Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone. This year, I had no plans for any parties, no costume. I have decided, though, that next year is the year and either I will host a Halloween party or convince one of my friends to, OR I will at least be going to one. Also, I have already decided my costume, which will probably have to be made for me because it is unlikely I'd find what I need anywhere.

This year, I spent the eve with a friend whose anniversary of birth is ol' October 31. What a FUN birthday to have! Of all the holidays, the only one I could think would be better in some ways would be 4th of July. Anyways...we had a nice dinner at Gustovo's by Washington Square. The food was good, and I actually had some wine to review. I'm not planning on writing that tonight so I will link it tomorrow.

Also, I got to wear my mirrored jewel shoes from a previous post. They are comfortable and got a lot of compliments. Overall, a night well spent.

For Viewing Pleasure

I took this picture four years ago just after moving here. The building in the back is clearly Fox Tower, and in the foreground is Columbia Sportswear. It looks like I intentionally faded out the tower, but I didn't. My friend and I were going around with two cameras. One was a moderately low priced digital, and one was an SLR with black and white film. Honestly, I don't remember for sure but I thought this was the SLR. However, closer inspection reveals some digital oddities that I don't think you would get from scanning in a photo.

I'm sure when you're walking around downtown Portland you've noticed that Fox Tower takes on the color of whatever the sky is doing. It's incredibly reflective of blues and grays especially which make it look almost transparent. Here, the sky was overcast and almost white. (That deep line going through just above center was a shadow that was created by part of the building that is offset. Other interesting features of this building: it was engineered to block as little light as possible from Pioneer Square---it almost never casts a shadow there; I theorize that the shape causes a wind tunnel to form around the building, especially on the East and South sides---it is often considerably windier around there than anywhere else in town; It appeared in a nation-wide ad for a credit card, which was pointed out to me by my manager when she was looking through some magazine.)

Fun with photography!

Boredom On The Wires

Completed my list of to-dos.

Nothing to blog about.

Having sudden doubts about my new but temporary job that starts tomorrow at 8 am.

Little To Say

I must've seen nothing interesting on TV or the internet today because I basically have nothing to talk about. My weekend is composed of a laundry list of to-dos that I would like to finish before Monday morning. Of those things, I accomplished nothing today.

One thing I did manage to do today was frivolously buy another pair of black shoes. These were quite justifiable because the price was only $35 and they are a really adorable sueded peeptoe with a large mirrored jewel on the top of the vamp. Also, CH and I were looking for something for her to wear to her ten year reunion and we found an impressively simple and elegant dress. There is apparently no picture on store's website so eventually I'll have to post a picture of it because it is sort of hard to describe. (The cool thing about CH getting a new dress is that eventually I might get to borrow it.)

Hittin' The Gay Bars

So, I went out with two gay guy friends. There is nothing more fun than gabbing with a couple gals at a low key gay bar because as the only legit female there, there is basically no chance of getting hit on by freako bar inhabitants.

But, as such, I am also now too tired to do anything else. Look for responses to comments or decent posts tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Reasons To Hate Monkeys

1) They smell bad.
2) They are ugly.
3) They are stupid.
4) They are utterly annoying.

Top reason:
5) They make lewd gestures at women.

And as further proof, an excerpt from a fellow monkey-hater:

He also did odd things with his bathroom parts which he would get into big trouble for. He would look at me and grin a big monkey grin while he did it too.

Read more of the link if you want further details of the assault.

None of these experiences have been mine, but I know with every particle of my being that I hate monkeys and do not ever want to see one in person. I do not think they are cute. I do not find them funny or adorable.

What, you may ask, is the reason for my hatred? When I was about 12, I was reading National Geographic and they were doing a story on some apes or something. The main picture was of two of them doing the nasty while a third looked on. The article also described how they were all taking turns....I'm too disturbed to continue.

California Burning

Every couple of years, California burns down. I don't want to seem uncaring about people losing their homes but there is still a mean side of me that can't feel too sorry for the celebrities. Luckily for celebrities and regular folks alike, home owners insurance covers fires.

The wild fires that happened three years ago hit closer to home. They went right through the area where I grew up before moving to Oregon. Our old house was spared, as was my uncle and aunt's place but some of their neighbors weren't so lucky. This isn't Malibu we are talking about either. This is the San Bernardino mountains, pretty modest living save all the rich people with massive vacation homes in the villages near Crestline. And like three years ago, another fire threatens those places too. My uncle can see the fire from his front yard. Luckily for him, this time it is headed in the opposite direction, but they are still helping friends with precautionary evacuation of horses and making sure they are also prepared in case the wind changes.

Here's a link that compares the Old Fire and the Panorama Fire. Arsonists are evil. Also, my uncle took that picture a couple days ago from his front yard.

