Fotalia

I was just over at fotalia, and they have really expanded their image library. I had actually forgotten about the site, but I am looking for moth photos for a project, and they have several I can use – licesed for web and print work for $1! Can’t beat that.

Chihuahua belly syndrome

OK, so when I have a chance I am going to write up a quick review of the movie Hard Candy which I saw over the weekend. Not only was the movie interesting, but the rest of the audience was interesting too. If by interesting I mean “profoundly disturbing” that is.

So anyway, turns out I have a rotated pelvis. The right side is tilted forward somehow. The physical therapist my orthepedist sent me to says it’s kind of chicken/egg as to how it happened. There can be a muscle injury that tightens everything up and pulls the pelvis out of alignment, or the pelvis can tilt due to genetics, a fall, anything, and then the mucles tighten becuase everything’s in an unnatural position trying to compensate. Including the spine, which curves to the side. When I read that I do have to say I felt a bit nauseated. I think my stomach gets weaker as I get older. When I was in college I was super crime scene photos girl, and now I throw up in my mouth when people talk about their various aches and pains.

So PT is helping, my hips and back aren’t mended, but they do feel better. And to make up for all this pain (and take advantage of my recently received tax return) I got a new leather desk chair and a new 19″ flat panel monitor. I had been hanging on to my 19″ CRT, because I was worried about detailed photo retouching on LCDs, but the FOOLs assure me that at native resolution I won’t have a problem with a flat-panel. And if a new 7 MP Olympus just found its way into my shopping cart… well what can I say? I have a lot of pain to make up to myself for! :) Also I am a princess and can have whatever I want, naturally.

Anyhow, last night I was doing my excercises, and Princess B determined it was all a wonderful game invented solely for her amusement (“Mom’s laying on the ground! Must mean she wants my tongue up her nose!”) and had much fun attacking my hands. Then she got bored and settled herself on my stomach for the duration. I thought “what the heck, more resistance.” but since I was doing some ab tightening things I think I pulled a muscle in my torso. Death by Chihuahua. OK, off to more PT in a bit, and then hopefully get some work done tonight.

Gah. I am going to be three episodes behind on Prison Break! Horror!

More camera – less money

Got my camera today (quick! I only ordered it from newegg on Friday.) Anyway, so far it seems super sweet, and I went out and got a 1GB xD card for it. Of course it’s not the same as the cards for my OTHER Olympus camera, and of course my less than a year old PC with all the card slots on it doesn’t have the right size for THIS card. But whatever. I can do a seven shot panorama with this camera and an Olympus card, the display is excellent, and the controls are like my earlier OLympus, so not much learning curve. Overall, we like. Now I just want the new monitor to show up, because this one’s very sketchy. I sometimes have to slap the top of it to get the picture back. :-/

So, here’s camoflage Chi, deep undercover. You don’t see her, do you? She loves that blanket.

This whole “making her obey some rules” thing has made a change in her, she’s less likely to do whatever the hell she wants, and she gives in more easily when I tell her no. But I don’t want to tell her no. I feel like Bad Mommy for not giving her whatever she wants. I would really be a crazy ass mom to human children. I would make Montessori look like a drill sergeant.

I am SO PISSED OFF right now!

I am so pissed off right now! (you may imagine that in a Cartman voice if you want, or even listen to it in a Cartman voice.)

1. Waited a year until I could afford the 19″ flatpanel I wanted
2. Researched which would be the best for me
3. Found the place with the best price
4. In the meantime, CRT started to die/act crazy
5. Ordered flatpanel, waited impatiently for it to arrive.
6. Picked it up tonight
7. Lugged it up the stairs, hauled the 57lb other monitor off the desk. Hooked everything up. NO FREAKING POWER. Damn thing is BROKEN right out of the box. Mother EFF. Spent 20 minutes on customer service for Viewsonic, then another 15 getting everything unhooked up and packed back away (and OH what a joy it is to try to get anything to fit back into the packing styrofoam it came in.) They will send me a new one in 2-3 business days, but they will double charge my card until they get the first one back. GOD!? (switch to Napoleon Dynamite voice) It wouldn’t even be so frustrating if the EXACT SAME THING hadn’t happened last year when I got my new computer!?Bad power supply! What am I? Charged with static electricity over here? Jesus!
8. Fah!

Now I am back on the less than trusty CRT, my hips hurt like hell. I have no doubt strained my back hauling this frikkin thing around, and I am tired and cranky and hot and sweaty and having my period and mad at myself for skipping swimming because I felt bad, and I am just PISSED OFF. God DAMMIT.

Me want cookie

Maybe because I’ve always kind of identified with the Cookie Monster. Me like cookies too, as a matter of fact.

COOKIE MONSTER SEARCHES DEEP WITHIN HIMSELF AND ASKS:
IS ME REALLY MONSTER?

