Not about me

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This is not about me, and I did not take these pictures, but I had to share. My brother just got back from the Masters. He was there on the practice round days, so he got to take pictures, and he got some good ones, so I thought I would share. I love cool signs so I love the picture above. Some more are below, thanks for sharing Brent!

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I love this picture because 1: Tiger is hot and 2: Those guys sitting on the left are my cousin, dad, and uncle. Okay I also have to say that my family is probably the best at watching golf. Now my dad is a pretty good player, but he is even better at watching golf. People might thing it’s a  boring sport to watch, but not with my dad. With him there’s yelling, hand rubbing, gasps, and everything. It is the perfect thing to watch while scrapbooking or crafting too. So that’s what I’m planning on doing this weekend so I’ll post updates.

Knock Knock

You know, I just love the Internet. My friend Kay asked me about the library card I have on this little accordion album that I am selling on eBay. It’s a refill card from this personal library kit. I absolutely love this company. It’s called Knock Knock and has just about the funniest coolest stuff every. There greeting cards are not, he he funny, they are roll on the floor and maybe pee your pants a little funny (check out there selection here). The card above is one of my favorites, I mean have a couple of those around, they are great for anything! You also must check out there report cards. I mean they even have those little banner things that usually say “happy birthday” (you know, the kind with all the letters strung together?). Only there’s say stuff like mad props. How sick is that?  I know, I know. Okay, but the think of there’s that I am most famous for having are their slang flashcards. I used these as a funny ice breaker at the beginning of most practices when I was a coxswain last year. I got my coach to say stuff like bling. And if you know Charlie, that’s pretty funny. I did a little layout that commemorates all my talking, check it out:

Here is the peace card flipped over:

You can advance to cards like this that have three of the slang terms. I saved this one for the last crew event I was at.
Okay and I just have to add that today Maya had me do a fitness test. Ladies and Gentlemen, I did 10 (bent leg) push ups IN A ROW!!  That’s a personal best, oh ya.

What about that red car?

So, there has been this red car sitting in the parking lot outside our townhouses for a good while now (months). Our parking lot is set up with little alcoves that only two cars can park in at the front of each person’s “property.” This car is parked really annoyingly right in the middle of one of those alcoves. I kept just thinking it was someone who lived there kind of like, reserving the spots, or whatever. Then earlier this week my neighbor walked down and asked us if we knew whose it was. I was like, “oh, it’s not yours?” No, and it wasn’t anybody Else’s either. So he was trying to figure it out. It had a Greek house’s sticker on it, and OSU stuff too. Sciarrino’s guess was that someone just got drunk and forgot where they parked (I’d bet that’s pretty common), but I was afraid like the person had been abducted or something, especially since Brooke disappeared around here. Today coming back from errands I see two guys standing by the car. So I walk over there, and it turns out the clutch went out on the car so they just left it. I think that is so weird, it’s a decent car, not old or anything. Well maybe the lot isn’t the best place for red cars. Proof from the ice storm last year below:

Free Association Wednesday

                                                            Tuna

I let Bj pick the word today, that’s what happens if you are lucky enough to be around me late Tuesday night! So this is my plea for comments in a fun way. Maybe I will stop having to say COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT later because everyone will look forward to these wild Wednesdays. Well I hope so, but for now let’s go over the rules again. You just write down the first thing that comes to mind when you read this word. Just a note: it does not have to be related to the word. Like today, it could be the name of the kid that sat next to you in grade school lunch or something, I really don’t mind. But my readership is up, so come on people, COMMENT!

                                                             Tuna

Eye in the Sky

Okay so Liesel gets a special place in my heart for giving me this google map link. I have played around with Keyhole on PCs, but didn’t know I could do this map thing on my mac, YEAH!!!!!  And yes, she is right, you totally can see my townhouse: so cool and a little creepy! Please everyone read Brave New World and make sure this kind of stuff doesn’t take over. 🙂 But really it is a good book (and WHO has my copy, own up!!). And for one more link: My eBay Stuff!  Five cute little albums and a big lot of stuff I had to clear out. After I got back from the last convention I couldn’t put everything away so I had to do a major clean. Hey, it’s only at a penny so bid away (of course the shipping on 35 pounds kind of sucks, but whatever). Now get ready for my next post, because you know what tomorrow is (oh, if you don’t it’s Wednesday).
P.S. I miss you too Katie!