The Question Is: Are YOU A Lady.

You Are 72% Lady

Overall, you are a refined lady with excellent manners. But you also know when to relax and not get too serious about etiquette

Are You A Lady?

What makes no sense about this is that if anyone were 72% lady, wouldn't she be a little less sultry? Wouldn't her makeup be more conservative and her hair less rocker? Also, there was something about drinking in moderation in there, but here the girl is guzzling champagne. Hmm.

Working

So, to the dismay of some of you, I'm sure, I have agreed to take an acting promotion for about a month. I will be working out at one of the smaller sister stores. I don't want to be too specific because you all know how I am OCD about privacy (thanks to that stalker), but what I can tell you is that I'll be working with the same boss that I had before...before I got to where I am now, if you know what I mean. Sorry for the cryptic post but anyone who wants to inquire more can email me of course.

Voting Rights

Now that I've been told twice that all women should vote for Hillary Clinton merely because she is a woman I've decided to address the topic.

First of all, I would like to reiterate that I believe we can and should freely vote for anyone we want for any reason we want. With that said, everyone can understand my position on the matter before I get started critiquing the aforementioned comment.

The primary problem with adopting the philosophy that women should vote for Hillary just because she too is a woman is that it abandons the notion that we should vote for someone based solely on his or her principles. In a sense, voting for her based on the fact she is a woman is the antithesis of "progressiveness" because we would only be voting for her based on her gender. This is an affront to civil rights because it wasn't long ago that women were fighting to prove that they could compete in a man's world. Men were voted for, hired, praised, etc. for the mere fact that they were men. The female sect should have been and was enraged.Women struggled to prove that gender played no role in intelligence or ability. Voting for her for her gender is simply the reverse: women become the hypocrites. Any true egalitarian would agree.

It was also brought up that Hillary would be forced to do a good job in office because she will bear the burden of being the first female president. She would be obligated to all women to demonstrate to all the world that a woman can run the United States, and run it well. That is simply not true. In fact, (to play devil's advocate, as I usually do) she could be banking on winning primarily due to the above rationale on the part of non-thinking Americans to obtain the American throne. Once there, she could abuse the power just as everyone else has since...since who knows when.

The point I'm trying to make is that the voting public simply must look beyond gender or skin color when making important decisions. The truth is that American voters don't have as much power as they think they do. Having a female president will only matter if she is of principle, strong moral premises, and honest. Otherwise she is no different than any of the male presidents we have had all along.

Post Office

I went to the Post Office main branch today to mail out some magazines. It wasn't busy in there and the line seemed to be moving at an average rate.

There was an opening at the first window. I heard the guy call out that the next person in line could come up. The person at the front of the line didn't hear and there was a brief pause in the flow of things. Suddenly, the guy in front of me says "Step right up to the end window. Don't be shy." But he was a few people behind the woman waiting at the head of the line. He said it loudly, and condescendingly. It happened again a couple people later, only this time it was an old man who didn't hear the person at the first window. I can't remember the guy's exact words the second time but it was similar and in the same spirit as the first time. Loud enough to draw attention to himself, condescending to make others feel stupid, and to top it off, he also made a "pfft" noise as if to stress his annoyance at the situation.

I thought he was being incredibly rude. Then he started talking to me. I only nodded and half-smiled. There was no way I was going to talk to him.
1) I'm out of his price range
2) he was being a jackass
3) even if he wasn't old enough to be my dad, I didn't find anything even aesthetically (let alone intellectually) pleasing about him.

What was really funny was what I saw when I was departing. I hadn't noticed before that my car was parked next to his. When I went outside, he was still out there, even though he had finished his business at least five minutes before me. He was sitting in his car doing something, all the while making several cars wait for him. Had I the gumption and had his window been down, I might have pointed west whilst saying "the exit is that way, don't be shy."

Third Studio 60 Post

The Studio 60 DVD was supposed to be released yesterday. I went to Fred Meyer in search of it but they didn't have it. The sales guy rattled off something about not knowing what DVDs they would be carrying and then something about a third party buyer, and then something about how it could have been delayed. Then he repeated himself.

This morning, one of my coworkers was talking about the show and how she also couldn't find the DVD. Searching Amazon yielded no results as well since there is no option to purchase the actual DVD. Further, all the reports online still say the release date was scheduled for October 16, and none have reported a delay.

Odd and annoying as hell.

New Covetableles

There is no end to the number of black shoes a woman must own.

These are Manolo's of course, and at Neiman Marcus, will cost you about $745. But they are pretty and I can easily imagine my own feet in them.

Proof Of The Fall

(Just to put it out there, in case anyone was wondering: I decided on purpose to capitalize the first letter of all the words in the titles of my posts. I don't know why. I'd rather to have left them all lowercase but I don't feel like going back to change them all.)

