 |
« June 2009 | Main | August 2009 » July 31, 2009Bring on the Goodies!I was just accepted into the new XBox Live dashboard previews group. Basically this means I'll be getting the goodies 11 days before everyone else. I was thinking about signing up when it first game out but figured it wouldn't be something worth looking into. Then I saw the previews on a video.... YES. Ironically I signed up just a few days ago and didn't even think I'd get in. Faster dashboard, sortable friendslist, avatar marketplace and game rating are just a few of the goodies they are offering. I'm not sure that I'll use the Twitter/Facebook options. I usually keep FB for friends only and I can't imagine Twittering from the console being fun... even with the keyboard attachment. Still... it's always nice to have shiny things to play with. It's even nicer to say you got it before everyone else. *grins*
[keywords: xbl gaming] July 30, 2009No Really... Send Me ANOTHER ReminderThis morning I rushed into my office and noticed a message on my phone. It was a voice mail from my coworker. Apparently she forgot to do something and wanted me to help her. Sure. No problem. I turned on my computer and my email popped up... with a message from my coworker. She was asking me to do the same favor for her. Okaaay. Like I said, no problem. I got up and my phone rang. Guess who it was. Yeppers... she was calling me from home to ask if I could do the same favor she asked me to do in the email and the voice mail message. Besides the fact that I didn't officially start for a few more minutes it was annoying to have someone make me feel like they had to ride my ass to do them a favor. Bah. With all the discussions of pay reductions, furloughs and people being laid off I am trying to think of how I can buy some of the things we need for the apartment. My credit card will be paid off in a few months, which will really help ease the strain once the furlough starts. I'm itching to use it to buy the furniture but really want to wait and see how bad it's going to be. The 21 days went down to 16 for me, which is nice. With my friends still looking for jobs while others are just losing them I am just thankful I have mine and knock on wood that this economy starts to turn around soon.
[keywords: Work coworkers] July 28, 2009Obsess Much?Last night I drifted off to sleep while thinking of ways to beat the Prototype game. Every game its the same thing. I try. I get to a hard part and get stuck. I start obsessing on what to do to get passed that part. Every game is a goal, every part I get stuck in an obsession. On the up side it's nice to feel like I've accomplished something once I've gotten passed a certain part or have beaten the game. It's been a while since I've had something that really challenged me as a hobby. I spent so long simply surfing the net and chatting that a part of me was numb. I know that gaming isn't the best hobby out there, but it's a nice start. The one thing I feel guilty about is asking for help. Be it from Jake or a forum, I feel like I ask too much or need too much help. I get stuck and Jake comes to my rescue. I find some video that magically shows me what to do when I've been pounding my fists against the wall trying it on my own. Some people go through games without guides or walk throughs. I am not that type of gamer. Before I started playing console games I wondered why Jake would need to surf for help. Now I know why. It's like handing someone a flashlight in a darkened room. Suddenly the door shines to the right of you and you can stop digging that hole. *sigh*
[keywords: xbl gaming] July 27, 2009Count Down Til Furlough TimeSometime within the next few months (as soon as September) both Jake and I will probably be forced to take a pay cut. It's 'supposed' to only last a year. Yeah... you know how that goes. What sucks is that it's both of us, so our household will be hit hard. I'm already trying to think of ways to reduce our budget. We only live a few miles from work so I keep thinking about losing the parking. It's over $600 a year, which is insane when you think about how cheap the bus is. It's nice to have the freedom of leaving whenever you want and driving in a car that doesn't have a passenger who smells like piss (hush, Pos). The only good thing is that I have a big bill that's about to be paid off which will free up money to ease the pain. Isn't that the way it always is? Get some extra cash just in time for an extra bill to show up. *sigh*
[keywords: Work money] July 24, 2009Winding DownI spent this entire week half sleep-walking through work. It's been so hot in our apartment that my sleep lasted about 4 1/2 tops... waking up every hour or so. I wake up, Phoebe goes into play mode. I think I've played with her for ten minutes almost every night this week around 3 am. By the time I have to wake up it's like I pulled an all nighter and need to crawl into bed. I'm hoping it cools down for the weekend so we can sleep in some. Sleep and play games, that is. Today I got to see the residents who 'came to my rescue' during the moth incident. I found out they are switching to a new specialty next week. Thank G-d. I thought I'd have to see their smirking faces for the whole month. My smirking friends are a whole other issue. *glares at Dina*
