not so sure that will happen this time. I hope it doesn't have to stay the weekend....

Speaking of the weekend, I do have a few things that I'm looking forward to doing along with seeing my sister while she is in town. Nailz and I are going clothes shopping this weekend. Hopefully, I will be able to settle on an interview outfit. I'm limiting my clothes purchases to those that are for the interview. Also, I am going to submit an order for all of the film developing supplies I'll need to develop my own black & white film. Should be fun. I just have a couple of things to check on before I hit "place order". Yay!

1545 hrs:
Ever notice how good it feels to sigh sometimes? There are so many different types and ways to sigh. Sometimes, though, they are not nearly as relieving as you hope. I've been doing a little bit of good and bad sighing today. But I definitely have been sighing a lot more lately.

Have been feeling weepy all afternoon. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that it has been so gloomy all week. Or maybe it's that I'm so tired and all I really want to do is go home, tuck myself in to bed and go to sleep and hide from the world the whole weekend. It sounds so nice....Alas, I have friends and family that actually want to see me (shocking, isn't it?).

Just a few minutes ago I was thinking about the clothes shopping expedition planned for this weekend. Just thinking about it discouraged me. Thinking about how cute the clothes are, but how they are: 1) too expensive, 2) don't fit right or 3) make me look frightful makes me already feel the post-shopping sense of defeat. Self-fulfilling prophecy, anyone? Maybe it won't be that bad since we are going to Kohls, where at least I don't have to worry about them being too expensive as long as I stay near the sale rack.

Best to post this. Soon I have to get on the way to pick up Nailz from work. I don't know the status of my car and probably won't until later this evening. *le sigh* I am not looking forward to that bill.

Everyone have a good weekend and wish me luck for the shopping trip!!

*Gorillaz - El Manana

Labels: car troubles, link blogging, moody, music, sleepy, weekend plans

i don't know what more to ask for, i was given just one wish*

0917 hrs:
*waves hello* I took a (short) hiatus from blogging last week due to an extreme amount of work to do. One of my cow-orkers is gone on medical leave for a few weeks and in the meantime I have to do part of her job. The part of her job that I am doing normally would only take an hour or so every day, but she was behind, so there was a lot of catching up to do. As it stands at this moment (after working like a mad woman last week), I am now only a week behind. I am hoping that by tomorrow afternoon I will be caught up to this week. *hopes*

I had a really good weekend compared to the weekend before. I did so much that it almost feels like I had a three-day weekend. The only bad side was that I was sick yesterday morning. I had a migraine and it gave me a short-lived fever, chills and some stomach problems. I took some Excedrin Migraine Extra Strength (so often my life-saver) and laid down for a nap. I felt worlds better when I awoke and continued on with my day. I still felt a little shaky for a while, but am feeling mostly ok today. Isn't it strange how migraines can wreak so much havoc physically?

1109 hrs:
Friday night is the ideal time to grocery shop. Nailz and I have made a habit of eating dinner and then going grocery shopping around 7pm. The grocery store is fairly quiet and peaceful and the lines are short, if there are lines at all. I normally wouldn't reveal such a "secret", but seeing as all of 3 people actually read these entries (and of those, none actually shop at the same store as we do), I think I am safe from Friday nights becoming the new busy time for grocery stores. Of course, I don't really care if other stores get busy or are busy on Friday nights - just so long as mine stays peaceful and quiet. Isn't that just how humans are geared to think?

Speaking of groceries - a new week means a new Grocery Titan! This week's Grocery Titan goes to ... *checks receipt and gets distracted* the 1/2 gallon Oberweis 2% milk coming in at a hefty $4.54 (bottle deposit is $0.85). The milk did have some tight competition (if you don't include the bottle deposit, that is) with the loaf of Texas Toast I bought for making French Toast on Sunday morning, which came in at an eye-opening $3.39.

Because the Grocery Titan does seem to be the same types of items every week (for the most part), I've also decided to announce a new category: the Grocery Saver! This item will be decided completely subjectively, based on what I consider to be the best value for the best price. This week's Grocery Saver goes to ... the small box of LIFE cereal! Cereal is usually so expensive, but there was a sale - 5/$10.00. Can't beat that when it comes to cereal!

