I can't help it...

...I keep playing this over and over. Poor kitty...

http://www.break.com/index/looking_for_a_happy_home.html

...snicker...giggle...snort...

Heh...geek pun:

Courtesy of User Friendly: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20060829

back to the real world

First day back after spending time in Vegas with Mom and Dad. I really enjoyed it...it was the first time I've been on a vacation with my parents as a grown-up, and it was a lot of fun. Gambling, slot machines, showing off Vegas, laughing and shaking our heads at what some women will wear, drinking margaritas and strawberry daiquiris, getting into that "Vegas zone" where the hours blur, bills become Monopoly money, and you eat like you just normally wouldn't. Like I said: fun.

As birthday presents to myself go, this was one of my favorites.

more stop motion video games

This is amazing:

http://www.eatpes.com/game_over.html

candles

If it weren't for Lisa, MyFriendJen, my insurance agent, and the folks at KFOG, this would be one of the most depressing birthdays I've had. Luckily, I'm heading out tomorrow to meet my folks in Vegas...that will help.

Until then, I'll just sit here in the corner, with my cupcake and candle, flicking the lighter on and off and on and off...

happy birthday to me... [flick] ...happy birthday to me... [flick flick] ...happy birthday, dear stacey... [flick] ...happy birthday to me... [flick]

weird al rocks

He's a classy guy...check out how he's handled his parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", so as not to step on record label toes. NPR article here...be sure to follow the linky goodness to hear the song.

And points to James Blunt for saying 'you betcha' to Weird Al...

know what I had for dinner?

Half a slice of chocolate cake.

Because I can.

uh oh

I've got that little sparkly spot in my vision that presages a migraine. I call them my "Vegas" migraines, because they start with a little sparkly dot in my vision that grows into a big sparkly area, blocking about 1/3 of my visual field. Then about 20-30 minutes after full sparkliness, I get hit with the pain.

At least I get a forewarning [she says, trying to find the silver lining]...

giggle

http://ask.yahoo.com/20060818.html

another song that needs to go away

KT Tunstall - "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"

Overexposure is *killing* these songs.

stupid space-time continuum paradox...

This one made me giggle. I love the two pink panels: the first has the palpable "wait for it....waaaaiiiiittttt for it" pause, and the second is awesome for her tiny little smile that surfaces. You can feel the smug satisfaction.

Direct link:
http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20060812/lnq060813.gif

Image [click to biggerize]:

good memories

Meeting a friend for breakfast, and parked beside a BMW 330ci...brought back good memories of Steve, our time in Europe, and our domestic life after. The car is even the right color: steel blue.

A nostalgic smile and good memories...a good way to start a Sunday.

personality traits

Had some friends over not too long ago...we sprawled out on the couch and floor, talking, laughing. I had a pretty good time...it was nice. Realized something the next morning: when the girl got up to leave, she picked up the throw pillows she had been using, put them back where they came from, and straightened the floor rug she had been lying on. When the guy got up to leave, he...

...got up and left.

It's kind of an interesting game to play in your head when you are hanging out with friends at someone's house...watch to see who straightens cushions when they get up, and who leaves the couch rumpled, blankets unfolded, pillows lying about. You can learn a lot about people just by watching their unconscious actions when they are in a casual group. Who takes their glasses out the sink? Who leaves things lying about? Who offers to bring something back from the kitchen for others, and who just goes out, gets what they want, and comes back? Which ones relax and kick back, which ones sit carefully and take care not to mess anything up? Which ones help themselves, which ones ask before taking anything from the fridge?

I love people watching...

a late night

WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING THE LOST ARG [alternate reality game]. Seriously. I'm not kidding. It's just blah-blah if you haven't been following it. Imagine the Charlie Brown adult talking...it will be like that.

Wah waaah wah waah waah waaaaaaaah...

-----

Stayed up through both hours of DJDan's podcast last night. It started out pretty lame, but I was hanging out on the ITE and TLEC boards, so it was more of a party. Vague hints about a glyph showing up Monday in a touristy area of a major American city [most popular guess is the ABC billboard in Times Square], lots of lame shutdowns by DJDan without giving us any good information, Speaker and Ninja both got through [along with other folks on the boards...it was fun putting voices to names].

