Enjanerd: holiday festive Barbie

Hung out with my BEST friend for a few hours this evening. (After the horrible, horrible football game that we won't mention again...) Played dressup and let her draw on my face and stuff. Went shopping and accessorizing. We spent about an hour and picked out an entire outfit (sans shoes, although now that I mention it, we did find a pretty pair of ruby red shoes that would have gone nicely. I just wouldn't have had any other occasion to wear them.) that would be suitable for a formal event. I'm very impressed and pleased with her shopping skillz. All is well in the world of passing me off as a girl for a day. Other than that, went and played Animal Crossing and hung out with my sis and roomies. Then came home and watched Gattaca with my bro and his friend. I had forgotten how much I liked that movie. :) I watched it when it first came out on video and then maybe like half of it on HBO one time. But that's about it. It was on sale at Circuit City yesterday and I picked up a copy because I remembered it being good. Much better than I remembered. So I'm pleased. Again. :) -J.

Microsoft fires worker over weblog

Microsoft fires worker over weblog

beware of where you blog...

Black Friday

What was I thinking...? ;) Hehe... I got up today around 5am and departed with my bro around 6 to shop for the next 8 hours. It was fun though. I don't know if the places we went to just weren't that popular, or if we planned our day so amazingly well that we only had to stand in line for extended periods of time at 2 stores. Either way, we hit a lot of stores and got a lot of stuff. Started out at Target, then split up at the mall. He went to buy toys and I went in search of girly clothes. Checked out department stores and some of the trendy places, but didn't find much of anything that I liked. Went to Circuit City from there, then Old Navy, Linens 'N' Things, Kohl's, Toys R Us, Walmart, Michaels, and the home decorating place next to Michaels. Came home, took a 3-minute power nap before going over to my sis's place. Then, played some mario kart before taking a 10-minute nap until Jason's parents showed up. Met them, then they left, and Nothing and I headed over to the castle for dinner. Mmm... leftover Thanksgiving food... :) Pie! Back to Nothing's... more video games, then home to watch a few hours of the West Wing marathon with Roy.

Quotes of the night
"My date's dead. Do you want to come home with me?"
"im sure you could make it as a high priced call girl"

Tired now. Sleep... :) -J.

mm... tofurkey

Hi all,
Hope you've all had a nice Thanksgiving. I spent the day with my family... we had an early "dinner." My sis and I showed up around 10 and my bro showed up about an hour later. As usual, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, we made a lot of noise, and an abundance of food. Ate around noon and then took a nap and watched tv. Got up, ate pie... and that's been about the extent of my day. Lots of eating, lots of sitting around being lazy, and lots of football watching. Getting ready to go see a movie with my brothers. Enjoy mass shopping tomorrow! :) -J.

Happy Turkey-Day

What are you thankful for today? :) -J.

mm... slaves...

'Master' and 'slave' computer labels unacceptable, officials say: "We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment components that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature."

Traffic, food, and friends

So, after work today, I headed up to Bethesda to attend a pre-Thanksgiving potluck thing that one of my former classmates was holding. It only took about 2 hours to get there... Food was good, people were interesting, for the 10 minutes I talked to them. Then everyone started to leave because it was getting late. It was a bunch of my friend's coworkers though, so after all the boys left, there were three girls left and we had quantity bonding time. It was fun. I ended up staying over there chatting until a little past 10. Came home (only took half an hour... which is the amount of time it takes to get home from work with no traffic. *grumble*) with a bunch of leftovers and now have 3 desserts waiting in the fridge. Mmm... desserts... :-D One day left of work and then 4-day weekend. Yay! Then time to think about the things that I am thankful for this year. I might even share if I'm feeling extra warm-'n'-fuzzy. 'Nite all! :) -J.

comments

Holy cow... So it turns out I left the 100th comment on Mindless's blog today. So, I thought it would be a good time to look and see how many comments I've had. I completely missed the 100th comment. Thanks to all the people camping out my site and the conversations bouncing back and forth between blogs, I am currently at comment #301. Mindless left the first comment back in September. You guys all need something else to fill your time with. But as long as you want to waste your time here, thanks for reading! :) -J.

Open Letter

AN OPEN LETTER TO UMLAUT.

October 13, 2003

Dear Umlaut,

You think you're so damn cool, huh? Just hanging out, chillin', above all those vowels. You're all, "Ooh, look at me, I'm a chic umlaut. I make girls' names look modish, like Zoë and Chloë, and I rock with strung out 80s metal bands!"