Not the best shopping ever

Ya I was slightly shopping stupid today. It’s weird, sometimes I have, like, this amazing attention to detail. Okay okay stop laughing, I said sometimes. Anyway sometimes I don’t pay attention and do something dumb not even knowing it. Well that happened today when I bought my new battery charger. I say new, but I think the thing is from the 1980s, it’s got great technology… NOT. I don’t know how but I grabbed one that takes EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS TO CHARGE!!!  I could have sworn I grabbed the 15 minuet pack, but whatev. So I’m loading the batteries into this thing, finally. I say finally because it has that kind of plastic that you can not get open even with your Ginsu knifes or scissors that can cut through cans. You know the kind, they also package little kid’s toys this way, which is great because then they are so excited when they get the toy that they are ripping at the plastic until their hands are bleeding. Anyway, I digress. So I got the world’s longest taking battery charger. I plugged it in right when I got home from my errand and it is still charging. Enough with that rant.

I went to the bookstore on campus. Haven’t been there in a while. I had to get an airport extreme wireless card. Looking young is going to have it’s benefits for a while, I got the student discount without even asking or showing ID. The guy at the counter was looking for the card in the pile of PC stuff and I was like, I need the mac card, and he’s all, “oh, let me go get some help.” I have to say I feel very cool buying stuff for my Macs, I hope that doesn’t make me a huge snob. But seriously, the guy was like, to the other guy, “is this thing hard to install,” me: “I can do it, thanks.” Ya, because it’s so easy with Macs!!! Of course I didn’t install it, not really my style. I let Bj because he likes to open up computers and look inside at all the guts. He looked too cute doing it too:

Ahh I love my Geek. Think I need this t-shirt? I do. Anyway so I went to Freddy’s. I had a bunch of random stuff to get but I really was going there to look for more Elmer journals (see this post). OMG they didn’t have them. Ahhhh!!! So I went to a back up store, they didn’t have them. Okay starting to hyperventilate because I’ve used this journal for like almost a decade and I don’t want to switch, then they won’t all line up pretty. I wah wah wahed to bj and of course he found them online in like two seconds. Here is the journal. It’s the Mead Academia Sketch Diary. 70 pages 6×9 inches. The paper is so nice. It’s great because I staple, glue, tape stuff in it, write, draw, and do everything in them. The ONLY time I switched it up was when Bj and I had matching journals the summer we were apart that we sent back and forth to each other. They have changed the style a tiny bit, but, in case of further changes, I’m thinking about getting a dozen, obsessive?

Oh, oh I forgot to say the funniest thing I saw on campus. This girl was wearing the most ridiculous outfit I’ve scene in a while. She was like trying to be trendy but missing it completely. She had on these cute pink capris (good), semi cute moccasin/loafer shoes in turquoise (okay) with really long straps going up her leg (if she’s into that whatev), but here’s the kicker: she was wearing super thick WOOL poop brown knee highs!!!! So picture that under the capris (so no skin is showing so why wear capris in the first place), with these ridiculous loafers with long straps tied up all over the socks. I mean, HELLO!!! She was walking very fast into the dorms so maybe she just didn’t realize what she was doing in the morning and was going to fix the problem, I don’t know.

I had a great time singing (yelling maybe) to Enrique the Escape album while I was typing up descriptions for eBay (promise the new stuff will be up soon). Bj comes out of his room (I must have been loud because he was gaming) and says, “American Idol next year Hun?” Um, no. That made me really hyper so I decide Bj and I should have a sing off. The person who can sing along to Ice, Ice Baby wins. I got through “Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle” but then said “Jump” instead of “Dance.” Darn. So somehow we go into a little bit of a water fight because I was using a spray bottle as a microphone. I put it down and Bj’s all, “What’s this picture of,” and you know me I love to talk about myself, so I lean over there to point and I get water in the face. Ahhh.

