Domestic Geek

While surfing around this morning, I came across an article that a former Zoom actor, Jared Nathan, had died. I used to watch the original Zoom from the 70s all the time. This particular actor did one season when they revived the show in the late 90s. He was only only 21 and a student at Juliard in New York. How sad. When I went to his site to read a little about him, he mentioned the Ubbi Dubbi Translator. I loved the Ubbi Dubbi segments, but I could never speak it.

Yay, it's New Year's Eve. The last day of the 2nd worst year of my life. I can't wait to kick this one out the door and welcome 2007 in with wide open arms. I have big plans for the upcoming year. I'll share as they come closer to fruition, but as I wrote before, the only resolution proper this year is dealing with my weight issues. When I do my look back at 2007, I will be doing it at least 75 lbs lighter. That's my goal and I expect everyone reading this to hold me accountable! I'm in the process of designing my weight loss blog and I'll post a link just as soon as it's ready for primetime.

There's been a lot of stuff going on in the world lately. I usually try to make some mention of them on this blog, but I've totally let some major ones slip lately:

• "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown passed away on Christmas Day.
• The iPod is Not Dead: a lot of people were speculating that the Zune was going to topple Apple. Not so. I got an iPod for Christmas and so did at least 3 other people that work my shift in the prepress department at work. I gave and received iTunes gift certificates and there were so many people trying to access the iTunes Music Store on Christmas Day that the servers couldn't handle it.
• Former President Gerald R. Ford passed away 12/26 at 93. I was still in grade school when he became president, so I don't really remember a lot about his presidency. I do remember voting for him in a mock election at school when Carter ran against him. Just goes to show you how poor our hisotry education in this country is: I had no idea he wasn't elected Vice President, either.
• Saddam Hussein was hanged for his crimes on 12/29.
• FDA to OK cloned animal meat to get into the food supply: We humans are really dumb. It's bad enough that we've destroyed our bodies with chemicals and altered foods, let start eating cloned meat. What makes me angry is that it doesn't have to be labeled as such. I don't want to eat clones and I'm not the only one. I can't wait for the big "whoops" in the future when they realize this is a bad thing.

Sorry this is way late this week. Between the snow storms, the holidays and the dog, I don't know what day of the week it is anymore. I decided that this week it's time for a little reflection on the year I had in 2006. Definitely not one of my better years by a long shot. Hopefully I'll remember that tough life lessons I had this year and won't repeat them. I also learned some good things, too.

Thirteen Lessons I Learned This Year

1. Don't Work with "Friends" — Don't accept a job with people you know previously, especially if the "boss" is someone you considered a friend.
2. The Graphic Design Industry Sucks— There is an oversupply of designers and therefore the pay has fallen off dramatically. There is also an overabundance of bad designers willing to work for those low wages.
3. Don't Be Honest With Your Employer — Don't turn down a raise because you hate your job and are up front that you are looking to work elsewhere. This will bite you in the butt.
4. Soda is Bad — I gave up drinking Coke/Pepsi this year. The detrimental effect is has on a person astounds me. I don't get heartburn hardly at all anymore.
5. Being a Freelancer Sucks — It was something I always thought I could fall back on and I was wrong. I don't have the temperament to deal with stupid clients.
6. Envy gets You Nowhere— I've spent a good portion of this year focusing on what others have and becoming bitter in the process.
7. I Don't Need So Much Stuff — I've been slowly purging myself of "stuff" and I'm finding I really haven't missed anything I've tossed. There is still much to get through, but one box at a time.
8. I've Been Living in the Past — Being unemployed for so long did give me time to really delve into my own thoughts. A lot of the revelations I have had have really surprised me. I was still berating myself and taking action based on things that happened over 20 years ago. I have really been stunted in my emotional growth. Now that I've learned what I was doing, 2007 will be the year I change that.
9. Doing Something for Charity Feels Good — I really enjoyed doing the Blogathon this year and was overwhelmed by the feeling I got from it. I will definitely be looking for ways to be more charitable in the near future.
10. I Can Really Count on Marcus — It's amazing that he has stuck with me through this really low point in my life. I know he truly loves me and I am thankful.
11. You Can Have Really Good Online Friends — This is the first time I've reached out to the people on the Internet and I've found some really wonderful, caring people out there.
12. Dreams Aren't Enough — I have lots of good intentions and wishful thinking is a bad habit. I have been always thinking I'll do this someday or I wish I could do that. Good things can't happen to you if you don't help. The only thing that gets results is action.
13. I'm a Good and Worthy Person — As strange as that sounds, I had a hard time believing it. I've always been the first to bash myself. "I'm not attractive" or "I'm such a loser" or "I'm not (whatever) enough." The truth is I'm not perfect, but I'm talented and I have a lot to offer. It's a lesson I'm striving to reinforce a lot in the coming year.