Well, guess what? You're only an umlaut if you're modifying the pronunciation of a singular vowel, like in "Führer" or "über." If you're stressing the second of two consecutive vowels or one that would usually be silent according to common English usage, you're just a plain old boring dieresis. How 'bout that, you naïve jackass? God, you're such a poseur, umlaut. You're nothing but two measly dots. You'e a Eurotrash colon lying down. Nobody thinks you're cool.

Sincerely,
Josh Abraham
Kew Gardens, NY

Sigh... Redskins...

QOTD: "'He deserved to be a winner tonight,' Redskins Coach Steve Spurrier said. 'But it didn't work out tonight for all of us. We're all losers now.' "

happy day :)

Today was such a good day! I slept in until about noon. Vegged out some. Chatted online before heading out to Tysons with Roy for some shopping. We both got shoes. And he was patient enough to follow me around to about a dozen stores before finding shoes that I could actually fit into and walk around in. (Is that really asking so much from a shoe?) Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory (the new one!) and got a pumpkin pecan cheesecake and then off to Chipotle for burrito-y goodness. Back to his place for some football. And I apologize. The Redskins lost after I stopped watching. They've been doing pretty well the last few times I've watched them play. They do need to start standing on their own and winning their own battles though. I'm not here to win games for them. Anyway, that's about it for the evening. Spent a while catching up with fashiongrrl tonight. And now time for sleep. 'Nite all! :) -J.

X P R I Z E

X P R I Z E

saw this on the news the today. anyone interested in building a rocket ship with me? we can split the ten million dollar prize.

Mmm.. pie...

What Irrational Number Are You?

You are π Of all the irrational numbers, you are the most famous. You have many friends and fans. Like many people, non-Euclidean geometry makes you feel uncomfortable. You are involved in so many things that it seems like it would take two of you to make ends meet. You are particularly close to the rational number 22/7. However, you and e have been called "remarkable." Your lucky number is approximately 3.14159265

Shiny Lemur Straif's Blog

Do you, um.. like, want to, you know, go out some time maybe? *looks down* *kicks dirt*

girl: You should ask him out. You'd look good together.
me: Ok. *turns to boy* Do you want to go out on a date?
boy: Well, yeah. Oh, but not with you.

me: People keep asking me about my IM profile and whether it means something... I mean, well duh. It's obviously a phone number.
Roy: Is it decimal binary?
me: No, ascii binary. Why? Does it make a difference?
Roy: Not really. Just curious.


Lol... I love my friends. :) -J.

Why am I still awake? Because I only got 4 hours of sleep last night.

Friday @ Fridays. There was a gathering of spheres... including 75% of the sibling clan, sibling spheres, TaxBreak sphere, Matt sphere => 13 people total.

Ducked out after dinner while most of the group headed out to Carpool. Went home and watched Bowling for Columbine with Planned, Thuy, Roy, and Roo. This was an interesting movie. To me, the point was to get people thinking about what causes violence in America. There are so many varying theories which are not supported when we are compared with other countries with comparable occurrences of the suggested causes (i.e. availability of gun, violent music/tv/movies, etc.) However, other views ranged from biased anti-gun propaganda to anti-media propaganda. Anyway, it was sad. But entertainingly satirical. Don't take it personally when you watch it, and you'll probably enjoy it.

Saturday... started the morning off bright and early with a 5k jog/walk for the FannieMae Foundation's Help the Homeless Program. Had to keep up with Everything who kept me jogging at a decent pace. We finished in a little over half an hour. A personal best (and the first time I have completed anything close to a 3-mile run). Played some Animal Crossing, had lunch at Bombay Bistro, went to Ikea...

*Dresser update*: all is well. The instructions were faxed, the missing part retrieved, and the dresser complete (thanks to help from brother#2 while I was out carousing)! And Ikea is back on my good list.

Went to dinner with some people at Busara Thai then headed over to Citie (a some-what upscale club on a sketchy-looking street) in lieu of bowling. I think, for once, I might have preferred the bowling. Ah well. It was an experience nonetheless. I must broaden my horizons... And boldly go where I have never had any desire to go before... Left there and hung out with Roy for a little while before heading home. And that about sums up my night. Time for sleep. :) -J.

Yes she is my friend. Yes she is attractive. No I'm not screwing her.

