I’ve been cleaning my room for the last two hours and I’m rather dewy as a result. I haven’t gotten as much done as I’d like, but I took out several bags of trash, folded lots of laundry and have separated some winter and spring clothes for storage.

Anyway… I discovered a few cool things today and I want to share them. First and foremost, I rediscovered Boing Boing… which many other people have rediscovered since it’s currently the most popular blog online (as much as that can be gauged, anyway). Today’s entry made me larf.

Here’s the newest viral video which everyone’s probably seen already: Emperor Palpatine getting a collect call from Darth Vader, courtesy of a “Robot Chicken” sketch.

Then last, but not least, something some crazy kids at MIT did to their dorm room. They installed a party button:

When the button is hit, all the lights shut off, the blinds close, the displays show: “FEEL THE ENERGY” and a deep voice says this over the speakers with a deep bass beat in the background. Then intense music turns on along with the sound activated strobe light, laser light show, fog machine, black lights, revolving disco light, LCD visualization projector projected onto the blackout-screen, neon colored lights, computer screen Winamp visualization, oscilloscope showing the waveform of the music, and surveillance camera monitors.

All that mental energy… could it bring about world peace if applied outwards? The world may never know.

It’s raining quite heavily right now. Lightning, but no thunder.

I woke up about 30 minutes ago… and I’ll fall back asleep again soon, but there was a particularly heavy period of rain that was loud enough to wake me up, rather than lull me to sleep (as it usually does).

I don’t remember what I was dreaming about, but I woke up with the thought, “I need to Google this…” and I can’t remember what the “this” was. Most disconcerting. Was it a place? A name? A word? I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll remember when I get back to bed and start that mental meandering that’s almost like daydreaming but a little more haphazard since it preceeds a longer period of slumber. Of course, at that point, I will be heading into 5-6 hours of sleep and won’t get up to Google… and I’ll be too lazy to write it down.

Dizziness setting in. Back to bed for me.

Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries is stuck in my head right now.

Hee-hee. If you follow that link, chances are it will be stuck in your head, too.

I do think it’s great that there are sources like the one I’ve linked to above where you can (after some searching, that is - on the main page, click on the name of a composer and you’ll be linked to a biography with internal links to RealPlayer streaming the piece in question) hear some of the most well-known and well-loved pieces of classical music in existence. It’s one thing to know the commercial snippets of the piece, but quite another to listen to it in its entirety… and you never know if someone will listen to it, fall head over heels in love with it, and end up going out and buying some actual Wagner pieces on CD. Stranger things have happened.

For example, I just discovered a Schubert piece (an “art song”) called Lied: Gretchen am Spinnrade. I am enjoying it thoroughly and will probably see if I can find the same recording on iTunes and get it on my iPod.

Today was a little exhausting, simply because of the weather wreaking havoc on my sinuses and my wrist and my sense of awakeness. I am totally tired, but have to wait for laundry to finish washing so I can throw it in the dryer ‘ere I go to sleep.

A girl needs sleep. Even if it’s not for beauty and simply for rest. And headache relief.

Since my last post tonight, I’ve done a very irresponsible and lazy thing: I’ve spent 2.5 hours playing Kingdom Hearts 2 on my PS2. Two and a half hours of my life are GAWN, swallowed up by a video game.

The worst part is that I feel absolutely no guilt or remorse over it. I enjoyed it. This game lets me fight alongside Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” world, alongside Hercules at the Coliseum, and all kinds of other evil Disney fun.

(I don’t really think Disney is more evil than any other corporation… but this is a partnership with Square Enix, so I don’t think it’s AS evil. Still evil, though. Evil evil corporate America!!! Tsk tsk.)

ANYWAY - yeah. I got into the fighting with the pirates and decided it was time to save the game and quit for tonight. No more fun for me. Except for this fun. And a glass of water. And a book. And Harry Potter (#1) playing in the background to provide ambience.

