gollygee17's Xanga

Monday, October 10, 2005

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:50:23 GMT

Hello everyone! I am SO HAPPY to announce that the redesign of Bucket is complete! I've been working on it all week and it's finally finished. So go check it out!

http://www.bucketmag.com

It now features my blog, 2 comic strips (Gerbly the Corporate Whore and Mr. Fact Man), drawings (of my bears and the olopes), poetry and interviews. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks so much!

Don't forget to bookmark it and check back regularly!

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 12:04:46 GMT

You know what's really awesome? When people post comments to my blog entries. So I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.

Friday, September 30, 2005

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 17:18:00 GMT

My Birthday Week

My birthday was on Monday. I'm 27 now. Yay. I had a really nice week and I got to celebrate my birthday in different ways each day.

On Monday, I did go to work (suck!) but only because I had to take today (Friday) and this coming Monday (the 3rd) off. So Randy called and took me to lunch.

We just went to Panera, but he got me this delicious brownie/cake thing, with raspberry on top and white chocolate shavings. It was divine!

Then we took a romantic stroll over to Market Bucket to buy supplies for my birthday party:

Should I be offended?

The party itself went great. It was a low-key evening, with pizza and cake and ice cream. Doug called and gave me the best present he could give: a message on my answering machine saying he had been up too late the night before doing online gaming on Dark Age of Camelot and was too tired to attend.

My parents and grandmother were able to make it, as well as Jenna and Jason, Mike, Brandie, Shelby and Jason, and of course Randy and the kitties.

I got some really nice gifts! Jenna and Jason gave me the first season DVD of The Muppet Show, my mom got me the Chronicles of Narnia series (I had read the first couple of books back in high school but I want to read the whole series before the movie comes out!), my Grammy gave me the cute black kitty change purse and a photo album and a Halloween bowl and candy dish for my upcoming Halloween party.

Awards for the best cards go to the gals from Workshops at work, who got me the card on the left. It says "A little bird told me you were another year older..." open card "so I ate him." And I am not kidding when I say Oocla looked EXACTLY like that the next morning, when she ripped the feathers off the card and tried to eat them. The other card is from my parents- so cute!

I think Brandie's gifts took the cake (so to speak) though. Now I can grow my very own Dork, Nerd, and Geek, without all the mess of pregnancy and whatnot! We all joked that Jenna is already growing her own nerd.

Brandie also gave me a Napoleon Dynamite keychain. Each button plays a different quote from the movie. Here's what they say:

"I love your sleeves. They're real big."

"Could you bring me my chapstick? But my lips hurt real bad!"

"A liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed. It's bred for it's skills in magic."

"Gosh!"

"Frickin IDIOT!"

"Lucky!"

I've already begun using it at key moments in conversation with Randy.

My lamp got dressed up for the birthday party. I should've told it that it wasn't a formal occasion. My mom gave me the gerbera daisy there, doesn't it look real? It's actually completely fake, including the water. My kind of flower! I can keep trees and Xmas cactai alive, Mom used to give me potted gerbera daisies and every one of them died. Damn New England winters! So this one should make it through the cold, score!

Mike gave me a $50 gift certificate to Bull Moose Music, which stayed in my possession for less than 24 hours. I bought the top five CDs the day after my birthday party. I got Stevie Wonder's Greatest Hits a couple of weeks ago but I just put it in the picture so the upside-down pyramid image would look right. Yes I'm a dork. I got Tracy and the Plastics, Stereo Total: Monokini, Talking Heads greatest hits, Camera Obscura and Stereo Total: Do the Bambi. They're all awesome. If you like weird music like I do, they're sure to please!

Here's what I used the money my parents gave me to buy, a gorgeous Tree of Life wall hanging. I got it at Water Monkey (of course).

The cool thing about it is the tree itself, including all the leaves and the trunk, is all ONE piece of fabric that was painstakingly sewn onto the burgundy fabric. And the really awesome thing about it is that Randy actualy LIKES this wall hanging and it's now up in our dining room area.

On Wednesday, I used the money my grandmother gave me to get myself a MUCH needed haircut (especially since I'm going to a vow renewal ceremony and a wedding this weekend). Here's the Before picture. That's Heinemann in the background if you care.

And here's the After picture. I got about 5 inches chopped off and long layers, I like it. I went to Solari in Portsmouth, the hairstylist was really cool. We bonded over Stevie Wonder.

After work, Randy picked me up and asked me where I wanted to go for dinner. I was like, "Well, Mike's coming over, right? So we should probably go home." And Randy said something like "Do you always behave yourself?" I was confused. Then he took the exit to get on the highway, so I was REALLY confused, since 90% of the restaurants I like to eat at are in Portsmouth. So we stopped at my parents' quickly to drop off the damn Coleman lantern that's been stinking up the car all week after the camping trip.