Stolen from someone else:

People are very interested in relationships so its not very surprising that if you are male and spend a lot of time with a female, people tend to think you are dating. In fact a few friends have told me that people come up to them all the time and mention something about their 'boyfriend' in reference to me. I was getting dinner at this cafeteria the other night, with one such friend, and even though we weren't talking while we picked out food the cashier asks us "Is this together?". I have no problem with this. The fact is that my female friends are great people and very attractive so people assuming that they would actually go out with me is a compliment, or at least that is how I bemusedly take it as. The problem is when people who barely know me and/or the girl come to the conclusion, and tell the girl, that "he wants to sleep with you"/"he wants to go out with you". If this was in the vein of being helpful such as "If you are interested I think he likes you/you would make a cute couple" then I wouldn't care. But generally these comments come as "he is only being your friend so he can sleep with you"/"He is only being your friend so that maybe someday you will notice him and want to date him". Until I started writing this entry I hadn't realized why this bothered me. Then I realized that whether inadvertant or not, this is an attempt to hurt my friendship with that person for the grand goal of giving that person amusement/gossip. I dont think that this kind of thing would damage my friendships with these people, but I take the attempt very seriously. I like my friends and I dont like people trying to come between myself and them.

Not to mention the implication that girls would be friendless if there weren't people who found them physically/sexually attractive. Jerks.

"I gotta thirst and baby, you look like my Gatorade."

Thanks fashiongrrl for this one: Top 10 worst pick-up lines

Most are oldies, but a couple I haven't heard before. And only two that I've been on the receiving end of. Though, they were just kidding. I think. I hope...

What Do You Wear to Bed Quiz

Haha... I agree with Critical. This quiz is pointless. But at least for me, it was right...

What Do You Wear to Bed?

Brought to you by Faytrial

If you can't read the text on that picture, it says I'm lazy, sexy, fun, busy, horny, seductive, active, and weird. Six out of 8 ain't bad... ;) -J.

I am not getting everyone whores for Christmas

I went to this lecture on stem cells tonight with Planned and sidekick. It was very interesting. The guy was a pretty good speaker and it was entertaining. There were these middle school (high school?) kids sitting in front of us who weren't paying attention and totally missed his punny jokes. Kids these days... *shakes fist menacingly* Anyway, I was a little disappointed that none of my nerd friends made it out. Haha, I say nerd friends like I have any other kind. Yeah, that's right. You, there. Yeah, you reading my blog. *Nerd!* :) Anyway, I have a page worth of errands to run this weekend, so I'll be all around town tomorrow. List includes... (but is not limited to)

car - vacuum, get a/c checked, replace parking pass, put up new VT sticker so Nothing can have hers back, rotate tires, front-end alignment
medical - go through benefits, choose a doctor, find other doctors, find a gym, find a kickboxing class, sign up for class
sname - reservations
cookies - super-secret list of people who get cookies (if you're on the list, you already know... so no, you get no cookies. ok maybe. if there are some left over... after i eat my share.)
house - plumber, windows
misc - bank, library, smithsonian, blanket
shopping - office party stuff, christmas shopping, ikea

Oh, Christmas. If you're reading this, chances are pretty good that you're on my list. Assuming I know you read this and I interact with you at all regularly... Anyway, let me know if you have a wishlist somewhere. Otherwise you might end up with some old credit card receipt I dug out of the trash. Yeah, it happens. :) -J.

me@vt.edu.com

"Hi, I bought a dresser and it didn't come with assembly directions."
"Oh, no problem. We can have those emailed or faxed to you."
"Oh great. Email would be fine. It's [something something]@vt.edu"
"[something something]@vt.edu? is that .com?"
"No... .edu"
"Right, but .com after that?"
"No. .edu"
"... okay..."

Next day: No instructions.

"Hi, I bought a dresser and it didn't come with assembly directions."
"Oh, no problem. We can have those emailed or faxed to you."
"How long does it usually take for the email to send out?"
"It depends on how many are waiting to be sent." (waiting..? waiting for what?)
"Ok. Well, I called yesterday, should it have been sent by now?"
"Let me check. What is your email address?"
"[something something]@vt.edu"
45-60 second pause
"What did you buy"
"[yadda yadda info something and stuff]"
"Ok, it should arrive there momentarily; you'll have to wait for the pictures to download." (Wait... as though I would only download half my email? I don't understand these people.)

35 hours and counting... no instructions. I think I'll pretend to be someone else tomorrow and give a different email address. Something ending with .com and see if it shows up. This shouldn't be this hard.

LOTD

LOTD: Silent Dating

I think it sounds interesting... definitely better than the speed dating thing. And it helps that you start off knowing the person you're "talking" to is literate. :)

Ooh a lucky pitchfork!

One Lucky Driver's Close Call: "It was a very, very strange experience. . . . I've driven [that route] for 13 years and have never seen a flying pitchfork.' "

You went to TJ? Did you know...

