Domestic Geek

I've been in a little bit of a funk this morning. Laura writing about our CollegeAmerica experience this morning in conjunction with just finding an old digital diary I kept at that time (things I couldn't/didn't want on my blog because it was too personal and friends and family read it) made me realize really how stagnant my life has been. That whole period of my life was six years ago and things are just as bad, in fact they are worse, than they were then. I knew then that I was in a bad rut. I kept telling myself what I needed to do to get out of it.

Why am I so afraid and resistant to the changes I need to make to really get what I want and be happy? I've written before about how I believe that your thoughts create your reality. I catch myself in the midst of negative thinking all the time. I wish I knew when I started doing that, but it needs to stop right now. I look at all the stuff I need to do around here and think, "I'll never get all of this finished." So, I never start and it never gets finished. I think, "Nobody is going to ever want to hire me again" and I create that. "I'll never have the money to do..." whatever it is and I don't have any money. I know thinking positively is a practiced skill. I have a lot of good in my life and the only thing stopping me from getting more good things is me.

I've decided to start another blog where I can start documenting the progress and changes I'm making. I will not allow woe there. I'll link to it when I get it up and running. I'm thinking of using wordpress so that I can become more familiar with that platform. I still have dreams of doing some kind of my own business. Making blogs pretty is fun. Once I find a day job, maybe I can do some freelance blog design as extra cash. I don't want to do it as my sole source of income.

As for good news, I have an interview on Monday at Marcus' place of employment for their prepress department. Although Marcus at one time said we could never work for the same company again, this could work. He wouldn't be my boss and my hours might possibly be different from his. I definitely wouldn't see much of him. So, send positive job-getting vibes my way, please. Thanks!

OK, I've got to go check the mail for my last unemployment check and go get some rabbit food. I'll be back later!

Wait...that's a little strong. I don't hate cats, I just really dislike them. What I hate? Irresponsible cat owners. I set a stinky trash bag out on the back porch. As soon as Marcus left for work, I went back to get dressed to take the garbage down to the dumpster. I open the back door and what do I find (not 15 minutes later)? The cats have torn the trash bag open and scattered the refuse everywhere! Coffee grinds, pumpkin guts, egg shells...Man, I was PISSED! If you're going to own a cat, keep it inside. I hate cats that roam. I hate finding shit in my bark, I hate cats clawing at my screen trying to get to my bird, I hate cats jumping on my car and setting off my alarm, I hate cats climbing the big tree next to us and running around on my roof. To make matters worse, a lot of the "pet" cats around here hook up with other pet cats, then we have tons of feral cats. If you're going to own a cat, get it fixed. Then the well-meaning lady across the street dumps food out in the middle of the street to feed the feral cats and it makes the problems even worse because all those darned cats hang around their food source. You can't call animal control because they won't do anything about it. I wish I had a high pressure water hose. I'd use it a lot during the day. Maybe a good strong dose of water every time they come near here would make them hang out elsewhere.

Geez, it just seems like yesterday that Marcus and I were celebrating the new year and planning to make this the best year ever. Ten months later and having had one of the worst years I've had since my mother died in 1997, I can't wait to kick 2006 in the ass on its way out the door. It's sad, really. I was so optimistic about this year. January 2nd I started my new job and I knew pizza was going to end very soon. How quickly that all went to shit, huh? Oh, well. On the bright side, I've learned some very valuable lessons this year. I've got a couple of possible job leads, so we'll see where those go. I know I will be fully employed before this month is out.

I just got off the phone with an old classmate who was giving me one of those job leads. We got postcards in the mail announcing the school's upcoming art show and she asked what I thought of it. I told her it looked like crap. I was personally appalled at it when Marcus brought the mail in. There is a fine line between cutting edge design and usability. I think whoever designed it tripped all over the line. I would scan it in and post it, but I don't want to be mean about it. There might be some people that were really cool with the design.

Wow, it's been almost a year since the t-shirt place I worked for went under. I drive by there are my way to meet Marcus for lunch some days and it still makes me incredibly sad. Since that was the beginning of my downhill spiral, maybe the year of suffering is about to be over? See, I'm trying to think positively.

As Martha Stewart so cheerily pointed out on her show today, Thanksgiving is only three weeks from today. Not really sure how I'm going to swing that this year.

Since it's no longer October, I guess I'd better come up with a new theme for the old blog layout here. Since I cleaned up my code a month ago, it shouldn't take too long to implement something new. (Knock on wood) I also need to figure out what's making my site load so slow. I wonder if it's those danged blogrolling blogrolls. Anyway, whatever is causing it is going to be toast.

I need to find out what ingredients are in Best Foods mayonnaise. I had to make some from scratch yesterday because I started making deviled eggs for lunch and didn't realize I was totally out. I looked up some recipes on the Internet and gave it a try. It didn't turn out bad, just wasn't really good. I'm sure the oil you use makes all the difference. All I had was canola oil. Definitely something to look into.

One thing I really hate about using Expression Engine is how I have to manually change my preferences twice a year for Daylight Savings time. I didn't notice the time stamps were wrong on my posts until this morning. Grrr. OK, it's fixed now until next spring.

All right, I'm going to go read the PPP boards for a bit, scrounge some lunch, hit a few fellow Thursday Thirteen sites and then do a bit of housecleaning. Thankfully, The Office is not a repeat tonight. Have a good day, everybody!

Dad and I love going to the drag races at Bandimere Speedway up in Morrison, Colorado. I always get a seat as close to the starting line as possible to can get the full force of the heat, smoke and tire particles. It's crazy the amount of time and money those guys spend just to have the fastest car! Now imagine that you lose a race and you lose your car. That's the premise behind the most-watched weekly series on SPEED television, PINKS.

SPEEDtv is airing an all day marathon of PINKS followed by premiere of PINKS All Out on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 23rd. You can also go to SPEEDtv's site and check out the Drag Racing Clips and photos posted there.



This post sponsored by SPEEDtv.com

I really hate crooks on the internet. You know the ones. They think just because you post something online, it's theirs for taking to do with as they please. Every once in a while, I need a cute little graphic for a post and don't have the time to make one myself. One site that I used to go to to grab and appropriate graphic was http://www.graphicgarden.com/">Graphic Garden (and I always either gave a text link or hyperlinked the graphic itself for credit). I popped over there yesterday because I wanted a cute little graphic for my sticky Christmas card post and she's taken all but two of her free sets down. Here's why she is no longer offering very many free graphics:

Sadly, I have had to remove the free websets from the site. Every single day I get reports about clipart galleries spreading my graphics, people selling them on eBay etc.. There are even companies in Mexico and Taiwan massproducing and exporting stickers, stationery and other products!

That is such a shame. I will have to get myself a CD or download some of her graphics once I'm employed again. She really does do some wonderful work.