1144 hrs:
Don't think I remembered to mention it here, but The Decemberists (my very favoritest band ever!) are putting a new full-length album out in March. I am pretty excited. They put up "The Rake's Song" for a free download and preview to the album. It rocks out completely. Did I mention that I'm pretty excited? *grin*

1505 hrs:
Working in a system that is moving like molasses and need to have everything done in it SOON. Gah. Plus, I'm just kind of fumbling around in the system because I was not trained how to do any of this in my cow-orkers absence and neither was anyone else. I've been able to figure it out slowly, but not quite so surely. Eek! Wish me luck and I'll blab at y'all tomorrow! XD

P.S. Happy Chinese New Year! Let's work hard together in this, the year of the Ox. Wear some red and try not to get angry today. :D

*Royksopp - What Else is There?

Labels: busy bee, grocery savers, grocery titans, music, the decemberists, work

we make love to some weird sin*

0921 hrs:
Ah~! It is finally Friday, eh? I would celebrate, but I have drill this weekend. Bummer, isn't it? As per usual there is absolutely nothing on the schedule. Tonight, I will need to find a good book to take with me so that the weekend isn't a complete waste. I miss the "old" unit. We actually had things to do and it was nice to feel productive. Well, no use dwelling on it, right? I'll just take a couple of things to do during down time and try not to think about it too much.

I can't believe it isn't even 10am! As expected, Friday is going to make this day as long and painful as possible. Oh, Friday - how I love and hate thee!

Oh - and I've decided to make sure to credit the title lyric in my posts from now on. I'm sure some of you have noticed that almost all of my titles are snippets of song lyrics. I want credit to go where credit is due.

1057 hrs:
*stares disbelieving at clock* Slowest. Day. Ever.

There are only 2 people out of the office today so it is super quiet. Also, the main line has only rung (rang?) 2 or 3 times, which might be some kind of non-holiday record. I'm having a hard time concentrating because my attention span on Fridays is pretty short unless I have a ton of work to do. *looks at Playlist* And when did I somehow collect more KAT-TUN (Japanese pop group, for those of you unfamiliar) songs than Spoon (an American prog-rock band) songs?! If I wasn't currently jamming out to "Our Story", I would totally feel a bit of shame right now.

1411 hrs:
Guh. I can't believe it's barely past 2pm. The idea that I still have almost 2 full hours left makes me feel like crying out of self-pity.

That thought reminds me of this lately recurring thought: Sometimes when I think about how good I have it compared to how it would have been even a few decades ago, I feel like a big whiner. I think about how I work at a desk and have a normal work week of 40 hours. I don't have to do manual labor for many hours every day for very little pay and my working conditions would probably be in the 95th percentile (if not, indeed, higher).

When I think about it that way, life is pretty good, eh?

PLAYLIST (from the mp3 player):
Wilco - 2 songs
Whitetown - Your Woman (ye-ah! It's been too long since I heard this! *heard it on Monday*)
U2 - In A Little While
Tom Waits - Hoist That Rag
The Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
The Grass Roots - Sooner or Later (how ironic that this song follows 'Steady As She Goes')
The Darkness - 3 songs
Tenacious D - Tribute
Telepopmusik - 3 songs
*Spoon - The Way We Get By
Spoon - 11 other songs
KAT-TUN - 17 songs
Elephant Kashimashi - 8 songs
NEWS - 9 songs
the sound of laziness:...giving up on playlist...

Labels: giving thanks, music, playlists, slowest day ever, work

somehow i'm keepin' it steady

0814 hrs:
Good morning. Ah~! I am happy that it is Friday. My day started out kind of rough when I almost got rear-ended on my way to work. Some people drive like they've never driven in snow before, or better yet - as if the roads haven't been sh1tty for the past week. It always amazes me that their vehicles aren't all banged up.

Had a hard time sleeping last night. I don't think I really fell into a good sleep until after 1am. The upstairs neighbors were stomping around above my room, so I kept getting woken up. It was one of those hazy sleeps where you're stuck in between the land of waking and the land of dreaming. I try not to think about how much sleep I've lost over the past few months because of the upstairs neighbors being noisy until the middle of the night. At some point, we won't live there anymore, and I think Nailz will agree that that day will be a very happy day.

Went lap swimming last night. This is the last night the pool will be open until January 7th. *sadness* I really enjoy lap swim. I feel like I am getting some good benefits from it and it is becoming easier. When I first started swimming again, I could barely do 10 laps, now I do 28 - 30 laps easily!