Ok, so I was at work today... Sitting at my desk, looking productive as always when who should stop by, but the girl downstairs who I went to elementary school with (henceforth ESG). Chatting along and then she remembers something.

"You went to TJ, right?"
"Yes..."
"Do you know [fill in obscure name here]?"
"... Nope."
"Oh. Ok. I swim with him and he mentioned he went to TJ, so I thought maybe you knew him."

Sound familiar? Overheard from my tutoring days:
"That's an interesting accent. Where are you from?"
"Africa."
"You're from Africa? Do you know Mimi?"

Are you retarded? Anyway, not nearly the same magnitude, but happens all the time. Except that with TJ, chances are pretty decent that you'll either know the person, have heard of them, or only be separated by one or two degrees. In any case, I alumni-searched him and he's class of '95. Maybe Everything knows him.

In other news, I continued my search yesterday for hooker boots. My on-going quest to find pretty hooker boots that I can walk in as well as zip up over my abnormally large calves. I didn't realize this was even a problem until a few years ago when I was getting gear to get scuba certified. Everyone else was getting ankle booties to go with their fins and I tried on three different pairs and none of them would zip all the way up. So, I finally resorted to shoes that just covered my feet. But ever since then, I've noticed that I also do not fit into hooker boots. Which is very unfortunate, given my line of work because they are pretty for wearing with other conservative apparel. Anyway, so I'm trying to see how malproportioned I am. I'm not sure if this would be a good gauge to compare, but I measured my ankle circumference and then my calf at the widest part and it's 8.5"/15", so about 0.567. Anyone else care to share for the purpose of comparison? It's in the name of science. Really. :) Thanks! -J.

Edit: I wear size 7 women's shoes.

So close...

Only 20 months left... Planet Ark : Chocolate Group Trying to Find New Mold

Basking in geekdom

Geek Holiday Tree. :) -J.

Ooh... a boy!

Public Service Announcement: Do not sniff people.

So, you know how girls smell pretty? No matter how pretty you think she smells, it's rude to go up to a girl and sniff her. Actually, not just rude, it's creepy. Uber-creepy. The boys who just walk past and sniff are the lesser of the creepies. Then the boys who sniff and then ask if you're wearing something and tell you that you smell pretty/nice/whatever. Then the creepiest of all are the ones who lean in until their face is <2 inches from your hair/face/person, take a nice big breath inhaling your scent, and then tell you that you smell nice. Ugh. Out of my personal space. And go eat an altoid or something. They smell pretty.

Quote of the night:
"What is marriage? It's selling your daughter for a couple cows."

Me go TJ

I love my high school. The problem with breaking the record for the highest number of National Merit Scholarship Semi-finalists? "...mountains of additional paperwork placed on Student Services..."

Another late night

Gah... Shopping for most of the day which was very fun. I hate shopping by myself, so wandering around with eepie and Matt was a nice change. Malibu Grill, then off to Master and Commander with a bunch of boys. Long movie... Good, but long. Got home in time to talk to my BEST friend for about 2 hours and now I'm having trouble staying awake. 'Nite. :) -J.

Oh yeah, I forgot to feed the gossip mill...

I forgot to spread gossip! I really must have been tired... I found a boy to go with me to my office Christmas party. I asked him and everything, although he seemed offended when I said I was "too lazy to find a real date." I'm not quite sure why... although he did still agree to go with me. Boys are great. :) -J.

Friday Night

After work tonight, I went over to happy hour with some coworkers... hung out with some boys and played really bad pool. 2fg and I still won though, no thanks to my consistent missing. Went over to Roy's and hung out for a bit before heading over to my sis's house for some Super Monkey Ball. Weird people, I tell ya. Hm. Maybe I'll write more tomorrow. I'm sleepy now. 'Nite everyone. :) -J.

The saddest day...

Ok, so I was watching Jeopardy with my grandmother today... and I was so completely disappointed with these people. I always thought these people were supposed to be big nerds and know all kinds of stuff. And since this is the college tournament, they have to be even nerdier to try to get on. But in the first round, they left "Star Trek: The Original Series" for last. So, ok maybe they wanted to save the best for last. It starts out pretty easy. Something along the lines of "He does the opening voiceover for the show and plays the character Captain James T. Kirk" So one guy gets that. "It took some number of tries to perfect this prosthetic for the character Spock." Same guy gets this. So, I'm thinking, ok. He knows his stuff. I wonder why they all waited so long to get to this category. Then I find out... "This character played by George Takei..." something something more information given. "Who is Data?" Then, they put up a picture of DeForest Kelley and something something his character blah blah. "Data? Oh wait, who is Data?" For goodness sakes! That's not even the right show! And, aside from that, YOU'RE STUPID. Pitiful. That and the high score at the end of single jeopardy was $2000. Sad.