[keywords: Work weekends] July 23, 2009*Crawls Under Rock and Digs*Everyone's had them. Moments where there was no place dark enough to save yourself from complete embarrassment. Today... was my day. I went into the bathroom and noticed the wallpaper seemed torn behind the toilet. I grumbled about stupid inconsiderate people and sat down. Suddenly I felt something on my hair. I turned and saw the 'tear' had disappeared. Then it hit me. Tear = bug. Flying bug. BIG flying bug. I quickly got up and turned just as the bug (it was a moth) started to crawl on my face. That's when I screamed, flailing my arms and tried to run... with my pants around my knees. I fell forward, hitting the door hard. Then the knocks came. Doctors banging on the door, asking if I was alright. One started to bust the door open as I yelled, "I'm OKAY!" I wanted to die. The stupid fucking moth flew up to the ceiling and I threw my shoe at it in anger. Right.Over.The.Toilet. I realized my stupidity as it bounced off the wall (completely missing the fucking thing, I might add) and was inches from the toilet when I dove for it. That's when I slipped on my nylons, crashing into the wall as my shoe clattered loudly across the floor and into the door. Again with the knocks and doctors yelling if I was okay. I said something along the lines of "Oh G-d. I want to die" and they thought I was suicidal. One yelled he was calling 911 as I scrambled to unlock the door. I was a complete mess. "NO NO! I'm fine! Just... really REALLY embarrassed." Right about then the moth flew out and a female resident yelled. I pointed at her and said, "See!?!?! She knows what I'm talking about!" as the five other male doctors stood there... smirking. Fucking bug.
[keywords: randomness killmenow] July 22, 2009Achievement SnobI can't believe I did it. I thumbed my nose at someone with 300 less gamerpoints than me. Not verbally but still. The thought entered my mind. The guy was being a total douche bag to someone who was simply asking for help on XBL (big surprise) and I glanced at his gamertag. I immediately thought, "Meh, he has less points than I do and he's talking like a 20K + gamer. Jeesh... I really need to stop that. It's not even that I think I'm better than him. Hell, he's one game away from blowing me out of the water. But instead of thinking he's a moron for his actions alone I somehow thought he was also out of line for talking like someone who was a better gamer. I can totally see how easy it is to slip into that achievement = knowledge mindset. Hell, Jake usually plays for fun so his gamerscore isn't high. On the other hand he leaves me in the dust when it comes to games, genres and where to go for almost any info. Lesson learned... but the guy's still an asshole.
[keywords: xbl gaming] July 21, 2009Growing UpI remember when I was told that it's not good to marry too young. I was told it's better when you are older and you know what you want in life. People change. Goals change. Wait until you know what you want. Looking back at the last six years I can say that I've changed a lot. I've grown some, learned some and found new things to enjoy. After all these years I can honestly say you never really stop growing. I have friends who want to change careers that are in their sixties. I know couples who have been together since childhood. Me? I always seemed to end up on my own. Maybe I'm too picky. Maybe not picky enough. I just know that I spent a lot of years with guys who weren't keepers. Then I met Jake. It was so different. We were friends first and I adored him. I couldn't get enough of him. Ironically enough that hasn't changed. He's a part of me in so many ways and on so many levels. When we split up for a bit it was like losing my left arm. I still had my right side. I should have been just fine. I just didn't want to. The last time we broke up I finally found my footing. I guess I had come to live and breath him so much that I needed to find a way to move on my own. I think it helped me to give our relationship one more try. No matter what I knew I'd be okay. If we are meant to be then it will be forever. If not... I know I can at least stand on my own. Years of being alone. Years of being self sufficient. One man changes things and now I am a part of something I'd never thought I'd be in. A girl could get used to this.
[keywords: Life randomness] July 20, 2009It's Down? AGAIN!?!?! NOOOOOOOO!Yeah so... our DSL went down again. Saturday morning was going so well... then it all went to hell. After spending forty minutes on the phone with tier one tech support I was told the good news is that my modem is working properly. The bad news is... it's on their end. No shit, Sherlock. DSL light = solid. Internet = notsomuch. I was told someone would call us within 24 hours. GAH! 28 hours later I get back on the phone with Verizon. After going through the steps of what I did they guy tells me there was an outage in our area and my modem simply needed to be reset. So basically we were waiting for some guy to get his ass into gear and call me back so I can click two drop down boxes and hit Update. As annoyed as I was it was nice to just fix it and get the DSL up and running. Jake was betting it'd be another week long ordeal. I totally should have bet him. I've been playing Prototype for a while (I LOVE this game) and have been increasingly annoyed at the people on gaming forums. Some douche bag has to post how it was so easy for him and why is this thread even up. Every fucking time. I don't care if you spend HOURS playing games and know how to use the controller like a pro. 'Some' of us are at a different playing level and need a little help. What I lack in experience I make up for in stubbornness. It may take me three hours but I'll be damned if I'm going to give up. If only I could glide like Alex. *sigh* Traffic be damned!