As the new year approaches, I have been thinking about some resolutions to make. It is always hard to for me to make resolutions because I usually just generalize and there is no way of enforcing them on myself. I guess a good one would be to stay smoke free for all of 2009. This will be the first time in 10 years that I haven't brought in the new year with a cigarette. How cool is that? That's exciting, that's what that is!!

1322 hrs:
The boss is gone today, so things have been really pretty quiet and happy around here. Everyone in the office seems to be getting a lot done, because there is a ton or rejoicing going on. I am going with the flow and getting quite a bit accomplished as well. Just about to organize and wipe off my desk. I haven't cleaned my desk since...*thinks* September or so? It's super dusty and has coffee cup rings all over and sticky notes everywhere. I'm sure there are crumbs under the keyboard. *grimaces and tries not to think about it*

In other news, I've been rocking out to Weezer's "Deluxe" album all day. I've just been playing it on loop. Because I have earbuds, I don't have to worry about it annoying my cow-orkers, so I really have at. Sometimes, I get into to a certain groove and if it feels good, so I don't feel like disrupting it by putting in a different album - especially when all the other stuff I have here at work has a totally different vibe than this album. I might want to change modes later in the afternoon, but for now, Weezer it is!! XD

1503 hrs:
I never thought working in an Access Database of over 80,000 records would be so fun! <__<>__>

PLAYLIST:
Weezer - Deluxe (red album)
The Darkness - Permission to Land

Labels: friday joy, music, playlists, quitting smoking, resolutions, work

you try to play it cool like you just don't care, but soon i'll be playing in your underwear

1155 hrs:
*laughs* I am in a good mood today. There are so many things I want to write about, but there are too many and they are spinning around in my head at too fast a pace to catch each one.

Currently, I am listening to Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" album. I would just like to state for the record (and also to warn my poor roommate) that on Saturday or Sunday I will be baking Christmas cookies for the office cookie exchange and I WILL be listening to every Christmas album I own on repeat. I will also most likely be singing along loudly in the fashion of my mother when she bakes Christmas cookies. There are times where I am so obviously my mother's daughter. :D

Did I ever mention that I read Bridge to Terabithia a couple of weeks ago? Well, I did - and it still is sticking with me, even though I am reading A Year Down Yonder right now. I am working my way through the stack of Newberry Medal and Newberry Honor winners that I have next to my bed. I'm not doing the best, but considering I read manga frequently and am also slowly reading Importing Diversity (an anthropology study of Japan's JET Program), I think I'm doing pretty well. I just get so distracted that I can't really read just one book at a time. :)

Well, time for lunch. Will probably write again in the afternoon, so I'll wait to post this for now.

1411 hrs:
I am positively falling asleep at my desk. Sad thing is, one minute I'm going through the database I help to maintain and fixing records and feel perfectly awake, the next minute I'm nodding and my left pinky has been hitting CTRL repeatedly. *sigh*

One of the dangers of database maintenance is falling asleep. It does get pretty boring. Earlier today I spent a little bit of time (in order to wake up) surfing these links:

I'm pretty sure, most men would not like it if the girl they were about to sleep with pulled one of these out. Of course, it is in centimeters, so it might be ok for those conversionally challenged...

I liked the commentary that went with this picture. Ron Weasley would have fainted dead away at the sight of that.

Do I need to even say what my thoughts were when I saw this? Any thoughts originating from the gutter would be pretty right on.

How awesome is this?

I find it interesting that if you look closely at this picture, behind the people running you can see people who have fallen. That must be just as dangerous as being run over by a horse... Yikes...

And lastly, this interests me greatly. It is most interesting when people go missing, seemingly without a trace...

Labels: domesticity, link blogging, music, newbery medal books, sleepy, work

go find another lover to bring a-- to string along...

0906 hrs:
I am typing this with gloves on. Considering that, I'm doing pretty well, I must say. It feels super chilly in the office this morning, but it might be that I'm just too sensitive to it. Thing is, it is 19 degrees outside and it would feel better to be outside moving around than to sit here in the office and freeze. Doesn't help that I'm sleepy. Then again, when am I not? I can't remember the last work day where I wasn't sleepy. There is just something magical about this time of the morning that wants to lull me to sleep.