After we left my parents', we're driving home and the following conversation took place:

Randy: "So, how would you like to get takeout from the spicy place in Dover?"

Me: "Spicy place in Dover? What the hell are you talking about?"

Randy: "You know, when you're coming down Central Ave downtown and you take the sharp turn by Smiley's and it's on the right."

Me: "A Taste of India?"

Randy: "Yeah, that's it."

Me: <stares in total shock>

Randy: "I was thinking you could get takeout from there and I ... could eat something else."

So off to A Taste of India we went and we sat down to look at the menu, and then Randy says...

If you know him you may want to brace yourself here...

"I think I'll try the chicken curry."

So I managed to convince him to eat at the restaurant and we had a delicious meal! I got the Shahi Paneer (I think that's what it's called, with the cheese, SO GOOD) and we got some garlic nan and it was so awesome. Now I'm totally craving Indian food all the time. But that was definitely one of my best birthday presents, since not only did I get to eat at a place that Randy would call "weird", but he TRIED SOMETHING NEW! And ate and enjoyed it! I'm still in shock!

Continuing my week of birthday fun, yesterday Randy took me to see Beck at the venue formerly known as Harbourlights in Boston. I think it's called the Fleet Pavilion or something now. We almost got killed on the way over- yay!

Yeah, I'm the dork who takes pictures of the jumbotron screens. Here's Beck playing a hand organ for the song "Lonesome Tears", it was fantastic!

He had a dinner party for his band on stage during a few acoustic songs that he did, and the band chimed into the music by tapping on their cups with their spoons, tapping the table, etc. What you're seeing above is images being spun by DJ Bonsai, who mixes DVDs, not CDs. There was a guy on stage with a camera who was filming the images that DJ Bonsai was spinning, it was fucking AWESOME. Above is an overhead shot of the dinner party table and the guys making music.

Of course I bought a T-shirt. I really wanted a brown one with an image of a dog and tiger face on it, but they didn't have any XL and I'm fat. But I like this one a lot so it's all good.

Then Randy needed to go back to the merch booth to buy himself some ear plugs (nerd ) and guess what he came back with?

Isn't he a sweetie? Let's just hope it's a LARGE large. Or that I drop a significant amount of weight in my belly so I don't feel huge wearing it.

The kitties gave the T-shirts their seal of approval as soon as I put them on the table to take pictures of the shirts. Silly kitties.

On the way home from the concert, there was a detour so we couldn't go the way we came, and we ended up lost in Southie for a few minutes. That was kind of scary. But then I saw the Prudential in the distance, pointed us in that direction, and soon we were back on Mass Ave and onto 93 North, in time for a MASSIVE TRAFFIC JAM. Yeah, they were merging all four lanes of traffic into ONE lane. Fucking bastards.

It all worked out though and we got home fine.

And to round off my birthday celebration week, I had today off from work so I could sleep in. Of course I didn't though, I got up after Randy left for work (he had to go in today since it's month end- suck!) and did some work online (I know, but I'm behind!).

Now I'm going to put up my Halloween decorations. The party is going to be on October 29th, keep your calendars free!

Friday, September 30, 2005

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 13:26:20 GMT

DocDave78 posted this but since my readership differs (albeit slightly, but still) I thought I would repost it since it's just that good.

Why Geeks and Nerds Are Worth It...

-Anonymous

In the wide world of dating, there are many options. Do you go for the flashy guy with the smooth smile, or the dude in the corner typing away on his laptop? The following are reasons why I think my fellow females should pay more attention to the quiet geeks and nerds, and less attention to the flashy boys.

1.) While geeks and nerds may be awkward, they’re well-meaning 9 out of 10 times. That smooth dude with the sly grin and the spider hands? Wonder what HIS intentions are... plus, I’ve never had a geek guy not call me when he said he would. Score major points THERE.

2.) They’re useful. In this tech-savvy world, it’s great to have a b/f who can make your laptop, desktop, and just about anything else that plugs into a wall behave itself.

3.) They’re more romantic than they’re given credit for. Ok true, their idea of romance might be to make up a spiffy web-page with all the reasons why they love you, with links to pics of you and sonnets and such... but hey. It lasts longer than flowers, plus you can show your friends.

4.) Due to their neglected status, there are plenty to choose from. You like ‘em tall and slender? There are plenty of geeks/nerds who are. You like ‘em smaller with more meat on their bones? Got that too.

5.) They’ve got brains. Come on now, how can intelligence be a bad thing?

6.) Most are quite good at remembering dates. Like birth dates and such, especially if they know it’ll make you happy. Due again to their neglected status, they’re more attentive than guys who “have more options”. Plus, with all that down time without a steady girlfriend, they’ll likely have mental lists of all the things they’d love to do once they GOT a girlfriend.