Bj just im-ed me some cool iPod links. Turn your iPod into a guide for your favorite drinks here . And this has to be the coolest skin for a Shuffle. Fits perfectly with what bj heard about the Japanese selling Shuffles next to packs of gum. Check it out. And did no one click on those links yesterday? Do you know you can click on the highlighted words? Maybe I’ll work with my settings and see if I can make them an annoying neon color or something.

Oh and since Bj got me with the water, I get to show this picture:

Recognize those mom? I kinda broke his other glasses (ACCIDENTALLY) so he has to wear these before he gets a new pair. Hilarious. I would love to just be driving down the road and see a guy in these (if you commute from Corvallis to Albany you just might see him)!

Click one and be AMAZED (or at least mildly amused)

Okay people, it’s time for link city. First of all I have to credit most of these to a TV show that is one of the main reasons Bj and I can’t seem to let ourselves get rid of digital cable: Attack of the Show . The other reason is my mild addiction to Discovery Health Channel. Back to Attack of the Show. This show, which just changed it’s name from The Screen Savers, is the best on television for awesome links and great technology finds. Bj loves it for all the geeky stuff, but it can be very amusing even if you don’t want to mod your case (and if you don’t know what that is, you are not a geek). So, start watching the show and have fun being “in the know” like me :). 

Not all the links are from that show, and this one isn’t. It’s a link to another blog that lists incredible airfares. This cool blog is updated all the time as those ridiculous, this can’t be real fares come in. My mom and I are familiar with these deals, and I’m sure you’ve met someone whose gotten a deal you can’t believe, this will help you find one too. Our find was quite a few years ago, just one of those fluke of the Internet things that we ended up getting tickets round trip to Paris from PDX for like $300 bucks. We bought them then the deal vanished, as they so often do. Okay so I hope that will be fun for you. If you then do buy a ticket and want to know where to sit, check out this website that helps you pick the best seat on your specific aircraft. So cool.

A funny website to buy geeky things at: Think Geek. This site has tons of funny things, but I picked out some that I thought were extra funny (most of these they showed on Attack of the Show):
*This awesome toy set for grown ups: The Cubes know any guys that are hard to buy for and work in a cubicle? Here you go.
*Mom, I think You need this instead of that tiny drive you have for your CAD work, check out this Tiki Drive!!!  Okay so for the money you can get a lot more space in something else, but this sucker makes a statement, don’t you think?
*This is totally for me: Marshmallow Shooter, no, I don’t have a birthday coming up, but anyone who knows me knows I would put this to good use!
*How about the Red Swingline from Office Space? Cause they’ve got it!
Another geeky shop is Jinx. They have awesome T-shirts for the technology minded, my favorites?
*You are so off my buddy list
*I read your email
*Revolution is not an AOL keyword
and I won’t tell you all the words to the next one because you must click on it:
*Everytime you download music
There are so many more good ones too, but those stand out.

Here are some interesting websites using toys in very odd ways:
Toy Lab lets kids (6 and up) make new one of kind toys from recycled toy parts. Interesting creations abound.
Toddlerpedes are so disturbing you just can’t look away
I don’t know if this is really a toy, but I can’t believe what this guy can do with playing cards.

To find more outstanding websites you can go to the South by Southwest Web Awards site. They have lots of great sites, but a truly amazing and interactive site is Billy Harvey Music. It requires flash, but start clicking around and you’ll be amazed, so, so well designed!

Hope you enjoyed the links. Seriously if you have digital cable you should be watching Attack of the Show.

