C has been out of town a lot this month, first he went to Texas to visit family and now he is in SD working comi-con with the KOL people. I didn't really want to go to comi-con this year because the swarming mas of people gathering together to geek out can be really overwhelming, but I can't help but be a little jealous. No matter! I am looking forward to a long and much needed vacation in we have planned in September.

It has been hard to figure out what to do with myself now that I have all of this alone time. So I do what any person who's lonely should do... learn to play the blues. Not really but I can play like five different chords on the guitar now, and I couldn't do that 2 weeks ago. I just started working on F major, which is a barre chord and damn hard. My left hand has a severe cramp in it, which is making typing interesting. (I'm playing on a right-handed guitar even though I'm left handed.) The cool thing about learning this barre chord though is that once you get the finger placement down you can play any major chord on the scale.

Next step, become a rock star!

Er, maybe I need to learn how to strum first... Who'd have thought strumming would be the hard part? Anyway that's it for me. I hope you are all well!

Christopher Walken reads The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLSmhpwLdEQ

I've been spending way too many hours on youtube lately. It's almost completely replaced TV watching for me and if I'm not careful, reading too. I'm looking forward to playing in an UA RPG again soon. Now all I have to do is stop watching youtube long enough to create a character...


Oh no! I've contributed to the massive time sink that is youtube!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmdyq91eRf4&feature=channel_page

I have found the penultimate way to keep yourself from overeating on a holiday. Get a horrendous stomach flu. With a bad flu, if you are faced with heaping mounds of mashed potatoes, your mom's best roast beast, trays filled with cookies, or even your boyfriend's birthday cake, all you can do is stare at the nauseating menagerie and and go have a lie down. It really works; I've lost 10 pounds so far!

But seriously, I knew I was very sick when I realized I'd rather be healthy and at work than at home and feeling like this. Thankfully I am on the mend and can eat again. I hope you all had a merry Christmas!

If you are on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you.
I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other.
Short and sweet is fine... you're on my list, so I want to know you better!

Comment here and repost a blank one on your own journal.

01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
26) Favorite band to listen to when you're mad?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

If you watched Barak Obama's first press conference. as president elect, you might have noticed how tired he looked. At first glance I thought it was the famed presidential aging process* already beginning.

On second thought however, I think he's just hungover from celebrating. He read from a script, he hardly smiled, and his answers were curt and referred often to things he has already said during his campaign. There was one gem though: He was asked what he thought he could do about the economic downturn and to conclude his answer he said, with little smirk, "I'm confident that a new president can have an enormous impact; that's why I ran for president."

I'm so glad he's going to be our next president. I just hope that he stays healthy and the stress of the upcoming challenges doesn't get to him.


*Don't know what presidential aging is? It's a phenomenon where presidents appear to age faster than is normal during their terms in office. Check out these pictures of Abraham Lincoln. The first one is from right before he was elected and the second picture is from right before he died.

Abrham Lincoln in 1860.

Abrham Lincoln 5 years later.

So I'm not really on a diet but I am trying to eat better. (It's my new years resolution for 08 after all.) When I was searching online for nutrition info I found th best tool yet for helping me keep it up. It's www.Livestrong.com. This website is affiliated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation and is a free online service dedicated to helping people live healthier. There's this feature on the site called "My Plate" that lets you track your daily food and calorie intake. The website recommended that I stick to a 2000 calorie a day diet for gradual weight loss, which is fine by me. I figure that before I started keeping track I was probably eating 2500-3000 calories a day. Scary.

Since I've been using the website, I've definitely been making better choices. I've found myself thinking things like "Do I really want to have to write down that I've eaten 500 calories worth of cookies?" So then I don't eat the cookies. It's really weird that all I needed to do to eat better was force myself to write everything down. It's not like I'm going hungry either, I'm eating 3 meals a day plus a snack and sometimes a beer without going over my limit.

So there's a couple of things in this upcoming election that I feel rather passionately about. Here is an overview:

President:

Obama rules, need I say more? I'm blue through and through.

McCain sucks and will continue W's policies to drive this country into the ground. I'm voting for the other guy (hell even Nader would be better).

State Propositions:

Prop 4 will require parents to be notified 48 hours before their minor daughter can have an abortion. As if there weren't enough pregnant teenagers already. I'm voting no here.

Prop 8 Will ban gay marriage... again. I thought we've already been over this? What happened to pursuit of happiness? Needless to say I'm voting no on this one.

Santa Clara County measure A is a bond measure that will provide the funding for much needed renovations of Santa Clara County Medical center. If the funding doesn't come through and the renovations don't happen, half the hospital will be forced to close because it won't meet the earthquake safety requirements. Please please please vote yes on this one.

I just had a 33 hour stay in phoenix, az and had a blast. We went out there 'cause it's my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary so the whole of that side of th family got together. It was a lot of fun 'cause I got to see my cousins whom I haven't seen in over 2 years and many great aunts and uncles and a second cousin (or cousin once removed, I don't know which). It was a whirlwind trip though 'cause we also made an appearance at a friend's birthday party. It's always fun to go to parties with the KOL crew in phoenix, everyone there is awesome. OK I'm going to bed now before I subject you to anymore bad grammar.

So sometimes I go on youtube and start clicking on random videos, just to see whats out there and I found this absolute gem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrcOfL1JoWg
It's from this crazy Scottish teen (fionashizzz) and it really cracked me up. Enjoy!

