153 posts from 2007

What was the last good movie you watched?

This one.  This version.  These actors.  This story.

A Christmas Carol

Mocha Excited About Christmas

Yes, if Mocha had opposable thumbs I'd probably be dead by now.

What's your favorite kind of homemade cookie?  Share the recipe if you have it.

I've been known to make some killer chocolate chip cookies.  If I tell you the recipe, I'd have to keeell you.

Show us a letter.

Today's program is brought to you by the letter:

LET-Q

What's your musical horoscope?  (Put your player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) 

1. 99 Luftballoons - Nena
2. I Could Never Be Your Woman - White Town
3. Come Undone - Duran Duran
4. The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum) - Fun Boy Three
5. Somebody Told Me - The Killers
6. Burn Rubber - The Gap Band
7. Hero Takes a Fall* - Bangles
8. Perfect Kiss - New Order
9. So. Central Rain - R.E.M.
10. Town Called Malice - The Jam

*I call B.S. on #7 because I absolutely despise that song, and I thought (!) the only song by the tangles I had was Hazy Shade of Winter.  Rest assured, this will be deleted immediately.

I'm often reluctant to answer these random surveys because these lists rarely reflect what I really listen to.  Sure, I added these songs because I like them (with the exception of #7!), but my Most Played list is is a LOT different!

Ringtones: What's yours and how often do you change it? 
Submitted by enrico.  

It was I'm Not Ok (natch!) by My Chemical Romance for the longest time, but now it's back to So What'cha Want by Beastie Boys though I'll probably use another MCR song in the near future.  I change it depending on my mood.  In honor of Christmas, I might do All I Want For Christmas Is You by MCR, if I could find it in a ringtone.

I'll admit I'm often more cranky than not, but nothing singes my shorts more than someone calling me and leaving a voicemail message that says, "This is so-and-so, call me back..."  What?!  No!  I demand MORE INFORMATION!  Is it too much to ask that someone briefly (or go into detail, I don't care! - I can always FF) state the nature of one's call?  Give me a good reason, any reason to call you back.  Tell me what I'm getting myself into by returning your call.  Better yet, if you tell me why you called in the first place, I can be better prepared to call you back with 1) some information 2) some questions C) some answers 4) congratulations or condolences or E) to lend a listening ear.  Otherwise, depending on the caller, my mind will start wandering.  If it's a family member (who should know better than to leave me such a message!), I will immediately think they're lying in a ditch somwhere with low battery power which will send me into a massive state of frenzy.  If it's a friend, my first thought would be that it must not be that important and I'll call back whenever I feel like it.  Even if it's a friend with nothing to say but "hi" and the friend leaves a brief: "It's so-and-so and I just called to say hi," message, that's perfectly fine and chances are, I will call shortly upon receiving the message.

What especially irks me are business associates who leave such cryptic messages.  Unless you're a spy (and if that were the case and you were leaving such non-messages, I'd have to be one also, and since I'm not, that is not a good excuse either), there is no excuse to call me, not state the nature of your call, and expect me to have the least amount of interest in calling you back.  There are some (soon-to-be-former) co-workers who are notorius at this and despite my gentle hints at stating the nature of one's call, cannot seem to grasp the concept. 

You can have the best news, the worst news, and everything in between but if you don't give me an inkling of why you called, I don't feel so compelled to return that call.  This is one of those instances where I'd rather have too much information than no information at all.

Yes, I'm a little late to the party in bringing this up, but I was having internet access issues last week on top of scoring a new job that this is the first chance I've really had to do this.

My area was hit by one of the Southern California fires -- the Santiago Canyon one, to be exact.  Now, I feel like a horrible resident not even knowing where Santiago Canyon is in reference to my corner of the world, but trust me, I sure smelled the effects of the fire the Sunday it started.  Thankfully, we weren't close enough to see any blazes or fear sudden evacuation, but I really felt for those who were in the line of fire, so to speak.

I work in neighboring city, Newport Beach, and even smelled the smoke from there.  Looking out over the 18th floor of the building, we were able to see plumes of smoke and overall gray skies.  Not a very happy thing to see when you'd rather see the ocean.

At any rate, since I never carry around my camera, I thought I'd whip out the trusty-dusty camera-phone doohicky.  Yea, real quality stuff.  But, it's better than having me draw a picture...

Firestorm 2007

This was taken on October 24, 2007 on my way home from work at around 5:15 pm and the fire was only 30% contained (the fire is burning off to the right of the photo).  The local schools were shut down the next Friday.  I think the latest status is that it's 65% contained.   I hope they catch the rat-bastard that started this and the others.  He (or she?) deserves to be burned at the stake! 

What do you think of Stephen Colbert's satirical bid for the U.S. Presidency?  

I wish he weren't kidding.  With the selection out there, I'd vote for him!