I wish I could just close my eyes and take a nap. I feel so tired.... >_< I feel like I should not take tomorrow off, as I have already been gone one day this week (and unpaid at that!), BUT I really would like to sleep in tomorrow and just take it easy before my weekend shifts into high gear.

1358 hrs:
My mood has drastically improved since this morning. I'm not sure why, but I'm in a fairly good mood right now. Maybe it is the thought of Thanksgiving next week. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I haven't had my mom's Thanksgiving dinner in 3 years! I get excited thinking about it.

All day today I have been feeling like I am forgetting something important. I'm not sure if that is the case or not, but it kind of makes one paranoid, you know?

Do you ever listen to a certain song or album and it takes you back to a very specific time and place? I'm listening to The Wallflowers, Bringing Down the Horse. Every time I hear this album, I think back to the winter of 1996 to 1997. I was in high school, but I was head over heels for a college guy. I remember hanging out in his tiny apartment late at night, listening to this album (among others, such as Blues Traveler and Dave Matthews Band), doing homework and trying to win his heart. It never did work. I think back on those times and it feels like I was someone else; not anyone close to me. I can feel the coldness of the winter seeping in to the attic apartment through drafty windows and the crisp winter night sky. The memory is visceral.

1513 hrs:
Still have the pervasive feeling that I am forgetting something really big that I'm supposed to do. *sigh*

Here's a small embarrassment: Last night I was waxing my eyebrows (which I always do myself), but was really rushing through it. I accidentally waxed away a part of my right eyebrow. Oops. Thankfully, it is a small portion and not really that noticeable. It's interesting how many times people have asked me how I could do it myself and wasn't I afraid of waxing them off by accident....And not once until last night have I ever made an "oops...". Well, not a big deal - thankfully, eyebrows grow back pretty quickly anyway. *sheepish grin*

So tonight, Nailz and I are going to a concert. It's an early show, but if my evil plan goes right, we'll break backstage and get to hang with the boys. I'm pretty excited, but very calm at the same time. I haven't heard anything from the new album because I don't have it yet, so I'm hoping they play some older songs so I don't feel so unhip.

Well, guess that's about it. I'll leave you with a few of my favorite suggested excuses for not going to work (from my office joke calendar):

"I can't come to work today for the same reason you won't promote me. There is no reason."

"My stepmother has come back as one of the Undead and we must track her to her coffin to drive a stake through her heart and give her eternal peace. One day should do it."

Labels: music, oops, quotes, sleepy, work

just let go

0821 hrs:

*sigh* Thinking black thoughts this morning. I am exhausted, as I didn't get to sleep last night until 1am. I was in bed at midnight, but I just layed there and stared at the ceiling, my thoughts racing. The source of my current "mental distress" is of course a boy - named "Jo-L" for our purposes. A couple of days ago, he invited me to a Halloween party that is this weekend. Last night he called and after chatting for a bit, he said that he had invited another girl that he's been dating, so we're both going to be there at the same time. He said that he wanted to let me know so that it wouldn't be "awkward". Huh. Of course, while I was on the phone with him, I was very cool about the whole deal and took it very well. I would give myself an Oscar for my ability to act like I was NOT completely taken off guard, when I was actually pretty ticked off.

It is not that I expected him to be serious about me, but I certainly didn't foresee him putting me face to face with another of his girls. I don't want to be made a fool of. Jo-L is definitely not worth another tiny bit of my (admittedly battered) pride. I guess I am mostly angry (and a bit hurt?). Apparently, I am not worth his time (seeing as I haven't seen him in over a month) unless it is convenient for him or it is in a group setting where he can invite his girlfriend. I am not going to compete for someone's attention. If a person is interested enough in me, I shouldn't have to put in a concerted effort just to keep their limited attention. I'm not going to debase myself that way. He's an idiot. That's what I've come to understand. And he's not worth my time, or even the effort I took in writing all of this.

0855 hrs:

Listening to KAT-TUN solves all problems. Especially Natsu no Basho, Lovejuice, Don't U Ever Stop, TABOO and Our Story. They are just so EPIC sounding. Big sound, big emotions...It is a really good catharsis.

