The curse of breaking chain mail.

I used to get really mad when people sent me chain mail. Especially the kind that said horrible things would happen to me if I didn’t pass it on. Basically, my “friends” are threatening me, and telling me to threaten my friends. Well, my friends are my friends and if I have to take the figurative bullet, I will. Anyway, I always break chain letters and I’m often cursed.

The latest is this music meme thing. I’m supposed to pass it to three people I know, probably three people who have blogs. Well, I only know three people with blogs and that’s where the meme came from.

Back to my curse, I’m getting hit by lots of comment spam tonight. And since all my tax forms aren’t in yet, I thought I’d send in my $50 rebate for my cell phone. Guess who went on a cleaning kick and threw out the box? I was supposed to cut the IMEI number out of the box for the rebate. Gaaah. Well, that was my own fault.

Oh, and I decided to go look at one of my old “online dating” accounts and it looks like it’s gone, and gone with it is my $25. I paid up to send an email back to someone who said she was “interested” but who then quit emailing me. Probably for the better, since I’m not a dog person and she had two very large and mean looking dogs.

Do they expect me to pour my pesticides down the sink?

I cleaned out the laundry room and headed to the Waste Transfer Station (where I used to work) to get rid of all the Household Hazardous Waste. They weren’t open! Well, the guy told me 7AM-4PM Mon-Fri was my only chance. What do they expect me to do to get rid of this stuff? I’ll call them tomorrow to see what the party line is. And no, I don’t plan to pour it down the sink.

Other than that, I spent most of the day wishing there were football games on. You know how that is. I saw The Replacements which was a whole lot better than I was expecting. Entertaining and silly, but mostly entertaining.

You’d think I could get my daily recommended allowance of cheesy techno.

I watched Mortal Kombat Annihilation and, of course, it was bad. But even worse, there wasn’t enough cheesy techno nor enough cartoonish fighting. What is the world coming to?

I had to help my old Explorer Post Advisor with his computer (a hopeless P90 with 32MB of RAM) and his radio controller. I think we convinced him to head to Fry’s and buy a $500 Compaq instead of dorking with the old, nasty P90. Anyway, it kept me from sitting around and watching the washing machine work. But I think so far, so good.


I guess I’m supposed to answer some questions.

THE MUSIC MEME

1. Total amount of music files on your computer:

8133 files, 23.3 days, 30.28 GB

And now, thanks to my sister, two iPods, one 4GB mini and one 40GB 3G.

2. The last CD you bought was:

A set of three: Fatboy Slim‘s Palookaville and Cake‘s Pressure Chief back in October. I also got the latest Dreams Come True album Diamond 15 in mid-December which was kind of a disappointment. I think I also bought Maroon 5, Basement Jaxx, and No Doubt recently, though those three werent’ very recent albums.

3. What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?

The last song, if you don’t count the Alias theme or the Mortal Kombat theme on the TV, was the Propellerheads remix of Soul Coughing‘s Super Bon Bon that kind of came up on my computer. I was also just listening to the new iPod mini (thanks to my sister, as I said before) and the shuffle played My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone) by Chilliwack! Do you remember that music video when it was on MTV’s heavy rotation? Back when MTV showed music videos? The one where you could see the fillings in the lead singer’s teeth? HAHAHA

4. Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you:

  1. Oh, Sherry by Steve Perry. Why? I don’t know. It’s just the first song I bought on iTunes and a good measure of cheese. Or was it Break Out by Swing Out Sister?
  2. The Humpty Dance by Digital Underground. OK, I talk about my ex too much because, well, I haven’t gone out with anyone since she dumped me back in September of 2001, but the first time I met her I was drunk and trying to get people to go see Digital Underground (which I couldn’t say because I was drunk) and probably drunk enough to do my imitation of the Humpty Dance. How’s that for a run-on sentence?

    First I limp to the side like my leg was broken
    Shakin’ and twitchin’ kinda like I was smokin’
    Crazy wack funky
    People say ya look like M.C. Hammer on crack, Humpty
    That’s all right ’cause my body’s in motion
    It’s supposed to look like a fit or a convulsion
    Anyone can play this game
    This is my dance, y’all, Humpty Hump’s my name
    No two people will do it the same
    Ya got it down when ya appear to be in pain
    Humpin’, funkin’, jumpin’,
    jig around, shakin’ ya rump,
    and when the dude a chump pump points a finger like a stump
    tell him step off, I’m doin’ the Hump.