7.) Sex. Yep. Sex. I’m not really familiar with this myself, but I’ve friends who’ve been intimate with geek guys and it’s raves all around. They say a virgin wrote the Kama Sutra... all that time thinking about sex, imagining sex, dreaming about sex, (they are male after all) coupled with a desire to make you happy? Use your imagination.

8.) They’re relatively low-maintenance. Most can be fueled on pizza, Twinkies and Mt Dew. No complicated dinners needed here, so if you’re not the best cook, eh. Can you order a pizza?

9.) Most frequent bars as often as slugs frequent salt mines. You won’t have to worry much about your geek guy getting his “groove” on with club hotties because, frankly, he’ll be too busy rooting around under his computer wondering where that spare cable went. You won’t have to worry about him flirting with other women because, 9 out of 10 times, he’ll zip right by them in a perfect b-line towards the nearest electronics store. I’ve seen this happen.
Me: “Eww. Victoria Secret’s Models... They’re so skinny. How is that feminine? You can see her ribs!”
Geek Guy: “ooooooo...”
Me: “Hey!” *notices he is staring lustfully towards the computer store*
Geek Guy: “What?”
Me: “Never mind...”

10.) Although he may not want to go to every outing with you, you can arrange swaps, as in, you’ll go to his Gamer Con dressed as an elf princess if he’ll take you to the ballet. Plus, if he doesn’t want to go someplace with you, you won’t have to worry much about what he’s up to. You’ll probably come home to find him asleep on his keyboard in a sea of Mt. Dew cans with code blinking from the screen. It’s ok. He’s used to this. Just toss a blanket over him and turn out the light.

11.) His friends aren’t jerks. I can’t stress this enough. You’ll more likely get “Omg! A GIRL!! Can I see?!” than “Hey hot stuff back that ass up here and let me get some grub on...” They’re awkward geeks too and will, 9 times out of 10, treat you with the utmost respect and, more than likely, a note of awe. A cute girl picked one of their clan to date? It could happen to them! Hope! Drag some of your single girlfriends over, open up a pack of Mt. Dew, crack open the DnD set and get working. Nothing impresses geek guys more than a girl who can hack-n-slash (well ok maybe if she can code... a geek can dream).

12.) They’re rarely if ever possessive. They trust you, so you can be yourself around them. You like to walk around the house in a ratty t-shirt for comfort? He won’t care. He does too! They won’t get pissy if you don’t wear make-up or don’t want to bother primping your hair. If you gain a few pounds, they won’t try their best to make you feel like crap.

13.) They’re usually very well educated. Physics majors and the like. See #5. You won’t have to listen to him blathering on about his car (ok maybe a little), he’ll have loads of other interesting things to talk about. Politics, world events, how much the chicken burgers down at the local place rock, so long as you douse them in hot sauce...

14.) You’ll almost never have to hear, “Yaw dawg whazzap!!” plop out of their mouths. Unless it’s in jest. They spell properly, use correct punctuation, and are able to tell the difference between the toilet and the floor. They almost never get “wasted”, so you won’t have to worry about coming home to find him and his friends passed out on the floor amidst a pile of beer bottles. Mt. Dew cans, perhaps...

15.) And the final reason why geeks and nerds make great boyfriends: They actually give a damn about you. Not how you look (though that’s a plus), not how skinny you are, not how much make-up you primp yourself up with, but they like you for you. That kind of thing lasts longer than “DaMN baby you got a fine ass!!!” Believe me.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 22:38:30 GMT

It Tastes Like Burning

Camping and King Richard's Faire

I had a fucking fantastic weekend. I had really needed a vacation and it was so nice to really "get away from it all" so to speak.

On Friday, Randy and I, Jenna and Jason, and Mike all met up at about 3pm to begin our journey. We had decided to go camping this weekend in Carver, Mass, the location of King Richard's Faire. Our trek went fairly smoothly, aside for the "kerfucking" traffic we hit on Route 93. I say "kerfucking" because Mike hated it so much he started making up his own swear words, that being one of them.

At about 6pm, we arrived at the entrance to Myles Standish State Forest. The forest is HUGE. The signs are small. That was annoying. So we spent about... oh, 45 minutes driving down winding roads until we came to the Forest Headquarters and checked in.

We arrived at our campsites and were very happy to find that they were really nice, fairly level, and had nice fire pits. We were also close to the bathroom (yes bathroom, not Port-A-Potty)- score! I was relieved, since I had spent hours on the internet, pouring over maps of the park and trying to pick the right spots! Since it was dusk when we arrived, the race to set up our tents before nightfall began!

So what did Randy do?