As an after thought to the first part of the first entry: even though I have decided that Jo-L is not worth my time, I have decided that if someone will go with me to the party, I will go. I can't help it - I'm curious who this other girl is. Besides that, some day soon I'll look back on this and laugh - why not start now and it might be a good party story later that everyone can have a good laugh about (after the appall has worn off). Also, I have to admit that sometimes I get bored if my life is not sometimes touched by "DRAMA!!". I will try not to torture Nailz by recounting it too often or dwelling on it too much. As she so accurately put it: "Jo-L makes you crazy and you don't need any more crazy."

1154 hrs:

Have been keeping myself fairly busy this morning. This afternoon is already full of things that need to be done. We are being audited, so there is of course a lot to do. *tired sigh*

I'm not feeling the best today. Probably from lack of sleep and other things. I am looking forward to lunch, but am going to wait a few more minutes.

Tonight, I will be putting the wheels of fate in motion. I'm going to submit my online JET application and then tomorrow put the paper packet together and mail it to the Embassy. I'm nervous, because everything beyond here is unpredictable. I like thinking I know what is going to happen in the future, so this is scary for me. Heh. XD Nailz, will you look through the application with me to make sure I didn't miss something? I need a pair of eyes that haven't looked at it a million times.

Well, that's about it for today. No playlist, as I've been listening to the 30 songs I have on my newly resurrected mp3 player on repeat. *rolls eyes at self* Putting more songs on it is something I'm going to try to do tonight though.

1242 hrs:

Last couple of notes:

There is a guy here at work (I'll call him Leo) who I had a close encounter with after a Happy Hour last spring (he kissed me unexpectedly). I put a stop to it very quickly by letting him know nicely, but bluntly that I was not interested in him that way. Things are still weird, though. Luckily, he works in a different part of the building and now has a girlfriend. Still...We both avoid eye contact and rarely acknowledge the other person's presence. I actively avoid him if possible. Isn't that sad? It makes working here a bit weird some days. *sigh*

The ladies are looking over cookbooks over lunch. It is really funny, because it seems like such a woman's get together when we start talking about cooking and recipes and the like. I feel like I'm 40 - not 29. >___<

Labels: JET program, Jo-L, KAT-TUN, music, sleepy, work

i made a lot of mistakes that bear a heavy, heavy weight

Yay for Hump Day! I am glad it is Wednesday, though I'm not sure I can really express it adequately in words. It's just a huge feeling of relief that the week is half over. I should remember to buy a Powerball ticket today. I know the possibilities of winning are slim (to put it lightly), but one can always dream of calling in rich to work. What a life that would be? To not have to work. You could actually pursue a fulfilling job. For me that would be something that doesn't pay enough to live on. Heh.

Last night was a good night. I went home and did a load of laundry first thing because I desperately needed to do a dark load. I put the laundry in and did other things. Don't remember exactly what I did in that time, but after laundry was done, it was time to go to lap swim. Kept forgetting and then remembering things every time I walked out the door. I went out and came back in at least 4 times. *sigh* Finally made it to lap swim 15 minutes after it started, but still got in a 1/2 hour of laps. I really enjoyed it. When I first started swimming again, it was really tiring and felt like a real struggle - now it is getting a lot smoother and not as tiring (though I can feel my muscles working).

After I got home from swimming, I was going to look at getting a new mp3 player. First, I was going to leave a review for my current mp3 player saying that it had died after only a year and a half, but it is no longer manufactured. On the website, I saw a link to tech support for the device, so out of curiosity, I checked that out. I ended up being able to resurrect it. YATTA! I had purposely used the little reset button on it the day it died on me, so there was no music on it. I put a few KAT-TUN, Elephant Kashimashi and miscellaneous j-pop/rock songs on just for a test run. It took up a good two hours of my time last night, but it is working fine today. I am happy. I'm such a cheapskate (kecchi!!) that I don't like to believe that things are not able to be saved or used.

So there will be no playlist for this morning. Perhaps this afternoon, I will put in a CD for a bit of variety. Well, better get back at it. :)

1057 hrs:
Just got out of a meeting. Woo! Three minutes early!