Speaking of books, let me digress for a moment to share my new favorite passage from THE book… that’s right. The bible. Or Bible. However you prefer to do it. I don’t know whether or not it’s a proper noun when it’s alone - in “Holy Bible” as a title, yes, capitalize! For pity’s sake! Otherwise? I’m not sure - grammar and non-religious fervor get their wires crossed. I’m certain there’s an easy answer… I’m just overthinking it as I remember back to a priest running my confirmation group having an affair with a girl’s mother, and the other fun things that, in the end, chased me away from the church.

SO. Here’s my new favorite bible verse, courtesy of BibleGateway.com. It comes from 2 Kings 4:34 (New International Version for those of you who concern yourselves with these things) and it goes:

Then he got on the bed and lay upon the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out upon him, the boy’s body grew warm.

When taken out of context in this fashion (and in the modern day), it’s positively dirty-sounding and not at all indicative of bringing someone back to life. It sounds like the beginning of a witness statement in a child molestation case or something.

It’s 9:24. I’m going to do my nails and then settle in with a book. I wish I wasn’t so sensitive to caffeine; I could go for a chai right now. Ugh. Oh, well. I’ll have one in the morning… mix it up and take it in a thermos to work. I have a really good thermos - one of those “bullet” style thermoses in brushed aluminum that honestly keeps a beverage steaming hot for 8 hours or more (I bought mine at Borders almost 8 years ago). I used to carry one to campus with me and the tea I made in the morning at 7 a.m. would still be steamy and hot when I sat down in class at 4 p.m. or got on the train at 7 p.m. Just how long it remained hot depended on how often I opened it. That absolutely stands to reason.

Shit. I forgot to take my medicine at lunchtime. Another reason not to have caffeine… but I will have a nice glass of cold, filtered Brita water. I’m living the high-life now.

This is how I roll, yo. Peace out. A-town.

21:39 Addendum: I suddenly recall that Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins of the group TLC had a book of poetry called, “Thoughts”. There was some truly inspired crap in there and I’m going to see if it was ever published in paperback. If so, I might need to hunt down a used copy on Amazon and purchase it since there’s no way I’m paying even close to $14 for it. There’s one poem in particular I wish to share with the world at large and it’s called, “The Groupie.” I seem to recall that it contained a line that said something like, “what makes a woman want a man for fame and cheese / money or a name / bitch, please.”

Inspiring. I say.

OK. I am honestly and seriously going to get to bed now. It’s time.

If you recall, last week I mentioned ordering some custom-printed t-shirts from Spreadshirt.com.

They arrived today and they look awesome. I’ll have more to report once they’ve been washed and handed out to the friends I got them for (Theresa and LJ) but for now, I am pleased enough that I registered a shop there and will eventually post a link to it so interested parties can order silly shirts that I think are cool.

Another great thing I’ve been enjoying lately is the free video podcast from The Ministry of Unknown Science. My favorite one at the moment is “Boy and Girls: No Difference.”

Go. Check it out. Now.

There are many other really great funny bits.

Well, I never really lost him, and I didn’t find him either, but my friend Larry just emailed me after we’d lost touch for 2 years or perhaps even more… and I think I just wrote him a babbling excitable email basically indicating that I will transplant my arse wherever I need to in order to be able to see him and catch up.

He’s been doing the law school thing and just let me know that he’s finishing up now and starting as an assistant district attorney in NY soon, so there’s clearly a LOT for me to catch up on with him. I’ve often thought about him and wondered how he was, where he was, how to get in touch, etc., but didn’t know where to start.

I am just beyond thrilled that he wrote to me and that we’re in touch again. He also shared an interesting tidbit with me:

“I went on Wikipedia to research the Bronx and learned that the French have a saying for when something is a big mess: “C’est le Bronx!” which literally translates into “this is the Bronx!” I love the idea that a French soccer mom might go into her kid’s messy bedroom and exasperatedly shout “c’est le bronx!” as she warns her kid to clean up his room or else. I will be that french soccer mom pretty soon.”