He started a fire. I knew I was in for it when, on the drive from the forest headquarters to the campsites he started saying "I feel the need for fire."

Here's Mike blowing up his air mattress in the dark.

I started the tent and once the fire was sufficiently burning, Randy helped out and we got it set up.

Here it is, our home away from home. It was small, but cozy. And we used the kneeling pad that I use when I'm on rock digs at the entrance to the tent, which was just awesome and saved us both from bruised knees!

Once we got everything set up, we were able to relax, and Randy made up for his slacking with the tent by cooking us all amazingly tasty burgers and hotdogs, and toasting the buns and everything! Then we toasted marshmallows and had a nice time chitchatting by the fire. It was so nice and relaxing and the weather was perfect! We didn't have a drop of rain the entire weekend!

On Saturday morning, we were able to actually SEE our site set up, which was nice. But let me point something out to you. Mike and Randy and I shared a site. Which tent do you think is ours?

That's right, the TINY one! Mike misjudged the amount of room he'd need and got The Pavilion. It was bigger than Jenna and Jason's tent!

That's Jenna and Jason's site and their slightly-smaller-than-Mike's tent.

At about 10:45am, we made our way to King Richard's Faire. We arrived at the Faire no problem and started making our way to the entrance. We found Beth okay, and looked for Barbara and Sev, who were also meeting us. I didn't see them, so I called Barbara's cell phone. The conversation went something like this:

Barbara: "Hey dude how's it going?"

Me: "Great, where are you?"

Barbara: "What do you mean 'where are you', I'm at home... The Faire is tomorrow, right?"

Me: "Barbara, the Faire is today."

Barbara: "Oh shit, we'll get there as soon as we can!"

Yeah, I thought it was funny for a second until I realized I had forgotten our tickets back at the campsite.

So after going back to the campsite to get the tickets, we made it into the Faire at about noon.

Here are Randy and I at the first show we saw, at the Hog's Mouth. It was a comedy swordfighting show and the guys were hilarious. Randy has a hat that matches mine, but he felt girly wearing it and so opted for his oh-so-stylish Heidelberg hat instead. Don't tell his Aunt Bonnie-Jean, who made the hats for us though.

After the show, we got some lunch. The food at the Faire is fucking fantastic. I had a delicious turkey leg, which I couldn't even finish, Randy had to eat the rest of it.

Just as we were finishing up with our lunch, Barbara called to say they made it- yay! They really made good time, it was only about 1:30pm when they showed up.

So we went to see the Falconry. It was cool to see the falcons, but it was funny because none of them wanted to do their tricks. I love it when animals are like "No fuck you, I don't want to chase your damn piece of wood!"

Here's Jason, Jenna, Mike, and Beth at the Falconry. The weather was gorgeous!

The next show we sort of saw was at the Mud Pit. I say "sort of" because we watched for about five minutes before deciding it sucked and going to look at the weapons.

There were TONS and I think Randy drooled on all of them.

Surprisingly though, Randy didn't get anything. Here's Jason with his sword and Mike with his war hammer though. They're 100% real weapons with a lifetime guarantee. The people who sell them have to wrap the blades in paper and duct tape. Like that's going to stop a fucking war hammer!

I think the best show of the day was Thomas Wood, the Juggler/Fire-Eater. He lit his nipple on fire! Here he is, with a flaming torch pressed against his tongue. He was literally two feet from me (this picture is not zoomed at all) and believe me, it was touching his tongue. He's insane. Hilarious performer. He juggled knives in front of his face. Sharp knives.

We did a bit of shopping while we were there (I found nothing that was in my price range that I desperately needed), and Mike threw some battle axes at a target.

We stopped at the Big Cat show for a moment and saw Snow White, the white tiger, who was adorable. It was too crowded there though so we moved on to the last show of the day, the Joust to the Death!

We had a great view! <shudder> Randy spent about ten minutes after I took this picture trying to get me to delete it so he would never have to see that sight EVER AGAIN. Needless to say, he lost that argument and there you have it.

The jousting was awesome, and our knight was Sir Joseph, who wore red and green. The Xmas Knight. Ha ha. Beth was chosen as one of the maidens who would give Sir Joseph his favors (the favor being a ring with red and green rags tied to it- yay ). Yay Beth!

The jousting match was fantastic, and our knight, Sir Joseph won the match! Hooray!

Here are some incredible costumes that we saw. There were others but I dunno, I feel weird asking to take pictures of people I don't know.

Here's me.

After leaving King Richard's, we all (well, except Barbara and Sev, who were cold and needed to head home) went back to the campsite for some more delicious barbecued burgers and dogs, courtesy Grill Master Randy.