I feel really guilty lately at work when I'm around a certain co-worker. I can't seem to stop putting my foot in my mouth whenever I'm around her. She's a nice woman, but I fear that I've said some things inadvertently that hurt her feelings. Also, she is, in some strong ways, connected to the psychotic chiropractor incident and I have a feeling that she has heard through the grapevine about it. The story is probably pretty skewed too, as it probably came to her attention via the psycho chiropractor. *curses and shakes fist* (Whatever happened to doctor-patient confidentiality!! <--of course, I can't prove anything...) *sigh*

So that situation is making parts of my work day a bit uncomfortable. Maybe I should just shut my big yapper more often than not. It is strange to even think that because for the most part of my days at work I don't talk to my co-workers at all and they know a bare minimum about my private life - well...except for the really entertaining bits. (I know you're thinking: "And which ones would those be? I haven't read anything close to resembling entertaining!!")

Before I went in to my meeting, I was listening to Elephant Kashimashi and it was really good!! Nailz, thank you for sharing this wonderful music with me!

1242 hrs:
I feel a bit goofy today, but no one at work is in the mood to indulge me, so I have to hold it all in.

Tonight is yoga and tai chi chih night. I am excited right now, but I'm sure after I get home from work, I will be noticeably less excited because I'll be tired and just want to take a nap. :( I need to start going to be earlier. Most nights I don't get to sleep until midnight or later. I was just listening to the girls in the lunch room talking about being in bed AND asleep by 10pm!! *shock-u* How is that possible?? I'm still doing STUFF at 10pm and not even getting ready for bed until 11 or so. Maybe that's my problem, eh? Well, tonight will probably be an early night because I don't have anything on my to-do list for tonight. Of course, I think that I'll go to bed early every night and then end up going to sleep at the usual time.

Feeling restless because I don't have any books to read lately. Wait...let me rephrase that. I have books to read, but I haven't chosen which one I'm going to read yet. I have so many books I've been "meaning to read" that they are practically coming out my ears. *sigh*

Playlist:
Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits (only played the first 2 songs...*sad*)
Simon & Garfunkel - Collected Works, Disc 1 (only played first 2 1/2 songs...*sniffle*)

Labels: books, music, playlists, work

and the century is closing down

0806 hrs:
*sigh* So this morning was one of those confusing traffic mornings where the normal drive becomes convoluted by strange things other drivers are doing. You know what I mean? Every morning commute has a pattern. I drive in a pattern. For instance, at one stoplight where I make a left turn, I always do a legal left turn (meaning I stay in the left lane and don't drift over to the right lane of the 4-lane street I'm turning on to) and then signal to get into the right lane. This morning, I was cut off from getting in to the right lane because the guy behind me did not do a legal left turn and was already speeding up beside me. This led to me not being able to get into the right lane (where I need to be for my next turn). So yeah - that little incident and a few others made my morning drive feel strange.

Also - left my CD case in the car. I will have to go out and get it soon, but in the meantime I'm listening to my new Ajikan albums (again) and on the most recent single "Fujisawa Loser", the B-side track is really different. I went to check it out on CD-Japan and sure enough, they are not the ones who sing it. Here's what I found out through a commenter at CD-Japan:

"The B-side track is 'Hello Hello'. The song is in English but it isn't sung by AKFG, instead 'The Rentals' lend a hand by singing the song with Aijkan providing the music. You will enjoy this song."

Lately, I feel like I goof off a lot at work, but I think I am being a bit over-paranoid because of the fact that as soon as my boss walks out of her office, she can see what is on my screen. No other person in this office has such a disadvantage when it comes to goofing off at work. I know for a fact that everyone here does quite a bit of surfing the internets. So when Penny Arcade posted this comic yesterday, I really felt a connection...

0902 hrs:
Blah. I am a bit frustrated by work this morning, but don't feel like going into details - too lazy and sleepy. Soooo sleeeepy.... -____- I wish I could lay my head down for a few minutes and just shut my eyes. I'd probably be out like a light though. XD

The cat has been letting me sleep through most of the night this week. Yesterday, he didn't wake me up at all. Today, I only woke up because he was yowling in the hall. Unfortunately, it was 5:50am and once I put him in his carrier and got back into bed, I only had a 1/2 hour to sleep before I had to get up for work. *sad girl, tired at desk*

What does a girl do when she can barely stay awake? She goes on to YouTube and finds stuff to watch for a moment or two. Found this on the front page:
Halloween for Pets

It's too cute, but I kind of feel sorry for those pets...

1012 hrs:
Ah, bloody 'ell...The CD player on my work PC is going out. I noticed last week that it wasn't playing the whole album and would just stop after so many tracks, but it would play the first 30 minutes of most CDs, so I was ok with it. Now it will only play the first 7 minutes and some seconds of the CD.