Me know. Me have problem.

Me love cookies. Me tend to get out of control when me see cookies. Me know it not natural to react so strongly to cookies, but me have weakness. Me know me do wrong. Me know it isn’t normal. Me see disapproving looks. Me see stares. Me hurt inside.

Read the rest at McSweeney’s

Also, I’ve decided that I have a pathalogically dirty mind. There is nothing to which I can’t assign some crazy smarmy meaning. Is this an indication of my being caught in some adolescent phase? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Just Driving

I took the long way home today. Half because I go that way I pass a drive-thru Starbucks (the ultimate American lazy luxury) and half because the highway I would have taken is being deconstructed and reconstructed again ad infinitum. And it was a slow and?relaxing way, and everything was so intense. I felt almost drugged on the day. There were so many things to look at and see and inspect. There was peeling paint and broken glass and cathedrals silhouetted against gray-blue skies. There were people with bleached hair and faded t-shirts and all different colors of skin. There was some grass that was going to seed and I never realized how much yellow green grass had in it. And I felt like I never wanted to get home, only keep driving around and absorbing all these fascinating things. And I think Richard Dawkins (see earlier post) and his attitude of “can’t wait to get up in the morning because the world is so damn fascinating” has invaded my subconcious, where it’s doing battle with 30 years of self-protective ennui.

I was listening to a very mellow collection of songs, (having finally figured out that if I burn a CD with no more than 45 minutes of music my car’s CD player won’t spit it back out in disgust.) one of them being “All Dead, All Dead” by Queen. And I remember the very first serious boyfriend I had, my first lover actually, and he was the one who taught me to appreciate Queen. My Cure and Siouxsie-loving self had considered them hopelessly 70’s, but through this?boy I saw something fun and sad and magical about them. He was an amazing artist – and a truly tortured soul. I never knew anyone who embraced desolation and depression like he did. He swam in it, he smoked it, he painted and sketched it. He was in many ways amazing, and in many ways very bad for me. I’ve never had a partner who hasn’t broken some part of my self-esteem, and he was the first in a long line. Part of why I don’t have or want a partner now. Keeping a sense of self intact when you’re so involved with an “other” and an “us” is very hard for me. I may be capable of it now, but I don’t really want to try. Anyway, now I appreciate Queen, and Emerson Lake & Palmer, and Bob Mould and The Who, and my world is more subtle and nuanced because of it.

Damn that dog, she just scared me to death, jumping up and running into the living room to bark furiously at the bookshelves.

Customer Service HELL

I am in customer service HELL. I am trying to maintain a stable blood pressure, but it’s really hard.

OK, so you know my monitor that I got last week? Dead out of the box? Called Viewsonic customer service, and they confirmed it was a hardware failure. Said they would send me an email with a form for a replacement. No email came. I called, they sent me to a web address where I could download the form. (why not do that from the start?) Of course, after the form was downloaded I couldn’t print it (stay tuned for the freaking printer story – I told you I was in hell) and even had I printed it I couldn’t fax it over the weekend, because I don’t have a fax modem in my computer. So I had to wait until this morning. I faxed all the details through, made sure I had enough money in my checking account to cover the cost of ANOTHER monitor while they were waiting for my return. I called a few hours later to make sure they had my fax. Guess what? The department that collects and processes faxes only works the 4th shift! Naturally! I asked if I could scan and email the form – no go, it has to be faxed.

10pm tonight, I get an email from them, I didn’t enclose my proof of purchase. I enclosed my invoice from newegg.com, so what the heck did they need? I called, thank something that they were open this time of night (some department except the fax moles, that is) and the CS rep I got on the phone was quite nice, went to check on the fax and found that the form and the POP came in separately, and they did have what they needed. I am approved for a replacement. But, she has to tell me, the monitor I need is out of stock. She has no idea when it will be back in stock.

O.O

ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, I freaked out with a loud “OMG don’t tell me that!” and when she heard it was brand new she told me that newegg.com should honor a 30 day replacement policy, even though they say on their site that all problems are handled through the manufacturer. Anyway, she told me to contact them with the return authorization that Viewsonic gave me, and they should help me. So I sent them off an email, since their CS is only open for calls every third Tuesday between 10:00 and 10:17 a.m. I am willing to bet that?they will reply that they can’t help me, and I know for a?fact that even if they can I am going to be stuck paying the return shipping?fee, because their website says “We didn’t make it, it’s not our fault it doesn’t work.” Providing they even have the?freaking thing in stock. What I picture happening next is that newegg will send me a new monitor, and charge my account?until they get the return. So?I’ve got $355.00 charges for the both the original and the replacement. Then, even though I canceled the replacement through Viewsonic, they will get one in stock and send?it to me, charging my account a third time (but this time for the SRP, which is $411.00) Lucky, lucky me. And if the damn thing was out of stock, why couldn’t the FIRST person that I talked to on Thursday tell me that?