  3. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New) (Timber Mix) by Coolio. Huh. This is the top played song on my iTunes. Well at the same number of plays as The Beach (Posse – 1986) by Afrika & The Zulu Kings, Husan by Bhangra Knights vs. Husan, 2PiR by Clint Mansell from the Pi soundtrack, Si señor by Control Machete, What Do I Know by the late Josh Clayton-Felt, Like I Love You (Basement Jaxx Vocal Mix) by Justin Timberlake, Too Shy by Kajagoogoo, and The Way It by The Prodigy.

    Notable is The Beach because it took me so frigging long to find (and I ended up using illegitimate sources for that and the remixes.)

  4. Copacabana by Barry Manilow. I don’t even own this song, but whenever I was cold on my scooter or my motorcycle, I’d sing this inside my helmet. Loudly. Just to keep my mind off of the cold, mind you.
  5. Blue Monday by New Order. I have more copies and remixes of Blue Monday than anything else.

The sad thing is that those aren’t my favorite bands and I even refuse to listen to Copacabana or just about anything by Barry Manilow. If I were to list my favorite bands, I’m sure I’d have The Pet Shop Boys towards the top along with my past favorites like The Police, The English Beat, New Order, etc.

And more important songs that make me happy include lots of disco and 80’s hits. I mean, what about Look of Love by ABC, or Love and Pride by King, or Macho Man by The Village People? There’s a whole list of songs that just make me smirk. Why else would I be listening to Just Got Lucky by Jo Boxers?

Oh, and for songs I always sing in the car: Player’s Holiday by T.W.D.Y.. How can I not?

Sorta finished.

OK, so the shelf is cut out, the washer and dryer were delivered, and I WASHED MY COMFORTER. My ma decided to get in on the fun and we washed her comforter as well.

I still think I need to level the washer properly. I couldn’t sleep until I leveled the washer.

Do you realize they send you a DVD with the thing describing how to operate it?

OK, tired. That’s about all I can think of now.

Still no progress on the room.

I need to cut the bottom shelf off some cabinets, rewire a plug, and clear out some crap out of the laundry room before the guys get here tomorrow to deliver the washer and dryer! And it better frigging fit after all this mess I’ve gone through.

Since I’m obsessed with the laundry room, I have little else to talk about, except maybe that the pharmacy has a new TECHNICIAN working there. The name tags say:

  • PHARMACIST
  • TECHNICIAN
  • TECHNICIAN
  • Clerk

Note that the clerk has lowercase letters on his badge. They don’t have their names on the badges for some reason, but I figured out everybody’s name already. Heck, there’s only four of them (three previously) and they call each other by their names so it isn’t too hard to figure out. They’re awfully friendly and cheerful for the clientele they usually have. There are some office workers, but the people getting their prescriptions filled look fairly scruffy. It’s probably the closest pharmacy to the downtown flophouses. It doesn’t have all the junk my uncle’s pharmacy had (notably missing the comic books and magazines), but it has its charm.

Well, the door looks nice as far as I can tell.

I saw it from the inside, but then my mom told me she was itchy and she was breaking out in hives! I called the advice nurse and was about to take her to the hospital, but they said as long as she can breathe we didn’t have to go to the emergency room. Fortunately, I noticed we were out of Benadryl last night and bought some at the pharmacy near work. It doesn’t hurt that the pharmacy tech is cute, but really I was mainly thinking about my mom. 🙂

So sometime before the guys come with the washer/dryer on Friday, I have to cut out some shelves and replace an electrical outlet. Almost finished!

World destruction.

This is a world destruction, your life ain’t nothing. The human race is becoming a disgrace.

Whoops. Had another old song stuck in my head.


The guy from Doorworks came and put in a really nice door, but of course all the pounding dislodged some sort of THING my dad had on a shelf.

It fell on the new toaster oven my sister bought my mom for Xmas and dented it.