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1. tiggerprr

Hey everybody...I'm through hiding from the world for a bit. I guess while I'm killing time here after my shift waiting for Marcus to get off so we can go home, I'll fill you all in on what's been up with me. As you can tell from my post almost a week ago, I was in a really dark, scary place last week. I hate it when I get like that. I don't know why Marcus puts up with it, but thank goodness that he does. After reading a post on Julie's site, I realized that my depression does get worse during that time of the month. Partner that with everything else that's been wrong lately and it's no wonder I slipped into the abyss for awhile.

I put the best face forward I could for Christmas, but I still really didn't feel it this year. We did have a nice Christmas Eve. Marcus made me go shopping with him. The nicest part was when we stopped into Home Depot so that we could get trash bags and I could pick up his small gift, it started snowing. That was kind of cool. We gathered at Mike and Nina's abode to exchange gifts and Nina prepared a really yummy spread. We also watched Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest. Even though I asked Marcus not to get me anything, he did. I'm trying to let go of the shame and guilt I feel and just be grateful. It's really hard, though. I did get some cool gifts from him and my friends. I got 3 of The Sims 2 expansions (Nightlife, Pets & Open for Business) — I've totally forgotten how to play The Sims! I wouldn't let myself play after the first couple of weeks of being unemployed because I was spending more time making my Sim life better than I was trying to find a job. I received $40 in iTunes gift cards. That goes great with the 30 GB video iPod Marcus got for me. I got a couple of geek books off my Amazon wishlist. Marcus' mom got us a really cool set of stainless steel nonstick cookware. I got 512 MB of additional RAM for my mac, a Home Depot gift card to get some more storage totes to organize some more of my Christmas stuff. I think that's it.

Marcus got me the ingredients to make a cheesecake for our Christmas dessert. I totally forgot my mixer bit the big one on Thanksgiving until I went to beat the cream cheese. D'oh! I drove over to Dad's apartment and snagged his. Unfortunately, we had to have the cheesecake the next day. It came out really good, though. I think it was the 2nd best cheesecake I've ever made. Yummy!

Marcus made an appointment with the vet for January 3rd. We're going to have to have Skippy put down. I'm torn about it. I was really hoping he would just pass quietly in his sleep, but it doesn't look like that's to be. All the poor dog does during his waking hours is twirl in circles. He can only rest when he's utterly exhausted from twirling. He can no longer walk in a straight line at all. He keeps falling on the linoleum floors (yet he won't stay on the carpet) and I keep finding him in a pool of his own urine and feces when I get home from work. We've tried to block his access to the linoleum, but he's intent on being on it. One of the reasons I didn't finish decorating the tree was because he kept getting tangled up in it. He can't get up and down the stairs at all anymore, so I have to carry him outside to do his business. Most of the time he won't do anything out there, though, especially since the blizzard.

It's going to be really weird not having a dog around. I've haven't been dogless since I was too young to remember. We decided we're not having another one until we're out of this shitty mobile home park, though. I need to concentrate on getting myself fixed financially and physically before I commit to getting another dog.

Well, guess that'll do it for now. Marcus is ready to go home.

My little Subaru Baja is back on the road. I haven't been able to afford to register it and the brakes were bad. I got tags for my plates the day before yesterday and Marcus lent me the money to get the brakes done. I want a name for my car. I usually have one for my vehicles, but for some reason, nothing has come to me. Any suggestions?