Oh, Larrificent. How I’ve missed thee!

I was going to write about something totally different, but then I got the email from him and my mood changed entirely.

I still spent 2 hours this evening playing Kingdom Hearts 2 (it’s one recreational thing I can do with the wrist brace on that doesn’t end up hurting me - unlike reading a book which ends up making my wrist hurt a LOT), so I’m nice and mentally fuzzy and ready for bed. It’s almost 11, so that’s a good thing.

Between the train ride to and from work today, I read Bill Bryson’s “Neither Here Nor There.” It’s his book about traveling through Europe for the first time since a backpacking trip with his friend in their college days. There’s a great passage that made me chuckle out loud on the train. Since I was also listening to some Satie on my iPod, I didn’t notice if other passengers were “tsk-tsk”ing at me or anything, but I was highly entertained and amused. He’s talking about how much he hates it when dogs start getting amorous with his legs and decides the following:

To my mind, the only possible pet is a cow. Cows love you. They are harmless, they look nice, they don’t need a box to crap in, they keep the grass down and they are so trusting and stupid that you can’t help but lose your heart to them. Where I live in Yorkshire, there’s a herd of cows down the lane. You can stand by the wall at any hour of the day or night, and after a minute the cows will all waddle over and stand with you, much too stupid to know what to do next, but happy just to be with you. They will stand there all day as far as I can tell, possibly till the end of time. They will listen to your problems and never ask a thing in return. They will be your friends forever. And when you get tired of them, you can just kill them and eat them. Perfect. - Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There

And now, it’s time for me to get to bed. Read some more Salman Rushdie since my non-fiction break was the Bill Bryson.

This weekend was nice and fun and quiet and also full of laughter. That’s really the best you can ask for. The only thing that sucked was my allergies acting up. My head felt like a balloon and I was sniffly and sneezy and my eyes were watering and itching unbelievably. I ended up stopping at the supermarket while we were up there and getting some allergy eyedrops and using them yesterday and today… itchy itchy.

Yesterday, we got up and went to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY. That was pretty cool. They had some new interactive displays where you could select elements off of the periodic table and find out how they would affect the color of glass if added to the main elements of glass (silicon, calcium and sodium). Manganese turns it purple or violet, iron turns it green and cadmium turns it red.

There was also a really cool LIVE glass-blowing show where a master glass-blower made a mug. That was just cool because you could feel the heat radiating off of the glass oven from about 20 feet away… it stands to reason since the oven is kept at around 2300 degress Fahrenheit and the glass is the same temperature as lava, and has the consistency of honey. MMmmm. That would be a messy mistake.

Anyway - about halfway through the day, I fell into a bit of the depression and that, coupled with allergy ickiness, made me a less than lively roadtrip friend for the latter portion of the day. Theresa and her boyfriend were very good about it though - and I think we were all pretty tired and none of us really felt like being “LALALALALALA” happy at that point.

The funniest thing was probably that the play we saw on Saturday night - in which Theresa’s nephew was the lead - ended up being at a Christian academy and was a Born-Again recruitment event. Prior to the play, during the intermission, and after the play, there was prayer and a devotional, telling us that if we hadn’t accepted Jesus Christ as our personal saviors yet, that we could talk to anyone there and they’d help us learn more. The play wasn’t religiously themed at all… but the manner in which the 17 year old girl leading the devotion connected it to Biblical matters was sort of creepy. Tenuous at best and weakly constructed… and it was particularly disturbing to me to see this young girl preaching in a threatening way, warning the “non-believers” in the audience that God could see into their hearts and tell that they weren’t truly Christians and that they can’t fool him (ominous, ominous!)

Afterwards, we went out for ice cream and then spent the ride home discussing religion and whatnot.