This story is proof that freedom is slowly circling the drain.

SCRANTON, Pa. - A Scranton woman who admitted shouted profanities at her overflowing toilet within earshot of a neighbor was cited for disorderly conduct, authorities said.

Dawn Herb could face up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $300.

“It doesn’t make any sense. I was in my house. It’s not like I was outside or drunk,” Herb told The Times-Tribune of Scranton. “The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling (for my daughter) to get the mop.”

Herb doesn’t recall exactly what she said, but she admitted letting more than a few choice words fly near an open bathroom window Thursday night.

Her next-door neighbor, a city police officer who was off-duty at the time, asked her to keep it down, police said. When she continued, the officer called police.

Mary Catherine Roper, an attorney with the ACLU in Philadelphia, took issue with the citation.

“You can’t prosecute somebody for swearing at a cop or a toilet,” she said.

Interesting Reading

After seeing all the construction around town, I decided to do a little reading up on all the projects.

This website has a rundown of all the city-planned projects.

Random Stuff

The only thing I have ever been addicted to was nasal decongestant. I know that seems weird, but those sprays are highly addictive for the pure fact that they actually worsen congestion after they wear off. Being a person who cannot sleep unless my nose is clear, it makes it unbearable trying to get through a night, let alone a cold.

When "Atlas Shrugged" comes out in theaters, I predict it will play at Fox Tower. Also, I will have to see it two times. The first time will be just to watch. The second time will be to write notes about all the things I find wrong with it, all the things I would have done differently, and all the things they did right.

Went to the ballet last night. It was the Fall program and the main attraction was A Midsummer Night's Dream. I don't remember, in going to the ballet this past three or four years, ever hearing so much laughter. My friends and I later recalled that it was sort of corny, and I pointed out that it would have to be to elicit actual, audible laughter. Luckily, this time, there were fewer annoying people, and we were tipped off to a private event for who knows who where we escaped to during intermission for wine and chocolate-covered strawberries. The picture is of our shoes. Naturally, they represent our various personalities. And without planning, we all had big bows.

I had another thing but forgot it. Oh well.

Truth About Denial

Knowing you are coming down with something is a crappy feeling. All day yesterday I denied to coworkers and friends that I was catching whatever's going around, but my efforts were wasted.

In the past, I have been able to ward off mild illness by demanding of myself to stay healthy and taking it easy. I am a firm believer that the mind has more power over the body than most people care to think.

The worst part, for me, about being sick is knowing that I got it from someone else. My already embedded phobias about germs go a little crazy when I consider the mode of infection. Some germy person touched something innocent at work that I touched (like the time clock) and my obsessive hand-washing failed to catch it. Or, someone breathed in my direction---close quarters in the break room or stock room.

Ugh. With any hope, it won't last too long.

The Miracle Cure!

I am down for this. I mean, I don't plan on drinking antifreeze but a vodka drip would help get me through the day:

Australian doctors credit vodka for saving the life of an Italian tourist who had ingested a large amount of the poisonous substance ethylene glycol, found in antifreeze, which can cause renal failure and often is fatal, French news agency AAP reports.

The 24-year-old man, believed to have been attempting to harm himself, was brought to Mackay Base Hospital in north Queensland, Australia, two months ago.

Pascal Gelperowicz, who led the man's treatment with Todd Fraser, said the man was unconscious when he arrived and was treated immediately with pharmaceutical-grade alcohol, which works as an antidote to the poison.

The hospital's alcohol supplies were soon exhausted, however, so they purchased a case of vodka to help finish the job. "We ... decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man's system was by feeding him spirits through a naso-gastric tube," Gelperowicz said.

The man was fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days while in intensive care. The patient has made a full recovery.

May I make one request? Top shelf please!

Gift Of Music

Apparently, playing in professional orchestras or symphonies pays well. A little bird I know told me how much members can potentially expect to paid to play at big events---I'm in the wrong business.

Unfortunately for me, I grew up in a cow-town and there was no orchestra OR symphony. We had concert band so I ended up stuck playing clarinet along with a large number of my peers. I take pride in saying that I hardly practiced and was terrible at sight reading but good at memorizing so I was actually pretty decent and was 4th chair behind three others who actually did try. (Also, 4th chair out of 20 to 25 people isn't bad at all.) But, it wasn't a lack of desire for success that made me never practice, and recorded practice tapes (essentially) was how our teacher assigned chairs. It was the plain and simple fact that I had issues internalizing the music---being practically unable to sight read was sort of an embarrassment for me. I had my own method which made me as good as the first three chairs by the time the concerts came around. Memorization. While in class I spent a lot of energy really listening to what my part sounded like until it was so ingrained I didn't need sheet music anymore.