We were also serenaded by the asshole two sites over who kept singing "Stairway to Heaven" at the top of his lungs. Later he switched to Jimi Hendrix and butchered that song too. We agreed that next year, Adam and Jen will have to come so Adam can rival Stairway man with a rousing rendition of "Take On Me" by A-ha.

After dinner, we realized that even though we had purchased more wood on the way home from the Faire, we were just about out. We scrounged around the campsite for anything burnable but none of it lasted long. So Mike and Jason took matters into their own hands, and went searching for wood. They came back with a couple of two-by-fours and a weird wooden box thingy.

So Mike started hacking at it with his hatchet. After three or four whacks, he realized that it was about as dull as listening to Doug talk about Dark Age, and that something else must be done.

Enter: the battle hammer!

You have no idea how hilarious it was to watch as Mike demolished the two by fours. Jason helped out by standing on one end while balancing the board over the weird box thingy, and Mike would whack at the other end of the board. It took a while, but eventually they got all the boards into burnable-sized pieces.

Well, sort of anyway. And don't worry, those aren't real jumper cables in the fire, that's just the box that mine came in (though it does look realistic, huh?).

That wood lasted long into the night, and Randy and I sat there long after everyone else had gone to bed, making sure that all of the evidence was gone.

Oh yeah and it was fucking freezing last night so after going away from the fire to do ANYTHING, you had to rush right back to it to warm yourself up again. But our sleeping bags kept us warm once we finally put out the fire.

This morning we awoke to another gorgeous day. Sadly, we did have to pack up and leave, but we really enjoyed the whole trip and will definitely be coming back next year. And hopefully earlier in the season, so we could actually go swimming in the lake! That's our view of it from the campsite, so it's right nearby!

Mike helped by taking this picture, of graffiti in the men's bathroom. There were many jokes made about "Gay Anal sex 4 Lype" for the entire trip. We wonder if Doug has ever visited Myles Standish State Forest... Ha ha

The drive home was much less eventful than the one on the way over (Mike did not need to invent any new swears this time), and we stopped at Bennigan's for lunch. We made a list of things we'll need for next year (more wood, a real axe, etc). Can't wait to go for a much longer camping trip there next year!

Friday, September 09, 2005

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 01:28:54 GMT

Purty Pictures

(and some others)

Hello and welcome to another fun-filled edition of my blog. Some random pictures for you today.

Last week, Randy and I took an impromptu trip to Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH to look at the gardens. Here are some highlights.

I can't look at these without thinking of the talking flowers in Alice in Wonderland.

Fuzzy!

Mmm... lettuce...

Mmmm... sun-drenched lettuce....

Don't these look like tissue paper flowers?

I had my parents and Grammy over on Labor Day for lunch. Randy made delicious baked chicken and I made rice pilaf and frozen peas. Mmm.

And as usual, the kitties dazzled us with their cuteness. Here they are in the basket Mom gave them as kittens. They still love it. So cute!

Oh and the girl I work with, Jen, had her baby. It's a boy, Oden, 9lbs. Yay. And now the fun begins for me while she's out for 8 weeks. Oh the stress!!!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 00:21:17 GMT

Stuff I Found

Long, long ago, when I lived in Boston, I had a roommate who looked like a fat 12-year-old boy:

I had an okay job working for a company responsible for the personals ads sections of over 300 newspapers nationwide. I even got Employee of the Month once:

But after college, I ended up in one shitty job after another, the last of which was a collections agency, which was HORRIBLE. There was little to do there except doodle on small scraps of paper, some of which I kept.

First, a haiku that I wrote on the day of a client visit:

Normally, we were allowed to dress in jeans and T-shirts to come to work. But on client visits, we were forced to dress up. They also would move people to different desks around the call center so that it looked like there were more of us. They would refuse to allow us to take breaks for the ENTIRE TIME the client was in the office, so that we would have the maximum amount of people possible on the call center floor. They would encourage people to switch shifts for those days, fucking our sleep schedules, and would actually pay us LESS to do so (since by switching from the night shift to the day shift meant you lost your $1.50/hr shift differential). It was total bullshit and it sucked.

After ending a collections call, we had to code the call according to what needed to be done next with the file. I don't even remember some of the actual codes we were supposed to use, but here are the ones I WANTED to use, and BADLY:

Let's just say that debtors really aren't the happiest people in the world (and neither are collections agents)!

Another joyous event that occurred on a regular basis was a bizarre computer error called "ACD Login". None of the IT people knew what caused it or how to fix it properly, and the only solution they ever came up with was to completely switch desks after it happened and stay at that other desk for the REST OF YOUR SHIFT until they reset the entire system on a nightly basis at the end of the day. And when you have nothing else to do but chat with your coworkers to releieve the stress of this horrible job, THAT BLOWS.