This morning, I woke up a little late, with a nasty sinus headache and earache, but not bad enough or late enough to miss the train. I got to the train station and realized that I had forgotten my train pass. I didn’t have enough money to pay for a ticket… and while I had enough money to pay for parking, my brother used my car this weekend and left me with an empty tank. Literally, light-on, running on fumes, empty. So I didn’t have enough money to get enough gas at $3.19 a gallon AND pay for parking. My headache got worse as I stressed out over this, and my ear pain became sharp (like a knitting needle in my head) and I went back home, took some Motrin and got into bed.

I called my allergist, but he was booked solid. I guess lots of people are getting hit hard with their allergies right now. I left a message with the nurse who answered asking if the doctor could call in a script for me, but since I haven’t been there in over a year, I don’t think he’d do it. They haven’t called me back… or they might’ve tried but might’ve called my old phone number, even though I gave them the new one. The nurse didn’t sound like she was particularly attentive to those details.

Anyway - I slept and did a saline rinse, even though my nose isn’t that runny. But it will help clear out any infection in my sinuses. I also have some major stomach cramps, but I think those are the result of eating more raw vegetables than usual late last night.

My wrist is also experiencing some sharp pain today. I’m just falling apart, I guess.

I’m going to make myself a nice cup of tea. That will help my tummy (ginger tea or chamomile) my head and ear and sinuses (steam + heat) and hydrate me. All good things. Yay, tea.

The last two nights, I have had the most kickin’ sinus headaches ever. Tonight, even though it’s not that warm outside, I’ve got the A/C going since I cannot breathe the outside air.

Grrrr.

I’ve got driver’s tan on my left arm - the busted up wrist one - from the drive to and from the doctor’s office today. It was sunny. And warm. But there was a nice breeze, thank goodness. He gave me another cortisone shot deeper into the palmaris longus tendon… and I’m back again in two weeks, a few days before my departure to Poland and Tunisia.

This is disturbing - there’s a new commercial for Burger King for the Whopper… targeting “manly men” and their desire to eat meat. It’s funny on a very surface superficial level (large bald fat man wearing a harness of chains, pulling a truck along the street - think “World’s Strongest Man” competitions - following a hand holding a Whopper) but if you move past the visuals and pay attention to the “lyrics” of the “jingle” - woo-hoo. The song sounds like an army march/rock tune and goes something like, “I am man. I am hungry. I will eat this meat until my innie becomes an outie” and features crowds of men holding signs that say, “I am man,” “I will eat meat,” etc.

The whole, “Real men are carnivorous” thing is sort of outdated. Right now, eating meat is good - as long as the meat is healthy and lean. A man is not manly by virtue of eating meat and having a devil-may-care attitude, but that’s sort of what this commercial is saying: “You’ve got to fight for your right to eat deep fat-fried meat.”

So… eating your entire day’s worth of fat and cholesterol in one sandwich is manly? Putting yourself at risk for obesity and heart disease is manly? OK.

It’s almost 10:00. I have to get to sleep since I’ve been having these allergy/breathing problems lately and will be groggy tomorrow morning. I have to get packed up for the weekend, but I can do that when I get home from work… I’ll have about an hour before we leave for my sister’s art exhibit.

I drove into work this morning since I have to leave early to see the doctor about my wrist… and on this sunny but cloudy morning, I was driving along Route 3 (a big ‘ol highway in Northeastern NJ) and came to the top of a hill where you see the Manhattan skyline in all its glory.

And I thought to myself, “this never gets old.” Seeing that view, that is. I wished that a) I had my digital camera with me and b) that I wasn’t driving 15 miles above the speed limit and could’ve stopped to take a picture.

Anyway - the second thing that never gets old is a breakfast food which I’m still working on… a bowl of Cream of Wheat with a spoonful of brown sugar, a bunch of raisins and a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon. It doesn’t get old either. I mean, if you leave it standing uncovered and let it get cold, then yes - it can get that kind of old. But in terms of getting boring? No. It’s a great little comfort food breakfast. Not too sweet, not too boring texturally… anyway.