I firmly believe that all of this could be a thing of the past in a different sense. Had I continued to play, and especially if I had been able to have the instrument I really wanted (French Horn, especially a Double Horn), I could see myself playing professionally. But it remains a thing of the past in that I likely will not pick up an instrument in any sort of seriousness again. I did turn my focus to guitar for a while and I have a nifty little one I like to strum from time to time.

So, for the next little while I plan on dwelling what it would be like to get paid 600 bucks for 4 hours of work, or to pick up a guitar and be a sudden rock star. Fun times.

Biggest Diamond Ever?

Gonna have to go with a resounding "no" on that one. Even if they did find a diamond that big, the one in the picture certainly isn't it. For one, that doesn't look like any rough diamond I've ever seen. I've never seen one in person but you can quickly google it and see that none of them look like the supposed diamond from the article.

Also, I would like to mention that a diamond of that size would have next to no market value because scarce a person exists who could afford to buy it. No, it would likely be cut up into more manageable pieces that were affordable to somewhat larger numbers of rich folk. Also, large volumes of diamond are lost in the cutting process itself. And like the Hope Diamond, it isn't unheard of for diamond owners to wish them re-cut. The Hope itself was cut on at least three separate occasions.

So, no, this looks like a bit of a hoax. I guess either way we will find out.

Here is a site that talks about all that kind of diamond stuff.

Bleh To Halo 3

I really want to play Halo 3, but both times I've tried I have become motion sick. In the first sitting I was able to play for a couple hours before symptoms began. This time, only for about a half hour.

Potential reasons for motion sickness from a video game:

1) A different TV than I played Halo and Halo 2 on
2) Halo 3 has better graphics coupled with higher resolution and faster "reflexes"
3) The split screen is small, and possibly causing eye strain
4) Video games are known to cause simulator sickness, which is basically like what pilots get when training

For the next time I attempt to play, I'm going to hook it up to the same TV that I played the other two on to see if it makes a difference. If it doesn't help, I might actually have to resort to some kind of motion sickness pill just to even watch other people play. So annoying.

Charlie The Unicorn

Who comes up with this stuff? This is hilarious.

No Suitable Title

I ran across the story that the mayor of Atlantic City has gone missing. That is not the interesting part of the story because likely he is in some kind of hospital, as was noted in the text. What is interesting was this:

The city's business administrator, Domenic Cappella, appointed himself acting mayor last week, claiming Levy verbally transferred power to him on Sept. 26.

Disturbing, is it not, that in this country especially, someone can proclaim himself leader without support from the voting public? Is the Business Administrator the person who is supposed to step in when the Mayor is absent? I have no idea, but I'm sure that there is more to it than simply stating, "oh, he told me I was in charge." How about I claim that he put ME in charge? Clearly, by the statement, "he appointed himself" it would appear some protocol wasn't followed. Luckily, it is clarified by Cappella himself on the government website for the city:

The Business Administrator is the Chief Operating Officer under the Mayor who is the Chief Executive Officer of the City. When the Mayor is not available, the Business Administrator serves as Acting Mayor.

Something seems a little fishy.

Season Premiers

Being a TV addict, I have been watching a lot of Scrubs because the usual channels have taken Friends off the air and Seinfeld is airing at different times. There is literally NOTHING else on in the early evening. Luckily Scrubs is a nice change from shows I've seen every rerun of such as the two aforementioned.

I have taken a strong liking also to House. I was ticked to have missed the season premier last week, though I heard nothing major happened and I can basically figure it out based off last night's episode. I also missed the premier of Cavemen, which I really wanted to watch but I am guessing it was on during either House or Boston Legal. That will be a bummer because I won't be able to see it then.

The other premier I missed was America's Next Top Model. I picked it up on episode three at a friend's place though, and we have now decided to do a Top Model rotation each week. It is a convenient excuse to get together when otherwise hectic schedules disallow set meetings.

As Promised

As promised, here is the commercial. I think I just didn't search for the right thing.

Interesting TV

I was in the middle of a particularly depressing episode of Meerkat Manor (a show which I frequent from time to time) in which Flower, the leader, saves an abandoned pup from a rival meerkat gang. Apparently, they don't make a habit of doing that.

While trying to defend her own pups against a cobra, Flower got bit and died. I'll admit I was bummed.

During the show, though, I saw an interesting commercial. It was very sedate. Put forth by an oil company, it took a much different course than what I'd expect from something similar. Of course, I don't think there is anything similar. The company was Chevron. I was really hoping for a youtube video but there isn't one---I suspect the commercial just started airing this week. I'm going to continue screening for it and if it shows up I'll post it.