But this does serve for a good segue into my other topic of discussion today:
Nerd vs. geek vs. dork. Which are you? And what do you perceive the differences between them to be? I've been hearing more and more people taking pride in their geekiness, but I was always under the impression that of the three, nerds were the most accepted by society. Or maybe if not that, it was the one that I would prefer to be.

My opinion:
Nerds - intelligent, interest in sciences, books, etc.; socially inept except around other nerds
Geek - interest in socially non-mainstream areas, i.e. computers, RPG, sci-fi (tv/movies moreso than books), etc.; socially inept except around like-geeks
Dork - stupid, socially inept

So, I suppose nerds could be geeks, but not necessarily the other way around. I don't know. This is just what I've always thought. But maybe there are other definitions that I'm not familiar with.

And now... for the saddest day:

I saw my sister today. She told me about her day. Her day of throwing away books. Her day of throwing away two dumpsters *full* of books! So, here's her story... They're doing renovations in her building in one of the neighboring offices where another company just moved out. They were supposed to be out a few weeks ago, but they didn't leave when expected. So, today, they had to clear everything out and they had this entire room filled with books! Now, she knows I like books. I mean, really... how could anyone not? But there were too many to save. So, they wheeled down cart after cart filled with these beautiful old books. And heartlessly threw them away in the trash to be forever forgotten and unread. She said they were mostly books on Congressional policies and some other miscellaneous subjects mixed in. She and a coworker were reading some as they threw them away... so they were worth saving. But she only salvaged 3 and the coworker salvaged a handful too. But the rest... left in the dumpster like a bonfire surrounded by Nazis. Except without the fire and Nazis. Sigh... :( -J.

mmm... starch...

Ok, so I had to lie on the last question... but when you read the choices, you'll understand why:


You are starch. You are rigid, opinionated, hard-willed and not too friendly about it. You keep people out of places, or you keep them in, and without you a lot of things would collapse. hopefully you'll never have the authority to burn people at the stake. Sir. Ma'am.


Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Evil

I am 66% Evil Genius

Evil courses through my blood. Lies and deceit motivate my evil deeds. Crushing the weaklings and idiots that do nothing but interfere in my doings.

Take the Evil Genius Test at fuali.com

*Warning* Girl Blog *warning*

Today's blog is a girl blog. I am warning you now. Not as in a girly blog. But something that boys don't usually like being involved with. So, if you're missing a leg on your second X chromosome, you might want to check back tomorrow. Thanks. :)

Anyway, now that we've filtered out the testosterone... A slightly personal question, I guess... but I just heard about this recently and I was curious as to whether any of you know anything about it: Instead and DivaCup. Heard of it? Positive or negative feedback welcome. Thanks! :) -J.

so there

Ahh... confirmation that I am not a geek. Hahha

I am 20% Geek

I wanna be a geek. But I'm not. Why would I even want to be one. Do I think it's fun? I should try writting an online test application at 1 am in my underwear

Take the Geek Test at fuali.com

haha, nerdo

"Oh my goodness... you're typing at, like, mach 2!"
That's right, folks. Today while doing data entry, I broke, not 1, but 2 sound barriers. Probably the third nerdiest compliment I've ever received. Though, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or just an observation. Because, well... it is kind of distracting to have sonic booms going off in your office when you're trying to get work done.

haha... nerds

The Robot Hall of Fame

haha nerd

Superficial club... get your membership card today.

"Do you think I'm in denial? Maybe I am superficial just like everyone else."
"No, I've seen the guys you date; you're not superficial."

Not very spoil-y

Just got back from watching Matrix Revolutions. I think my lack of expectations made it really good for me. I mean, I don't know what all these people were expecting when watching this, but if you've seen the previous two, you know it's going to be cool effects supplemented by cheesy love lines and bad acting. And, well, it was everything I expected it to be. Life is so much happier when you just have low expectations. :)

Also, Chipotle is so good. Twice in one weekend. It's so good. Oh and I met JL2's mom this weekend. I've known him for 9 years and I just met her yesterday. I also saw what looked like a photo-chopped picture of JL2 in a powder-blue tux. Very suspicious...

Ok. Now that the whole blog-circle has been completed, I'm out of gossip. Will search for more next weekend. :) -J.

Hail victory!!