[keywords: Verizon dsl xbl gaming] July 17, 2009Operation Fix Socket and Census a SUCCESSThat's right, baby. This weekend is starting out pretty damn awesome. If it were food it would be made of awesomesauce. First things first... the socket. Jake and I ran to OSH's to grab a volt tester and some surge protectors before going home to what was expected to be an annoying night. Then Jake clicked the 'RESET' button and jiggled the socket. Suddenly things started beeping and turning on. Music to our ears. Annoying music, but still... Back we went to OSH to return two of the items. I figured we'd switch around some of the plugs just in case. Now for the census. *dances around* I came in to another email from the BB with a CC to the other BB. He wasn't happy that the numbers didn't seem to match.*facepalm* He even listed all the floors and the numbers he got to show me. I replied with my numbers, showing that I looked through all floors and showed him my stats. An hour later he responded that the numbers are right. GAH! I was so relieved. I thought for sure he was going to pull some random patient out that I overlooked. The numbers are literally off by three. THREE. He also ran his numbers at a different time, which would explain why they didn't match. I was so happy to have him give me that email I was hopping around. I am really looking forward to kicking back with Jake and just enjoying each other this weekend. :D
[keywords: Work home] July 16, 2009If Only it Were a Fuse....This morning I was playing Prototype and had JUST found the last Orb (go me!) and ran to post about it when I heard the microwave go off. Jake cussed and I looked back to see that the television, XBox, cable box and Modem were all off. Jake checked the fuse box and nothing was tripped. I called my apartment manager from work and he mentioned it possibly being a blown socket. *crosses fingers* The bad news? The handy man who checks these things out has been busy 'elsewhere' and my manager hasn't seen him for almost 2 months. Now I have to go out and buy some sort of tester so we can figure out what the deal is. I love the rent but living in an older apartment building sucks major donkey balls.
[keywords: home] July 15, 2009Oh HELLI got an email from one of my BBs (with the other CCd) showing the census numbers he got that are slightly different than mine. Mind you, he goes into each patient to see what they are. He also tells me one of the doctors Mr. Nosy said was ours is in private practice and asks me to break down how I do the whole report. I wanted to scream. My coworker decides to show up at work (2pm) and is in a chatty mood. I have the look of fear in my eyes and she is just chit chatting about shit I could give a rat's ass about. I mention what I'm doing and that I have to recount numbers, etc... and she still talks while I'm doing it. WTF!?! An hour later I finally shoot off the response and pray that I don't end up chasing my head down the block. It's 20 minutes until I leave and I haven't heard a response. *siiiiigh* My biggest frustration with this report is that it went from a simple FYI to a major report that the heads off the hospital get. Any changes are a HUGE deal and I am constantly under the gun to make it better. Both my BBs expect something different from it which makes it impossible to do. It would be like creating two reports. One internal and one external. I don't mind doing both, but don't ask me to combine it so I have to explain to every one of them how it works and what each number means and why. I am expecting some less than pleasant response by one of them in the near future. Yeah, this is going to be fun...
[keywords: Work stress] July 14, 2009Five MinutesI have five minutes until I leave. Five minutes to try and be productive. I have a report to finish, a report to begin, three reports to create and over thirty patients to research data on. And yet the only thing I am doing is blogging about those five minutes as they slowly tick by. Today I spent twenty minutes meeting with one doctor and forty five minutes talking to a hospital administrator about her love life. In the end the forty five minutes chit chatting seemed more productive. Do you know what was my biggest accomplishment of the day? Finishing my blog with one minute to spare.