Then things got really interesting when a mysterious voice called in with a message for Rachel. He started spouting off a string of numbers. Luckily, I had pen and paper nearby [yup, I was ready for DJDan when I started]. And they got even *more* interesting when Marvin the Earthling called in, saying he was being chased, but that had seen an odd symbol and was faxing it through to DJDan. Dan got the fax, and let those of us listening know that the glyph would be available on the front doors of Radio Harvest [where the broadcast was coming from]. Then the 'cast was "shut down by the man"...Hanso agents swarmed the place and DJDan had to go running.

So the boards were going nuts. Some of us posted our strings of numbers so we could compare them; once we did, we wracked our brains to decode them. Fenris and team figured out that the numbers referred to pages in "Bad Twin"; take the first letter of the page, and you get "I know where he is, I can set it up!"

I checked the WHOIS info for radioharvest.com, but it was just generic Network Solutions stuff. A quick web search and a closer look at the site showed a "Harvest Films" connection...WHOIS on harvestfilms.com gave a Santa Monica address. I posted it to ITE, and jendog [YAY JENDOG!] went running out at 1am Pacific to do us proud, along with tapdawg and Eric [who I think may be UnseenPresence...looks like he was first on site, go Unseen!].

We all waited, chatting, theorizing, yawning, until she returned about half an hour later...with the glyph! It wasn't live yet [harrumph], but we are all crossing our fingers that jendog gets the credit for the find.

Then I crawled into bed around 2:30am [finally letting my poor F5 key cool down], only to dream about frickin' glyphs and running from guys in lime green coats. Sheesh.

Now to figure out the whole "chocolates/Sublymonal" thing from this week's Entertainment Weekly...

one massive intraweb meme mix

If you want a mash-up of twelve of the most prevalent internet memes [sorry, "teh intraweb"], click below.

Be warned: you will either be ashamed that you don't know them [in which case, links to the originals are included, so enjoy!], or that you do know them. I recognized them all, and could sing along...I'm frightened.

http://www.studiohunty.com/interweb/

[Crap. Now it's in my head. "Cat. I'm a kitty cat. And I dance, dance, dance...Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring ring bananaphone....badgers badgers...move zig!"]

[Crap.]

time for you to go away now

Yes, Daniel Powter, we know about your bad day. Now please stop.

No, really...

Stop.

Go away.

a geeky giggle

Be sure to click through to page 2 as well...

http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/star_trek_insp.html

one of these days...

...I will find myself dating somebody who can't wait to spend time with me, and who doesn't see it as an awkward interruption of their day to try to make time for me. We will see the rest of life as what is keeping us from spending time together, rather than the reverse, and even better, we will find ways to *share* those bits of life with each other.

How do I know that this will happen? Because it is one of the many things I've learned through the years about what I want in a partner and a relationship: somebody who willingly makes time for me and for whom I want to make time; somebody that is a partner, where we are the equal of each other in most ways, and also better than the other in complementary ways [in the "supplying mutual needs or offsetting mutual lacks" definition of the word]. A relationship in which you put each other up on pedestals, yet see the faults and love each other anyway. Need and be needed, love and be loved, support and be supported.

I've been lucky...I've had this in various forms and times in my life. That's how I know what I want [okay, that, and the fact that I've seen what I *don't* want, as well]. It's all a matter of refining the parameters, figuring out what *really* matters to you, what you will and won't compromise on. And the nice thing is that when it happens, I will be going into it with eyes [and heart] wide open...

I hate saying goodbye

I just found out that one of my all-time favorite comics is ending. Only 7 issues to go, with the last book due in May 2007.

It's "Strangers in Paradise" by Terry Moore, and it has some of the most amazing character work I have seen...I'm hooked on these folks, their lives, their loves, their pain. The storyline is intricate and intriguing, and the art can be heartbreakingly personal...there are some panels that just grab you and make you keep turning back to look at them again.

SiP has seen me through some rough times in my life, and I'm sad to see it go. But I know that this last ride will be a good one...and I can't wait to see what Terry Moore does next.

monster ho

monster ho,
originally uploaded by tiredcynic.

Sadly, it wasn't the kind of movie you would think it would be based on the ticket...

repeating myself

Just noticed I used the phrase "old school" in my last two posts...gosh, how "hip" and "with it" I am.

Just for that, no using "old school" for at least a week. You are cut off, young lady...I mean it.

Sheesh.

for your viewing pleasure

Two amazing stop-motion animations, both tipping their hats to old school video games:

http://hight3ch.com/post/space-invaders-with-real-humans/

http://www.meme-stream.com/comments.php?stream=1565