WOOOoohooooo!! :) Such a good game. Now off to Chipotle.

poor hokies

Spent the evening with the boys and watched the sad, sad game. Played some pool. I won!! Ok, I lost a bunch, but I won the last game and that's all that matters. Spent a good part of the rest of my day playing on my brand new, shiny computer (which I am using right now). Anyway, need to install some more things and then maybe read a little. Later. :) -J.

Welcome to gossip central

Super-secret messages to my reading audience...

Dan -- Two words: Carol Lee. Check your email and call me if you want the goods.
Eepie -- Answer your cell.
Ag.C -- Bygones.
Enjaborg -- Why must you take so long to come to existence?

This whole blog thing is getting to be too high maintenance. It was ok when I was here every day to update and keep up with comments, but it turns out that the 3 days I skip town, it turns into gossip central. I'm sorry I missed out. ;)

Thursday: Interview day. 14 interviews scheduled. 1 no-show. They were all decent interviews. There was one guy who didn't smile the entire time. I mean, I thought that was kind of a built in muscular reflex when you talk sometimes, but maybe not. Other than that, nothing entertaining or exciting. Need to write up report and such on Monday and get that stuff going. Got dinner after that with JL3, Dotty, and Chris. That was fun. I haven't really kept in touch with them lately, so it was fun catching up with them. Played some pool and watched some TV then crashed for the night.

Friday: Visit to the university bookstore and Tech bookstore to pick up some miscellaneous propaganda. Went over to visit my old boss. The tutoring center is going well. Troubles with the electronic sign-in for some reason or other, but I guess that has since been resolved. Gossiped for a bit and then headed out. Went over to grab a bite at BK and then went by to check my email before coming home. Spotted Dotty&Seth outside the lounge and ended up going to lunch with them and Dirty2. Ended up sitting around talking for a good two hours or so. Went by Carol Lee's then came home. Uneventful drive. under 4 hours again. I'm so proud. Chipotle with the sis, TaxBreak, and Jackee. mmm... Chipotle. Hung out over there and got started playing Animal Crossing so that has cut into my computer night. But no worries... I'm in the process of hooking up my brand new shiny computer now (Thanks, TB!). Should be up and running soon! :) -J.

Interesting Families

So my family has a number of very odd stories in its past. None that you will get here today. This is about another family.

A friend of mine went to an event last night, where he was to meet up with an advisor. He did, and this advisor's wife, brother, and sister-in-law were there. But here is the funny part. The advisor's wife and the brother's wife are sisters. So the two brothers married the two sisters. At least there aren't as many extended family members to have to keep track of....

SPJ

In the 'burg

It took me so long to leave town this morning. So long in fact that it was no longer morning by the time I got started. First I left my contact lens stuff at the castle, and I didn't realize it until late last night at which point I didn't feel like going over to get it. So, I slept with my contacts in (ick), packed up all my things in the morning, then went over to the castle to collect some last-minute things. Then, I realized I forgot my phone at home plugged into the wall. Shoot. Ok. Lunch with the parents, back home to grab phone and steal CDs for the drive and then off I go. Get down here, starts to rain as I'm grabbing my things to bring into the hotel, check in, get changed, run back out to my car for shoes, go to visit my former boss, but she wasn't in. Went and talked with the dean of minority engineering programs instead. Then chatted with a few professors before heading up for the presentation. Presentation, blah blah, we're so great. We do everything. Yay us. Went to dinner at Boston Beanery. Then been loafing in the AOE lounge taking advantage of their internet connection for the rest of the evening. That's about it. Oh and saw a couple people I know pass by. I've been having so much fun handing out my business card. I feel all important and stuff. I'm so cool or something. Ok maybe not. But that's ok. I'm having fun. Anyway, I'll leave you with my quote of the night:

"He said he wanted to see other people, which I was ok with until he actually went out with other people. But he didn't tell me until afterward. At which point he decided that he didn't want to date other people. The same point at which I decided I not only wanted to see other people, but I was going to see other people. So, of course, that was the perfect time to ask me to marry him."

:) -J.