You may or may not know that I started drawing bears while working at that job, so I made little signs featuring these bears, which I would post on the computers that had ACD Login each day.

There were many more but the IT guys started collecting and keeping them.

But by far the most fascinating part of working at the collections agency was being able to observe (from as far away as possible), a co-worker we all referred to as Crazy Shane.

Crazy Shane started at CCS after having been fired from all of his previous jobs, none of which had exceeded a month-long employment. He was not diagnosed, but I am almost positive that he is schizophrenic (there was a girl taking Psychology who worked there and all of her notes on schizophrenia matched Crazy Shane's habits).

Shane was OBSESSED with bullies. Apparently he got bullied a lot in high school, and he still dwells on it to this day.

Me and this guy Steve were the resident artists and we started drawing cartoons of Shane to capture his best moments.

Shane bought a house while working at CCS and a coworker visited him once to fix his computer. Apparently there was nothing in the house except a chair, a computer, his bed, and his cat.

Oh and he had an answering machine too, because he was witnessed MANY TIMES calling to leave messages for his cat, who he was OBSESSED with. He also left the windows of his house open, and stray cats would come inside. He didn't find this at all disturbing or gross, he thought it was cute.

He led a very lonely existence which probably also contributed to his insanity. Being lonely, he would raise his hand (you had to stay at your desk at all times and if you had a question or needed a supervisor, you had to raise your hand... grade school anyone?) to get someone to come over and talk to him (since anyone who was forced to sit next to him would inevitably request a seat change). He would then regal them with the same stories and questions OVER AND OVER. Many of them involved his cat, bullies, the "Jackass" movie, and really stupid remarks followed by "do you think that's funny?" because nobody would laugh.

He was caught picking his nose while on the call center floor MANY times. It was disgusting.

Apparently Shane owned a gun, and was rumored to carry it to work, which was of course illegal but nobody ever caught him. There were times that this was VERY SCARY. He had a pretty intense temper.

I think he knew that everyone was afraid of him, and he would contribute to our fears by saying stupid shit, like "Zupus toopus!" and other nonsensical phrases.

This says "What's techno music? I grew up in Boston." Yeah, he lived under a rock.

Crazy Shane grew up in Southie, and the really disturbing thing about him was that it was pretty obvious that he was seriously abused as a child. He was obsessed with his mother. Whenever he was reprimanded by any of the supervisor for even the most miniscule thing, he asked if he was going to be "punished." Once, he was rumored to be walking in a circle, alone in the training room, mumbling "punish me, punish me, punish me" over and over...

We were all pretty convinced that he got locked in a closet for prolongd periods of time as a child, and was probably physically abused in other ways as well. I definitely felt bad for him (but from afar, very very afar).

Here's a classic Crazy Shane quote that I scribbled down one day, it says "saliva swallowed in small amounts over long periods of time is going to kill you." I think that was one of Shane's attempts at being "deep."

He had a crush on me for a little while, which was pretty scary, so I pretty much ignored him. It was hard though, since I was always talking to Randy and he sat right in front of Shane, and Shane would stare at me the entire time I'd be talking to Randy. The one time he really made an effort to talk to me was late at night (we worked the 3:30pm-Midnight shift) when I was about to leave. As I was walking to my car, Shane was standing next to his and he called over to me, saying his car wouldn't start and could I give him a jump. I was like "uh... okay..." since there was nobody else outside and I felt bad, but I immediately got on my phone and called a coworker, Chris. As I brought my car around to Shane's, Chris and Randy walked up and Shane looked SO pissed. He kept making pathetic attempts to start conversation, all of which were shot down by Chris, who made fun of him more than anyone else at work. Chris only referred to Shane as "Issues." Anyway, Shane's car started on the first try after we hooked up the cables (big shock) and I drove off as quickly as possible, definitely a little shaken up.

Luckily, he moved on to another girl who dyed her hair every time her kids got lice, but that's another story. Shane eventually got fired for mouthing off to one of the debtors, but it was pretty much a bullshit excuse, they had been monitoring his calls for months, trying to find a substantial reason to fire him. I think he said "hell" on the phone and that's what ended up getting him the pink slip. Rumor has it he's had like three jobs since then, but I have no idea where he is now, and I honestly hope I don't run into him.

Monday, August 29, 2005

Mon, 29 Aug 2005 02:01:06 GMT

Amethyst Mine

Hey hey hey! Before I get to the amethyst mining trip pictures, here are a couple more from the past couple of days that I thought I'd share.

Mom and I went to the beach (Long Sands in York, ME) on Friday and it was fucking GORGEOUS. It was packed, I had to crop some people out of this shot. We had a nice time walking in the water.

Just in case you thought I was kidding when I said they switch places while I'm reading...

They love sleeping on the TV in the computer room while Randy is gaming and I'm updating my blog.