I just finished reading a complete edition of "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. It is an amazing graphic novel. It is a chronicle of Marjane's experiences growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the war with Iraq during the 1980s. The story follows her into adulthood and details all of the challenges of becoming a woman and learning what it means to be "free". It is a truly moving book and I can't recommend it enough. Some of the pages felt like they were ton straight out of my life, but this was juxtaposed against an environment that I can't even begin to comprehend. Read it.

I ordered the couch from Ikea in NOVEMBER. Now after three months, unreturned e-mails, and many phone calls, I finally have 2/3 of my money back and a Crate&Barrel Sofa. Go figure.

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html enjoy!

Yay mammography! I now have my mammography license. I can now legally take mammograms in the state of California. This comes as a great relief, because after I took the mammography board I felt as though my chance of having passed was about the size of a BB marker (like 1mm diameter for all you non-X-ray-people.) It is also a relief that I'm not that bad at it. Sure there are plenty of things unique to mammo that I still need to improve on, but it's a work in progress and I'll get better as time goes on.

On another note, Christmas! I'm really glad for Christmas this year. Last year I wasn't in a very good place. Though I still have a lot going on this year, I've really got the chance to enjoy my time shopping and spending it with the ones I love. Chris and I have even got our very first Christmas tree! Now all I have to do is decorate it. *< :-} I can't wait for my friends and my brother to come up, not to mention cookie baking with my mom. This holiday season is sweet.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

CSI (the original) has officially jumped the shark. It really happened a while ago, but this last eppisode is the worst I have ever seen yet. It was worse than anything Ive seen on TV in a long time. This episode was like a deranged attempt at remxing Requiem for a Dream with a bad mafia flick. Seriously, I don't even care that it's a cliffhanger, I just don't have any interrest in finding out how it ends. They writers must've already decided to go on strike and forgot evrything they knew about about the english language, maintaining the supension of dibelief, and life in general.



*spoiler alert*



So in this episode, Warrick is now suddenly a drug addict who goes on a vendetta against an old-school maffioso that owns a strip joint and has apparently been keeping judges and police in his pocket for years. He starts rubbing all of the other main charcters on the show the wrong way, each of whom says "get it together" in some evermore cliche way. Grisom then sends im home. He does not get a grip and winds up stupidly sleeping with one of the strippers at the mafioso's club in a lame 'the charicter is on drugs now' montages, and when he awakes he finds the woman murdered in his car. He of course yells "no!!!!!" and the pisode ends. I am never watching CSI again. It is dead to me.

So it's been a long time sine I've posted and it is about time put up whats going on in my life.

To catch you up from last summer, I graduated in June and got my x-ray liscence in July. I went in a trip to San Diego for a week during which I got to exerience Comicon for the first time. That was great, I got to go to the beach and spend time with some of my favorite people. Also I saw some of the coolest most originl aretwork (I brought some home in poster format.)

Then I started work at Valley Medical Center as an X-ray tech, or as we say "Diagnostic Immaging Technologist." It took me a little while to get to know the ins and outs of the place, but that's evened out and I feel good about the work I'm doing.

In September I flew out to Pheonix, AZ for a weekend of fun and frivolity: the 4th annual KOL convention. If you don't know what the is go to www.kingdomofloathing.com and check it out. It is a really fun free online game that has given me much entertainment over the last three years.

The biggest new thing, however just happened in the last week. I moved to San Jose with Archangelbebop. It's been a big undertaking and there is still a million things to do, like getting chairs to go arround my kitchen table. Seriously, I haven't been able to find ones I like. But I have a coffee maker and mugs, so at least I can get up in the morning and get it done. Plus we have most of the rest of the furniture figured out. In the last 4 days, this place has gone from completely empty to livable. It's pretty crazy. Anyway that's all for now, I'll let you ll know when we're ready for a house warming party.

You're on my friends list. I'd like to know 27 things about you. Just copy and hit reply and paste in the comments section with answers. Thanks! You'll be surprised how much you didn't know about your friends after this! Then copy the meme and see if anyone answers you.

1. Do you have a tattoo?
2. How old are you?
3. Are you single or taken?
4. Fish?
5. Do you dream in color?
6. Ever seen a corpse?
7. Hipsters or Hillbillies?
8. How did we meet?
9. What's your philosophy on life and death?
10. If you could do anything with me, and have no one know, what would it be?
11. Do you trust the police?
12. Do you like musicals?
13. What is your fondest memory of me?
14. If you could change anything about yourself what would it be?
15. Would you cheat ?
16. What are you wearing?
17. Have you ever peed in a pool?
18. Would you hide evidence for me if I asked you to?
19. If I only had one day to live, what would we do together?
20. Which do you prefer - short or long hair?
21. What's your favorite day of the week?
22. What's your favorite color?
23. If you could bring back anyone that has passed, who would it be?
24. Tell me one interesting/odd fact about you?
25. What was your first impression of me?
26. Have you ever done drugs?
27. Will you post this so I can fill it out for you?

So it seems that fall 2008 is going to be an important time for me where movies are concerned. First and foremost, due to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince slotted to come out November 08. The second film that has drawn my attention is the much anticipated (for me anyway...) Star Trek XI. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/ They've just announced their first major casting decision and I must say I approve. Zachary Quinto, known for his role as Sylar on the awesome series Heroes, has been cast as young Spock. I couldn't be happier.

I suppose I should also right about real stuff, since my life is going through some interesting times what with the new job, but I'm not gunna. ;-) I'll just say that thing are pretty much good, minus a few minor snags that will get sorted out over time. I hope you all are well.