So, the printer? It’s broken, it’s a hardware problem,?it’s out of warranty. Never mind that it’s a known hardware problem and design flaw, I am SOL. Their?suggestion? They will?give me a “very attractive”?price on a new printer.

O.O

A) Like I want another Epson, if they’re really this crappy with NO support for defects.
B) Imagine how many of these effers are in landfills right now if that’s what they did for?everyone.
C)?What about the now-useless $60 worth?of ink?I bought last week? WTF? ?

Why should I buy a new printer, even for a “very attractive” price, when this one was fine before I changed the ink and your damn defective unreachable nozzle came loose? So I am going to call them tomorrow and tell them I want them to pay for this printer to be fixed. That’s crap, throwing away a perfectly good printer that I am satisfied with, that’s only 18 months old, and full of toxins and heavy metals and who knows what else. Planned obsolesence is one thing, but this is ridiculous.

Also, did I mention that the tripod that I got from newegg has a head with a stripped screw so it won’t lock in place? I swear to God I am feeling like an old fogey. I want to gesticulate wildy with my cane while I talk about the good old days when things were built to last and people gave a damn about service. And the crappy thing is that this is all online and over the phone and I am so damned helpless. I can’t make some guy in India fix my printer – I can’t bring my monitor back to the phone and get a replacement. It almost makes me think I won’t order anything like this over the net again.

GAH!

May Remix up!

OK, get ready for the May render remix, cuz it’s posted here. http://www.superbadgirl.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=1

Otherwise I am tired, and will update you on the monitor saga anon.

Today’s Best Headline

To be honest, this thought does not surprise me.

“Bush denies spying infringes on privacy”

What you didn’t know about me – And you!

I don’t know whether I find this product more stupid or more offensive.

It’s hard to tell in my pre-pregnant state.

?

What, you didn’t know I was pre-pregnant? Well, you might be too! Welcome to the days of being valued only for the potential life your body can yield.

“New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system — as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon”

Continue reading »

Most unneccesary product ever

For god’s good sake. http://www.wellbeingworldusa.com/

It’s worse than bad fashion

Isn’t there anyone to do an intervention for this girl? I swear, I didn’t even care for her before all this mess, but I would be willing to go in and give her a talking to?— something! I mean, come ON! Has she no one in her life that will tell her what the hell is up? Where is her mother? Doens’t she have a best friend? An assistant? Something? Everytime I see her she’s all alone except for that baby and some random body guards. Someone be her friend, please. She needs you now, whoever you are.

Angst

I am having some profound, non-specific, free-floating anxiety all day today. And I am not quite sure why. I may be ovulating, now that I think about it. Anyway, I can’t even keep pace with all the shit whirling around in my head, and I had to go get a pedicure to have something to do. And also because I was at the Apple store today and I saw this college-aged guy with flip-flops and the most calloused, gnarly heels in history. And I looked at him with moral superiority and thought “He should so get a pedicure. My feet are looking way good at the moment.” But when I got back to the office I realized that my feet were looking their own version of shoddy, and I felt shame. So I got home, and freaked out because my ass-sucking moron landlord took the awning off my back window. Now, I am hyper-sensitive to changes in my environment. Changes make me mental. Some of you know that from experience. Unexpected and unwelcome changes in something as sacred as my LIVING space are completely unacceptable. I hate that fucker. The quality of light in my bedroom is TOTALLY changed, and not for the better. As well as the fact that this is the warmest room in the house in the summer, and it’s going to be hotter than sweaty balls this summer if he doesn’t put that fucking awning back. Also – how can I sit at my computer with the window open as it pours down rain if I have no goddamned AWNING? Fuckweed. Continue reading »

New Product Review

Traveler’s Light Works Studio Sets

Cool Things

OK, could ANYTHING be cooler than this??(bolding mine)

…Focus Features has worldwide sales distribution rights to director Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2002 international best-seller Coraline, which features songs from They Might Be Giants.”

Things you didn’t know you needed

You know, there’s really nothing to compare to a poseable scrotum. (I feel as if that is a significantly statistically-improbable phrase, and might lead some freaks to this site accidentally. How about you?)

Is anyone but me REALLY really tired of 3D flowers?