Alright, now for the amethyst mining trip pictures.

This morning, Randy, Dad and I met Brandie and her family at 7am to head to Stow, Maine for some digging for amethyst. The drive was really nice. We had to hike a mile uphill (which SUCKED thanks to the obscene humidity, but whatever, exercise is good, right? ), but it was worth it, we found lots of great rocks!

This was Randy's first mining trip but he found the best piece of amethyst out of all of us within the first 15 minutes he was there!

Here's Dad, with his insanely sharpened pickaxe.

Our fearless leader Brandie, with Indigo, our rock expert.

I guess Dad's eyes aren't what they used to be, so he would pick up a rock and show it to Indigo, and she would dub it "purple" or "not purple". It was ADORABLE.

Here are the rocks we brought home, we still have to break open a few of them!

And here are the best ones we found. The big crystal in the middle is the one Randy found first. Isn't it gorgeous?!

And on a totally unrelated note, I finished the gaming-themed collage I've been working on for our dining room area, since that's where the majority of our gaming time is spent. It was a bit of a battle because Nintendo Power really doesn't provide the best pictures to work with, but I'm really happy with how it came out. It's busy but whatever, it gives it an element of excitement I think.

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 02:17:30 GMT

Random Photos

Instead of doing separate blog entries for each of these events, I will simply post the best ones, it's easier and then I can get back to doing the "crap I found" posts, since I have some stuff for a couple more of those.

Randy surprised me during work one day and called and asked if I wanted to go to lunch with him. I got a very tasty burrito from Dos Amigos Burritos (mmm) and then we went to Prescott Park. We walked about five feet into the garden area with the fountains, I took this shot, and then we had to turn around because there were bees everywhere.

Last week, Heinemann paid for me to attend a seminar on Desktop Publishing at the Park Plaza in Boston. The seminar was fine, it was a good overview of design elements and whatnot. But the best part of the trip was going out to dinner with Barbara on Thursday night. We went to Addis Red Sea, an Ethiopian restaurant in the South End, and it was FABULOUS. You eat at these low tables that look kinda like steel drums. They bring your food in a plate that fits inside the bowl of the table, and the plate is lined with spongy bread that looks kind of like pita bread. Then they spoon your food onto that (being careful not to let my chicken dish touch Barbara's side of the plate ). You eat without utensils- instead they give you more of the spongy bread on the side, and you rip off pieces of it and use it to pick up your food. It was weird and I LOVED it! I want to go back!

Dammit, now I'm drooling thinking about the food...

I took this last night at the Gaslight in Portsmouth. Since Mike and Doug both work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and we just found out that the shipyard is staying open, we went out to eat to celebrate. We totally didn't plan it, but they have a pizza on the menu called "The Navy Yard", which features both beef and bacon, which the guys would've ordered anyway even if it wasn't for the name. It was nice because Brandie was able to come out with us for a change too! We had a great time!

I haven't subjected you to any pictures of kitties for a while so I figured it was time. I don't take as many now that they're pretty much grown up, but here are the best few from the past month or so.

I try to do some reading every night before bed. Usually I can get about five pages into a book before this happens. Most of the time Nikita is the first to visit me, and she climbs up and drapes herself over my shoulder. Then she moves to the other shoulder. Then she moves back. Then she stands up on my belly and meows at me to pet her. Then she eventually drapes herself like above and takes a nap, while I balance my book on my knees and try to continue reading. Keep in mind I have to pet her the whole time or she wacks her tail against me. Eventually I get annoyed with her being so demanding and I stop petting her, and she gets all huffy and leaves. Then Oocla shows up for her turn, and the process repeats.

Oh no, they're not spoiled or anything...

Yeah, Randy wasn't so happy about Oocla sleeping on his nice clean laundry, but she looked so cute, and was obviously so happy to be sleeping on piping hot clothes that I couldn't move her!

It's the best to drive into the parking lot behind our apartment building and be greeted by this sight! When we arrived on that particular day, both kitties were waiting for us in the window, but of course by the time I pulled out my camera, Oocla had already resumed her position at the door of the apartment to greet us when we walked in. Nikita is a little lazier so I was able to get a shot of her.

Here's a closeup. Oh the cute!

Also: GO SEE "MARCH OF THE PENGUINS"! The emperor penguins are amazing, beautiful, hilarious, sweet, and incredibly strong. The baby penguins are ADORABLE. You will laugh, you will cry, you will love it. Go now!