Back to work.

I just cancelled my Friendster and MySpace accounts.
I don’t use them - why keep them?

And, honestly, a lot of the “strangers” contacting me to “meet people” were just trying to add to their hundreds of friends and/or just gross and creepy. So I’m done with that.

Anyway - these last few days have been pretty busy, even though I’ve been leaving work early. Almost everyone at the office is down in Florida for a conference and I truly don’t have enough to keep me occupied for 8 hours a day for 5 days. I get stuff done and when it comes to the point where I would be playing “Bejeweled” or “Collapse” on the msngames.com, I wrap up and leave. About 3:00 each day.

Thursday was my haircut. I like it a lot.
Friday was nothing in particular. OK.
Saturday I had dinner at the diner with my friends after they attended the March for Peace in Manhattan.
Sunday we celebrated my little brother’s birthday, even though his actual birthday is today. He has final research papers and exams to study for, so he couldn’t take time off for dinner tonight. But we made two very tasty birthday cakes for him, and I think he was pretty happy.
Today I brought him a happy birthday pizza from a very good pizza place in Hoboken.

Tomorrow, I am going to go to my co-worker’s apartment and hang out with her. She’s leaving the company in May and moving to another state to pursue her PhD, so we’re going to have some bonding friendship time before then.

Friday night is my sister’s senior thesis art exhibition at her college. She’s graduating later this month and seniors majoring in fine arts put together an art exhibit instead of writing a senior thesis paper, etc. I’m excited to see it. She’s very good, and I’m not just saying that.

This weekend, I am going to upstate New York with my friends Kofi and Theresa to see Theresa’s nephew in a play. We’re going to go to a museum and enjoy a nice weekend away in general… so that’s going on.

Otherwise, I’ve been thinking a lot - and not in a bad way. I’ve also been feeling mildly crappy since my father reminds me every day how few days are left until our departure for Poland and Tunisia and how I’m not going to be in good condition by that time. Ugh. I have been hitting the treadmill, but only because I am done with classes now and I finally have the time.

I also got my copy of Kingdom Hearts 2 (for my PS2) and have been playing that a little bit here and there when I can’t sleep. I take my sleeping pills too, but until they kick in, I play the video game. Last night, I took the pills and was horribly dizzy this morning. I’m not sure why, but it passed after I laid back down for 20 minutes. I just had to drive into work as a result.

Thursday is my follow-up with the orthopedist again about my wrist. It’s been hurting me more than usual lately since I hit it against things pretty hard this weekend… not on purpose. I take off my wrist brace only to shower and wash my hands. So, of course, I was towel-drying my hair and when I flipped my head over, I lost my sense of balance for a second and had to steady myself against the bathroom counter. Unfortunately, I used my left hand (the injured/painful one) and my hand didn’t quite grasp the counter. I slammed it against the counter and started crying because it hurt so much. It wasn’t the impact that hurt, but the bone being pressed beyond the point where it stops moving now. That’s due to some arthritis I’ve developed in that wrist - which doesn’t scare me as much as I thought it would since arthritis is inflammation of a joint. It doesn’t mean I’m forever cursed… surgery might help me yet.

Anyway - yeah. Things have been moderately crappy in general, but I’m trying to remain a little more positive than usual since I already used up my depression points for the spring in the first three weeks of April. No more for me until June.

Oh! Another new discovery. I found a cool site for making custom t-shirts - better than Cafe Press because they can print on dark-colored t-shirts with no problem. Sweet! It’s called Spreadshirt.com and I just ordered three shirts from there - one for Theresa, one for LJ and one for myself.

It’s not exactly bedtime yet, but I think I want to play my video game a little. As I mentioned a few days ago, this game is like CRACK. In the addictive way, not in the illegal substance way.