The pounding also broke the bulb in the light fixture, and the bottom of the bulb was stuck in the socket because of corrosion. I had to buy a new light fixture, $42 worth of insulation (because that’s the smallest amount they sell), and a doorknob and lock. My mom signed up to work on Friday, when the washer/dryer is supposed to be delivered, so I may have to miss even more work. This project better be finished soon, or I’m going to go nuts. Or maybe I just need an account at the hardware store.

I also had to cancel a wine tasting class because I forgot it was ham radio club meeting week and I’m the dummy who volunteered to be treasurer.

I won’t even start to tell you about the credit card company who required my mom to speak perfect English to get a card and wouldn’t take any information from me even though she was standing next to me and we were both on the phone. Federal regulations my ass. The SOB at the credit card bureau was Canadian; I could tell from his accent. I finally told him, “This is why your job is going to India,” and hung up on him. Even if my mom got a “Mileage Plus VISA card” I bet it would have so many restrictions that the miles would be worthless. Why is it that speed freaks can pretend to be someone else and get credit cards with ease, but my mom can’t get one for herself? Because WHITEY IS KEEPING US DOWN!

Destroying my computer.

Last night I was up late destroying my computer (the fast one I have around just so I can play around destroying it). And today, I just got back from work. I can’t say I was working hard the whole time, but it was release day and we all had to be there in case we had to fix something. Sorta like how you want firemen sitting around playing cards or whatever just in case you need them. (Not comparing my work to firefighting, but you get the idea.)

Anyway tomorrow (today, in reality) we get the new door put in. I went to Sears yesterday and the fancy washer/dryer is coming on Friday. You better believe I’m going to wash something big, like my comforter, and I’m going to sit in front of the thing to watch it go around and around and around. Yeah, my Fridays are exciting like that.

The washer/dryer keeps taunting me.

I spent several hours today moving the electrical wiring around and bought a lock for the new door that is scheduled to go in on Tuesday. The wiring certainly isn’t up to modern standards, but I figure it’s good enough for now. I bled on it enough that it should be OK.

I figured it was time to reschedule the delivery so I called Sears and found out that they didn’t just cancel the delivery, but they actually cancelled the order and credited my Sears MasterCard account. So now I have to go back and buy the washer and dryer AGAIN.

Got little to say, ’cause it’s LATE.

I was just putting songs into the thingy for my iPod mini and it’s past my bedtime.I got tired of listening to NPR shows from last week, all chopped up because the RadioShark software is kind of ass, so I’m filling up the mini with non-full-albums.

I’ll be all set and you know that “Oh, Sherrie” is on the new mini!

My cranky sister gave me an iPod mini!

Silver, the gayest of the colors, too! (OK, so I really have no sense as to which color would be gayest, and I’m not using gay as in “bad” but gay as in stylish and expensive and perhaps a little bit, hmmm, festive?) She gave me the one she finally got from Free iPods. We already bought her one for Xmas, since we were so tired of listening to her kvetch about signing up for her free iPod (we includes Carolyn and Megan and my ma and pa). Come to think of it, I don’t think my ma and pa paid me back for their share of Mariko’s iPod mini…

I decided I wanted a second iPod to take to the gym that was filled with things I’d actually listen to, not every CD I own. Yay. Time for experiments. I was having a hard time fitting the programs from my RadioShark into the other iPod, too.

Speaking of mini, the Mac mini doesn’t come with much. No keyboard, no mouse. RAM is really expensive unless you buy it off the internet and void the warranty by installing it yourself. If you google for opening the mini, you’ll find a video that shows how you can do it with a putty knife! And it looks like and official Apple video! Oh, well, with all the extras I want, a mini is going to be closer to $1000 than the $500 list price. I guess I’ll just hold off for a while.

Why I want the Mac mini.

Well, because I want all geeky computer things. The new mini “only” has a G4 rather than a G5 chip, but the faster one is also ONE THOUSAND MILLION Hertz faster than my regular desktop Mac. Not that it means all that much, but geez. And then I could use it with my current display and I could play DVDs and I’d get iLife and I’d have Marble Blast for my mom, and etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

Oh, well. I should make do with the computer I have unless, of course, this new Mac has a headphone plug… (ooh, it does).

Hell, I don’t have a girlfriend. I can afford a new computer. Then again, I should probably pay off my credit card that has the TWO THOUSAND DOLLAR washer/dryer on it.