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 01:42:16 GMT

Mike's Dysfunctional Barbecue
a.k.a. The Festival of Meat

Here is the invitation I received for the first scheduling of this event:

REPORT: EXPERTS ANTICIPATE “MEAT WAVE” TO HIT IN NH THIS SUMMER…THREAT OF “MEAT-STROKE” HIGH

It is that time of year again for the 8^th Annual Dysfunctional BBQ. It is hard to believe that it has indeed been 8 years since my first BBQ extravaganza (and even harder to believe that we are still friends with one another…). The BBQ will be held on Saturday July 9^th at my parent’s house in NH starting at 11am until everyone is sick of hanging out. Let me know if you need directions.

Now, I know a lot of you say “Mike, there seems to be very little dysfunction at the dysfunctional BBQ as of late. What is the deal?” Yes, sadly, I think the days of dysfunction are behind us. We all seemed to have grown up (to some certain extents) and outgrown the little petty things that used to create the dysfunction…that, or we are just so used to those petty little things by now that we just ignore them. Regardless of the reasons, it is true that the actual dysfunction has declined to almost non-existent levels, but we endeavor to persevere, and hope that each new BBQ will rekindle the dysfunctional flame. Besides, the BBQ is a good excuse eat large amounts of food and get really, really drunk.

On the subject of food, there will be plenty of grilled meat products available: hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, steak tips, & ribs. Side dishes like potato salad, macaroni salad, fruit salad, regular salad, and grilled potatoes will also be available. There will of course be some sort of snack foods, like chips and pretzels, and tasty (but deadly to me) desserts. Soda and booze will be there as well (for nothing helps us hang out together like booze). For anyone who has special food needs (such as the vegetarians I know) or for those who just want to participate and bring some food/snacks/booze you are more than welcome to bring it along. If it needs to be cooked, I don’t mind throwing it on the grill…I will take requests.

We will have the volleyball/badminton net set up for some uncoordinated but highly enjoyable games (can anyone de-throne Randy, the champion of Extreme Badminton three years running?). My parents do have a pool, which if we can get the torn lining repaired this spring, should be open for swimming. And of course we will again have everyone’s favorite game “Taunt Shadow and Try to Keep all your Fingers (for those unfamiliar with Shadow, he is my family’s Maine Coon cat…very large, 26lb cranky cat). He only has three teeth, but remember, that’s because the rest of them are lodged in some poor person somewhere.

For those of you who may be too far away to return home at the end of the BBQ, who may be too drunk to return home, or for those people who just want to spend more time with me, arrangements can be made for people to spend the night…just try to let me know ahead of time.

That’s about it. For those who have been before, you are familiar with the drill. For those who have yet to attend (or for those who haven’t attended in so long they have forgotten…you know who you are!) let me know if you’ll be coming. It would be a shame if I were left with racks of ribs to eat all by my lonesome…a real shame. Hopefully I will see you all there.

Mike

Last Saturday, after many schedulings and reschedulings, Mike held his annual Dysfunctional Barbecue.

The dysfunctional barbecue began initially as a normal, annual barbecue, where Mike invited all of his friends over for delicious burgers and hot dogs and bratwurst and whatnot. But apparently during those first couple of years, various ex-girlfriends would show up, or friends who did not get along, and fights would ensue, tension filled the air, and thus, the Dysfunctional Barbecue was born.

Here is Mike, manning the Meat House steak tips.

Over the past couple of years, the dysfunction has significantly diminished, but that doesn't stop us all from gathering at Mike's parents' house every year for ribs, hamburgers, hot dogs, bratwurst, steak tips, cheese-filled bratwurst, chicken, ham, and EXTREME BADMINTON.

Randy is the king of extreme badminton. He is known to jump, leap, and dive at any birdie that is even remotely nearby. Unfortunately, I do not have any action photos of this, but I can assure you that it is HILARIOUS to watch. Plus, with the rest of us playing, and none of us being at all athletic, the entire game is quite humorous. Randy is probably the most active of all of us, at one point Jason and I took on Randy alone. Randy was running around, doing his usual leaps and jumps, where Jason and I would move a MAXIMUM of two feet to hit any birdie, and if it moved any further than that, declared it "out of bounds." It was awesome.

This year's barbecue fell on August 13th, the day before Jason's birthday, so Jenna cooked him a Bat Cake, and we all got a Bat Gift Bag containing:

Jusice League stickers
A Batman mask
Justice League team member logo with adhesive backing to wear wherever you so desire

Here are Jason and Jenna- see how happy they are now that M is on his/her way? So cute.

Another highlight of any Dysfunctional Barbecue is we get to visit with the notorious Shadow. Note how much weight he's lost! (if you have not seen previous pictures of Shadow, just imagine a cat with a body about twice that size but the same size head).

Despite Shadow's new, slimmer size, he is still as cunning and conniving as before.

This is where Shadow decided to escape from the screened-in porch. The cat is a beast!

I have quite a few more photos to post that I've taken recently so hopefully I'll be posting more often...