Guess I will have to see if I can get my mp3 player up and running tonight. I hope resetting the player worked. I will try to load music on it tonight and see. If not, I guess it really is time for a Zune. I hope they have small ones. I don't want anything too big or bulky...

1135 hrs:
Right after I finished that last section, I decided to re-arrange my workstation to be more ergonomically correct. I have problems with my shoulders a lot while I'm at work and it is negatively affecting my posture and consequently causing pain in other areas of my torso. I've been thinking for a couple of weeks now that I wanted to change it, but today I finally said f*ck it and just stopped what I was doing, turned off all of my equipment and moved it around to be a lot more body friendly. I feel better already. *happy sigh* Plus, it has helped my morning go more quickly. :D I am also hoping that the new position of my CPU will help the CD player. Before it was in a vertical position and now it is in a horizontal position. We will see....

1331 hrs:
AH HA!! *is victorious* The CD player on my PC now plays whole CDs!

Well, I really shouldn't write much more - this is getting gigantic!! *blushes* I'll try not to ramble so much tomorrow. Gomen ne!

Today's playlist:
AKFG - Fujisawa Loser (single) x3
AKFG - Into an Unseen Tomorrow
AKFG - World World World
Sheryl Crow - Tuesday Night Music Club
Simon & Garfunkel - Collected Works, Disc 2

Labels: link blogging, music, playlists, sleepy, work

no i would not give you false hope on this strange and mournful day

0758 hrs:
Ah. So it is already Thursday, eh? This week is going by so quickly for me! I'm kind of stunned, really. I'm doing good with quitting smoking. I haven't had a cigarette at work all week and stopped having cigarettes outside of work yesterday. I have nic-fits here and there, but mostly, it feels ok. I'm suspicious. It's almost TOO easy - kind of like in horror films when it gets too quiet or the calm before a big summer storm. Hm....well, we will see.

Can't think of much else to say at this point. I'm not going to make the same mistake as yesterday of not saving this as a draft and then losing it to a program error. As much as this is mostly ramble....

0859 hrs:
Guh. *dies trying to stay awake* Man....I need to stop staying up late reading BL manga. I haven't gone to sleep until after midnight every day this week. It's finally really hitting me - like a ton of bricks. I can barely keep my eyes open and I yawn every few minutes. *sad sigh* Also, have found out that Justin Timberlake's beats can put me right to sleep - even the dancier stuff.

I don't think my tiredness is helped any by the fact that the office is cold this morning. I'm sitting here in my heavy wool pullover thingy and have my knit hat on in an effort to warm up.

Well....suppose I should get back at it. Maybe a little walk around the office will help to wake and warm me up.

0916 hrs:

Tried going back to working on a project, but just couldn't keep my eyes open, so I got up and walked around a bit (bathroom break, etc) and talked to the office chatterbox for a few minutes. We talked about cats because we are some of the only cat owners in the office. I feel much more awake now. I am happy to see that it is past 9am. Usually time goes by much more quickly once 10am hits. *crosses fingers*

1051 hrs:
YATTA!!! \o/ I just found a way to get around the restrictions on my PC for setting my own wallpaper. Before, I was going through the "properties" dialog box to set a wallpaper and it would only let me choose from the standard Windows wallpapers and a few pre-installed and approved company logos. Today it occurred to me while looking at a picture of my cat (yes, I have pictures of my cat saved on my work computer - I need something to look at that will cheer me up on bad work days) that I should try right clicking on the picture and choose "Set as Desktop Background". It worked! Yay! This makes me happy. Now I can look at my cat's sweet face whenever I minimize all my work windows.

1327 hrs:
It's been so long since I listened to a full Dave Matthews Band album. How amazing...I forget how enjoyable their music is. Usually, I skip over listening to DMB because I just think of how over-played some of their songs were on the radio. I don't remember that all the other songs on the album are so much better! Maybe I'll make tonight a DMB re-discovery night and play all of the albums I own in a row (I think it's 8 albums total...).


Today's playlist:
U2 - War
Justin Timberlake - Justified <--I think I'm going to get rid of this CD - it's too sleep-inducing for me... Paul Simon - Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986 Dave Matthews Band - Crash Dave Matthews Bank - Under the Table and Dreaming
Yoshida Brothers - III

Labels: chantix, music, sleepy, work

so which of the standard lines will we use?