OK So Vacation

Tonight marks the start of a week’s vacation for me. Not going anywhere because… well there’s nowhere in driving distance that I want to go, and I didn’t want to dip into my savings to fly somewhere. And I relish the thought of a week to myself to do whatever I want and swan around the house in my bathrobe if I am so inclined. Except of course tonight, when I should be all filled with giddy anticipation I am instead forlorn. Because it’s my damn contrary nature to be. *eyeroll*

When I have to work I fantasize about not having to, and when I have time off I start stressing about getting depressed because I am not keeping busy! Or reverting to full-on sloth or something, and being unable to return to work later due to my dagger-like claws (which are quite good for hanging in trees with, however)

Anyway, my plan to avoid this fate (depression, not sloth) is that I am going to make a list of things I want to accomplish, so at the end of the time I don’t feel like I have wasted it. So, I want to:

• Buy an indoor/outdoor rug for my balcony so I don’t have to walk on hot tar paper this summer (cost = $67 from Home Despot) It was only $15.98!
• Buy dirt and flowers and herbs to plant on said balcony (cost hopefully = $0 due to strategic shopping trip with maternal unit)
• Plant some nice viney fast growing things out there, so the Republicans can’t see me if I want to go out and read or something
• Do at least 5 tutorials in Hexagon and learn more about how it works
• Watch the director’s cut of “Return of the King” (I’ve been saving it)
• ,Finish the last book in the “His Dark Materials” series
• Read “The Selfish Gene” and that Noam Chomsky “Failed State” book.
• Get a recliner for the balcony. See if Mom wants to go shopping again.
• Get a shelf for my bedroom and finally make some order of the design books I’ve been piling haphazardly.
• Find a copy of “The Chronic” used somewhere in town, since it’s not available on iTunes. Grrr.
• See “X-Men 3″
• Make serious progress on my graphic novel. Three pages per year is not an acceptable output level.
• Take Bruiser to vet for annual checkup & shots
• Go to gyno for fun yearly stirrups-fest.
• Write very nasty letter to Epson and demand refund for wasted ink cartridges.
• Do some freelance work to get some money in the coffers.
• Go to YMCA and sign up for summer water aerobics and try to meet Pilates instructor to see if I like him/her.
• Try to find out if I want to take that art class at COCA or that Artist’s Guild place.
• Break in new camera, and order new mini tripod to replace broken mini-tripod.
• Update my online gallery, make new Flash version.
• Do up the t-shirt designs that have been rattleing around in my head.
• Go to the Zoo or the Art Museum.

OK, for now that’s it, but already I am feeling better! As long as I have goals, you know? Of course there will be much laying about time in there as well. And showering and stuff.

Footprints

Footprints

There’s a new service on this site that let’s users see from which states – and countries – people reading our blogs are from. It’s interesting.

Control – Poe

Don’t you mess with a little girl’s dream
Because she’s liable to grow up mean

Surprise you to find that I’m laughing?
You thought that you’d find me in tears
You thought I’d be crawling the walls
Like a tiny mosquito and trembling in fear

Well you may be king for the moment
But I am a queen, understand
And I’ve got your pawns and your bishops and castles
All inside the palm of my hand

While you were looking the other way
While you had your eyes closed
While you were licking your lips
‘Cause I was miserable
While you were selling your soul
While you were tearing a hole in me

I was taking control

Now I have taken control
Now I have taken control…

This is beginning to feel good
Watching you squirm in your shoes
A small bead of sweat on your brow
And a growl in your belly you’re scared to let through

You thought you could keep me from loving
You thought you could feed on my soul
But while you were busy destroying my life
What was half in me has become whole

While you were looking the other way
While you had your eyes closed
While you were licking your lips
‘Cause I was miserable
While you were selling your soul
While you were tearing a hole in me

I was taking control

Now I have taken control
Now I have taken control…

So this is how it feels
To breathe in the summer air
To feel the sand between my toes
And love inside my ear
All those things that you taught me to fear
I’ve got them in my garden now
And you’re not welcome here

Come a little bit closer
Let me look at you

I gave you the benefit
Of the doubt it’s true

But keep in mind my darling
Not every saint is a fool

While you were looking the other way
While you had your eyes closed
While you were licking your lips
‘Cause I was miserable
While you were selling your soul
While you were tearing a hole in me

I was taking control

Now I have taken control
Now I have taken control…

Don’t you mess with me

Do not Drop Your Carried Lady

I have no idea why this is so funny. Or if not generally funny, then just particularly appealing to my sense of humor. Anyway, I’ve read it now for like the 14th time, and now I want to marry the guy who wrote it. I mean, he’s got scrambled madlibs for a brain. That’s just too damn sexy.

District Bulletin: Wanted Offenders

In other news, I went to World Market and almost went postal on the crazy cart contingent, who won’t move their carts or their asses out of the fucking middle of the row, no matter how obvious it is that you can’t get through unless they do. Fuckwads.

Then I got dizzy, I don’t know if it’s from the heat or my medication. I was thinking of going to see X-men, but then I thought that since I have the week off I might go some other time when the theatre wouldn’t be full of rabid 14 year old hormone bombs on their first dates. Because, you know the testosterone would screw with my cycle. So I went to Target and accomplished my first official task of my vacation!

St. Louis – City of Many Attractions