[keywords: Work] July 13, 2009GIVE ME CHOCOLATEAnd flowers. And pity. And a tissue. And the XBox controller. And an achievement. That's right, boys and girls. It's that time again. Fear my hormones... fear me. *whines*
[keywords: pms] July 10, 2009Shit We Need to BuyYeah, so lately we've been itching to buy things. All sorts of things. Anything shiny, new and expensive. I have to keep reminding myself that we need to stick to a plan of buying what we need first. 1. Bed. I am almost positive the box spring is broken. It literally has a curve in the middle. Yeah, we need a bed. One that doesn't feel like a torture device preferably. So there you have it. A bunch of shit that will cost me a lot of money. Every time we think about that laptop or PS3 I'm going to click on this blog and smack myself back to reality. Being a grownup sucks.
[keywords: shopping randomness live] July 09, 2009Boom Boom! Out Go the Lights!Last night I had just finished a grueling mission on Prototype that took me almost a week to complete (stupid glass wall) and saved... then all the electricity in the apartment went out. Jake went downstairs to the fuse box and I followed behind. I looked around and noticed something very odd. Neighbors. They were all peering out their doors. The only time we ever see any of our neighbors is during some sort of emergency. I noticed the darkened rooms behind them and asked if their electricity went out too. Yeppers... all out. I found it funny that Jake was the only guy to know you should check the fuse box. Heh. I went out front to tell him it wasn't just us and noticed neighbors peering out of apartment complexes on either side of us. Lovely... An hour later I got through to the DWP only to hear that it was some sort of short (possibly by the fire but they didn't know) and the ETA for the power to be back up was ten hours. TEN HOURS!?!?! Yeah, we contemplated grabbing ice and figured against it. The traffic outside was nuts from all the people using our street to get home after the fire blocked the normal route. Instead we kicked back, chatted and waited for the sun to go down. At about 9:52pm the power came back on. So much for the ten hour eta. the power outage did remind me of one thing... we totally need to get a corded phone. Cordless is great until you realize you need the baby and there's no dial tone.
[keywords: Life home] July 08, 2009Can We Have MJ Again?Today my coworker decided it was time for some Thriller... then the 70s music started. Right now I'm listening to "To Be Real". Remember that song? Yeah, now I do too. The difference is I have to listen to the whole thing. If I have that song stuck in my head tonight I'm going to start playing really bad gangsta rap. Shit that I have to wear ear plugs for. I might even dress the part. That's right... pants that hang off my ass, Jake's boxer shorts, an over sized teeshirt and some really big gold colored necklaces that say "OY" instead of "YO".
[keywords: Work coworkers] July 07, 2009MJ All Day Every DayIt would seem my coworker has decided to listen to Michael Jackson music constantly since he died. On one hand it's better than the crappy top 40 hits from the 70s and 80s music she was humming along to before. On the other hand... I need some fucking variety. How many times can you listen to the same five songs?. I feel like I have a radio station on. NEVER DEVIATE FROM THE PLAY LIST! Today was the day MJ was buried and a lot of people made money from it. A sad ending if you ask me. I clicked on CNN and thought I was redirected to MJ.com. Every article was about him. It's as if the world stopped. No deaths. No murders. No war. No news. While it's a wonderful thought... the reality is that it's just not the biggest selling news. Who wants to read about some random shooting when they can read about the step by step procession of random people who went to a memorial for a man they didn't even know? I grew up with Michael Jackson. I had a crush on him as a child and listened to his music while tapping my feet or dancing on the dance floor. His contribution to the music industry was deserving of a huge send off, but in reality it was a bitter sweet end to a man who gave his life to his fans... and in return they never gave him a moment of peace. Anyway... I'm hoping a plane full of musicians hits turbulence and knocks them around so she'll start listening to other music.
[keywords: coworker celebrities] July 06, 2009If I've learned ONE Thing... it's to wait a day before reacting. Yeah... a day is a good starting point. Talk to you tomorrow.
[keywords: Life] July 02, 2009Caution...I'm armed (with PMS) and I'm not afraid to use it. I felt that pang of anger rear it's head yesterday... followed by a full blown hissy fit later on. Yeppers, it's that time again. Time to ride that beast until she bleeds. It seems as though they've been more frequent lately. Before it was every other month and even then I might get away with just being weepy. Now I can't seem to miss a month without some sort of emotional episode that leaves scarring and bruises. Luckily I have the day off tomorrow. I've been dodging my coworker all day. That last thing I need is to unleash this baby on her. Team work? Yeah, that'd be right out the window. I plan on trying to stay low key this weekend. It's better for everyone... trust me.
[keywords: pms] |
|
  
 
 
 
 
|
|