Woah Vegas is like Crazy Ridiculous

I’ve been to Vegas, baby. So, this past summer Bj drove me through the strip three times so I could take pictures like this:

Luckily, My mom and I didn’t go to places like that. But I did see plenty of excess. It’s amazing what all lots of money can do in the middle of the desert. Now, before I say that some things I saw were cool and I did appreciate them, I MUST preface this by saying that I, in no way, support an unsustainable settlement in the middle of the desert that uses up vast resources. Much of my feelings on this matter were gleaned from the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. Most people assume that Las Vegas uses power generated from Hoover Dam, but in actuality only one of the large generators in Hoover Dam is used for Las Vegas and Arizona. The rest of Las Vegas’ power comes from other sources including coal burning power plants that are the main source of pollution for the Grand Canyon.
Okay I had to say that because water management really is important to me, but now I’ll get onto the Vegas. First of all I walked a ton and I have seven blisters on my feet to prove it. I think “the strip” is really deceiving.  You know, you ask where something is and their like “across the street,” or “two casinos down.” That really means “go up the escalator (because there are no real stairs), across the people mover, down to the street, across the walkway,past the fountain, and 1,700 shops, then you’ll get to the casino, go past 5,000 slot machines and then ask a guy named Hank.” It’s nuts!  My mom and I decided to go down to the Aladdin from where we were staying (Bally’s) and happened upon the Desert Passage shops (we were drawn in by a Sephora so it really wasn’t our fault). We walked around for an hour and a half. when we saw the street we thought we would be coming out a couple of miles down the strip but we were only about a football field from where we went in, what the!!!  So we did tons of walking and sightseeing and free things, but like my mom says, “You don’t go to Vegas on a budget.” So true. I mean who would have thought I’d ever see my mom in super trendy Juicy Couture sweat pants? You go girl! And we did a little gambling, despite my reservations it was kind of fun. I did win though, or at least break even, when I played blackjack. I sat down at the table and was dealt and ace then a face card. The guy next to me said, “you don’t know about doubling down do you?” Um, what? And I have no idea what the deal is with slot machines… do people not realize you always loose?  My mom did put a five dollars in and got twenty back the first day, but that was the only time we walked away with anything left. And seeing people shuffle over to a machine in a walker, sit down, light up a cigarette, cough, and insert a card hooked to their neck, NO THANKS!!
We had a lot more fun at the variety show we went to V . It did have some magic, which my mom apparently finds a little unsettling since she doesn’t know how it’s done, but the comedian more than made up for that for her. We had a lot of fun and it was a great couple of days, but I was starting to get a rash (allergic to Vegas?) and was sick of not taking a breath that wasn’t semi smoke filled, so it was time to head home.

Aren’t we the cutest!
Okay special props to Iman and Jane who let me know that the purple guy’s name is Grimace. Jane also sent me this link, Which McDonald’s Character are You? I’m the fry guy! Special, special props to Erin who knew the other two dudes names: Hamburgler and Birdie! Thanks Erin! You have to check out my photo album. I put up a great picture of the Chilhuly instillation at the Bellagio . It replaces another picture I posted today that has been my wallpaper for almost a year.

Free Association Wednesday

Rock Candy
Here was my idea. To do a kind of post that was just a hey, um, hello, hi, is anyone out there? But then I thought to myself, “alp (that’s what I call myself in my head sometimes), isn’t that a little mundane. Couldn’t you think of something a little better?  And I thought, hey I can!  I can make it INTERACTIVE!!!! Instead of just being the comment whore that I am and begging the 93 people that daily look at my blog to post a hello I am going to make it fun!  Yes, I will still be disappointed if you do not say something, but I think you will want to. So every Tuesday night I will put up a phrase or word and you can make a FREE association for Wednesday. Do you know what that is?  this might help if you don’t.  So you can just say anything that floats across your mind. Or if you don’t want to play just say hey, I’m reading you man, and that will be good for me. So once again the free association for today is:

Rock Candy
Okay so Bj just asked me what to do. You just hit the comment button and write the first thing that comes floating over your brain that you can catch and type out.