Cyborgs

Man, so I was talking to my roomies the other day and I said that if I were given the opportunity, I would totally become a cyborg. They didn't seem to have the same opinion. I mean, why not? Monkeys are already ahead of us in becoming cyborgs. I would be smarter, faster, better than ever before. I don't know what specific benefits would be available at this time, but I'm thinking I would be able to sleep less and more efficiently when I needed to. I would be able to read faster, or possibly just download information into my brain and facilitate the whole learning process. I would possess knowledge without the inconvenience of effort and traditional learning methods (i.e. studying). But that's just scratching the surface of the intellectual side. Mechanical implants. Medical chips so that if you ever get hurt, they'll have your medical history on hand (hahah wouldn't it be cool, if it was on your hand?? well, but not because your hand moves too much. It wouldn't be a very functional place to keep it. I'm thinking forearm or behind your ear or something like that.) But that's assuming you would get hurt. I mean, I'm picturing Robocop or something. It wouldn't make much difference if you got hurt. You could just replace obsolete parts with new (better, faster) parts. How cool would that be? Instead of waiting 6 weeks for a broken fibula to heal, all you would have to do is reset your robotic leg and you can be back playing for the Falcons within the hour. Dude, that would be awesome! So, there might be a downside to this... people might use this for evil instead of entertainment. Then there's the fact that if everyone can just be repaired so easily, no one will have any fear. As much as people don't like being afraid, fear keeps a lot of people in check. Fear of god, fear of death, fear of the law, fear of society (oh no! what will the neighbors think!)... Although with the banning of lynch mobs, I don't know why people fear society anymore. It's just a psychological thing anyway. But whatever. I just think it'd be cool to be a cyborg. I could keep my pda in my brain instead of having to carry it around and charge it every day. Mp3s playing nonstop... cellphone in my ear... IM access at all times... 20/20 vision... The possibilities are endless. Well, not endless, but seemingly endless. What a great idea. Wow, I'm so cool. Maybe I don't need implants. Don't steal my ideas. =P -J.

Another reason why libraries are great

Even if your town doesn't have a Bunny Man, you can still support your local public library. Read a book!

Also, if any of y'all need anything from the great town of Blacksburg, let me know. I should be having some adventures these next couple days.

Civic Duty

"I need to start going to the gym... I don't have man-boobs now, but if I did, that would suck." -Ben Folds

Go vote.

I'll never make a living as a whore at these prices...

So I've just spent the better part of my evening watching trashy television. And of course, I have to come away from it with my condescending analysis of it (yes, yes... I know I watched the show... I'm so ashamed.). So, I started watching this, thinking... ok, these 16 guys are vying for this one woman even though they know nothing about her. And I was thinking to myself, what does she have to offer, aside from the fact that she is hot. My preconceived notion from the commercials was that she was a snobby princess and she wouldn't appreciate these guys with great personalities, etc. etc. Well, it turns out these guys are not only physically unattractive, but a good number of them are intellectually and personably unattractive as well. That's not to say that all of them are, or even the ones that I perceive to be unattractive actually are. But from the impression they gave on TV, they were. I mean, they're going on and on about how they want someone who can see them for who they are and appreciate their personality and humor and blah blah blah... You know what every single one of them had to say about this woman when they were interviewed away from her? "Oh my god, she's hot!" They could picture themselves marrying her, spending their lives with her, they love her smile, her body... Uhh... did no one actually like her personality? Because she came off as incredibly nice considering these guys are all oogling her like this might be the last chance they have to use their eyes. Anyway, maybe I'm missing something, but these guys are portraying themselves as very unattractive hypocrites.

Speaking of average guys... I was having a discussion this weekend about dating (as is wont to happen these days with me... now that I have permission and all) and I was informed that I could have a date any time I want. Apparently, all I have to do is show interest and I could pretty much have any guy I wanted. Maybe not exactly the words that were used, but that's the gist of it. And although I very much disagree with that, I also know that there are geek/nerd guys (i.e. the people I hang out with...) out there who do wait for the girl to make a move. I guess with the justification that nerd guys out-number nerd girls by such a significant percentage that basically all the girl has to do is choose. It's not worth it for the boys to all fight over the rare girls available. So, sure... I've been the one to approach the guy a couple times (haha... yes, that would be two), but it's really just not the same if he's only interested because I'm the only person showing interest in him. "I may not be the best looking guy in this bar, but I'm the only one talking to you." Yeah, gee, that's flattering. I think that if a guy is interested, he should go ahead and make a move instead of waiting for me to do it. And if he's not interested enough to make a move, why should I go to the effort to approach him if he's only going to show interest after he sees that there's no risk with me. Ideally, there would be mutual interest from both parties. If there's only interest on his end after I have shown interest, it doesn't seem very mutual to me. And the same the other way around too. It's not fair for me to say that the boy should do all the approaching. I just don't think it's an accurate or fair assessment to say that I could have a date any time I wanted. Or if it is an accurate assessment, then maybe these people I can get dates with aren't the kind of guys I *want* dates with...? Anyway, I just think that if I liked a guy a lot, I would take the risk to ask him out or whatever... and I'd like to think (and maybe this is just me in my little, self-centered world) that I would be worth the risk and the effort for him. At least someone thinks I'm worth something ($1,914,020.00 for those of you too lazy/"busy" to click).