1533 hrs:
So my email from this morning got lost. My email program had an error and I lost everything I'd written. This is ok, I suppose. I don't remember what I wrote about, which kind of makes me sad.

I'm listening to Dashboard Confessional right now. Every time I listen to this album, I can't help but think that this guy must have had some really terrible relationships and dated some nasty women. Either that or he is just full of drama and every girl he's dated is stunned and/or confused about what's going on.

Do you think it's coincidence that WTF and FTW are anagrams? I think not!! I don't know why I just thought about that. Perhaps I have adult ADD. If it were true, I wouldn't mind; it keeps my life interesting (to me anyway!).

Here is today's random playlist:
NEWS - Touch (too good not to listen to it again! *hearts*)
Elvis - Number 1 Hits
Weezer - Green Album
Dashboard Confessional - The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most

Labels: music, work

excess ain't rebellion - you're drinkin' what they're sellin'

0811 hrs:
There always seems to be a dead space in my mornings at work; a time where I honestly can't think of anything to do, so I turn to writing a daily email.

The person in the next cube must be having a bad day - she's banging around and closing her desk drawers loudly. I feel for her - it's not even 9am yet.

I was successful yesterday in not smoking at work. It was pretty easy. I hope it stays that way. I only had 3 cigarettes yesterday, which is unheard of for me, so that's good. Chantix is an interesting drug. I haven't necessarily lost my desire to smoke, but I'm not exactly motivated enough to make time for smoking either. Plus, every cigarette I've smoked in the last 24 hours has tasted absolutely nasty. I also blame Chantix for the constant sour stomach I seem to have lately and the numerous, very vivid, strange dreams I have been having. When I wake up in the morning, I feel like I have had a ton of dreams, but can't really remember the whole dream, just bits and pieces. Strange.

Last night around midnight, the next door neighbors (who usually I really like) were having a knock-down drag-out fight. Not sure if there actually was any physical contact going on, but lots of slamming doors and screaming and yelling. I could actually hear exactly what the lady was screaming. It was pretty hurtful. I was hoping they would quiet down so I could actually fall asleep and then I felt bad for hearing all their fighting. Then again, maybe if they hadn't been screaming and yelling so loud, I wouldn't have heard what they were saying. What's worse is that they have a little boy. I feel bad for him having to hear that. Yikes...

0845 hrs:
I decided to work on some online training, but damn is it slow. It feels like I wait 5 minutes for it to check my answer on the section quizzes. Blah. That's what I'm waiting on right now.

Didn't take the time last night to see if I could fix my mp3 player, so I'm listening to CDs again today - still working through the CD case I keep in my car.

1032 hrs:
It is ultimately hard for me to listen to Peter, Paul and Mary at work because I want to sing along. *sigh* This shall be a test of my will. *flaming eyes of youth* Whenever I listen to Peter, Paul and Mary, I think of my mom in the kitchen, baking on a Saturday morning and singing along. Another baking/cooking favorite of my mom's was Barbara Streisand. I like to listen to Babs when I'm baking now, too. *rolls eyes* It drives Nailz nuts, so she hides in her room. Gomen ne, Nailz-san!! Hontoni gomen ne!

1222 hrs:
I'm about to eat a HotPocket for the first time in my life. I'm kind of excited. It's one of the fancy croissant ones. What will it be like? I feel like I'm about to step into a whole new world - but I have to wait 2 minutes first (per the carton instructions).

1249 hrs:
The HotPocket wasn't that great and it was tiny to boot. I'm not displeased, but don't think I will be buying any in the future. I'm following it up with some strawberry-banana yogurt. I'm not a big fan of anything that is strawberry-banana flavored, but it was cheaper to get 4 of s-b flavor and 4 of the peach flavor than to just get 2 4-packs of peach. So meh...

Tonight, I have to vacuum the apato. It hasn't been done in a couple of weeks. I have just been too lazy. :( Ah well, guess that's all for today's random post!

Today's completely accidental playlist:
LIVE - Throwing Copper
Weezer - Maladroit
Cake - I Will Survive single (UK Edition)
Peter, Paul and Mary - The Best of 10 Years Together
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes
The White Stripes - Elephant
NEWS - Touch

Labels: chantix, food, music, work