Do you drive?

(guest blog by SPJ)

So I was sitting by the fountain of the of the Reston Town Center at about 2:00 AM last night talking with two friends. Along comes a group of 3 girls, probably about 12 or so years old.

Girl 1: Excuse me, do you drive?
Me: Umm, yeah.
Girl 1: Are you leaving soon? What direction are you going?
Me: Probably. I live about a mile from here.
Girl 2: Oh. We need a ride to Great Falls.
Me: Uhhh... (at this point the do-gooder in me is confused. I am very tempted to help out, but it seems very sketchy.)
Friend 1: This guy went to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Girl 1: Oh (a little surprised.)
Friend 1: And then to Princeton.

At this point I am getting looks from my friends like "we know you are about to say yes, don't do it." So instead I decide to give them $20 and tell them to catch a cab and was about to do it when... walking our way is the Reston Town Center rent-a-cop.

Girl 3: The cop.

Girls 1, 2, and 3 walk away quickly.

Weird eh?

mmm... chocolate...

So, I find it interesting that people try to convince me that enslaving children is a good thing. I quit chocolate almost half a year ago, and when people ask why, I tell them about the slave children on the ivory coast. And more often than not, people try to convince me that I'm a hypocrite and should stop eating anything with sugar/flour/wheat/whatever in it and stop buying/wearing clothes or that it's a good thing that we have slave labor and sweat shops. Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but I'm not quite sure how my making a statement on a given situation leads to other people telling me what I should or should not do. If they honestly thought that having slaves was a good thing, I'd be ok with that. Well, not quite ok with that. But I'd be ok with them saying that and then I would probably knock them down a couple notches in my friend list. And if they're saying it to make themselves feel ok with eating chocolate, whatever... that has nothing to do with me. But as far as my beliefs go, you can believe whatever you want as long as you leave me alone to believe what I want. This goes for most things... slavery, religion, homosexuality, operating systems... I'm pretty apathetic toward most things. But come on. I stopped eating one food and people tell me I should go around naked because all my clothes are made in sweat shops that are essentially slave farms. Please. There are other foods available for me to eat. It is illegal for me to not wear clothes when I go outside. I mean, I don't like fish, so I don't eat it usually. There are people who try to convince me otherwise and tell me fish is good. I disagree, but at least that's somehow relevant. Fish good vs. fish bad. No chocolate vs. nekkid. Uhh... pardon? I guess if by taking issue with one type of labor exploitation and not on all exploitations, I'm a hypocrite, they're just going to have to deal with that. Because I don't think it's feasible for me to fight the world. It's like the people who argue that vegetarians shouldn't wear clothes because they're produced in sweat shops. It's not like you can quit everything. Anyway, go live in your nice utopia, eat your chocolate, and leave me alone. =P -J.

interesting...

The case of the 500-mile email

Ben Folds is so dreamy

"Are you wearing makeup? What, are you being a girl for Halloween?"

The Ben Folds concert was so good. Good music, entertaining, funny... I am much pleased. :) Hung out with Sean and Matt for the evening. Metro adventures included the extra slow ride due to repairs/upgrades(?) on the tracks, they were only running one direction at a time. Dinner at Fridays with Matt. Got in some good quantity Matt time after Sean left to go pick up chicks. Fun times. Oh and I even got a chance to wear my nice, shiny silver shirt. Doesn't happen near often enough.

Also, VT beat Miami!!! Go Hokies! :)

Halloween

So, I spent the first part of my evening watching my high school alma mater get trounced by Mt. Vernon's football team. Went with the brothers, Ben, SPJ, and Roy. It was decently entertaining, I'll give them that. And I met a few of my brother's students. One of which was wearing his football jersey for the day... Apparently it made for a good costume or something. It was a sad game though. I hope Tech fairs better tomorrow. We shall see. After that, we took a field trip to Krispy Kreme. This was my first time going there... and I got to see the donut machine and try a fresh donut off the line. 24-hour donuts... Incredible! :)

After that, dropped off Roy and then headed over to my sis's place. They were done with movie night by then, and it was ok for the banned sibling to attend the festivities. So, we headed over and watched some of the Halloween Simpsons episodes and then played Taboo. I'm not sure who all the people were over there... I was introduced to 4 of them as "the other guy." So, I'll just leave it at that. The cookies and candy were plentiful, as were the donuts. I was quite pleased. They had these cookies with raspberry filling baked into them... I don't know how to describe them. But they were very tasty.

In other news... my aunty passed away. :( -J.